Erin Hamilton

Position Title

Executive Committee Member

Professor, Sociology

2244 Social Sciences and Humanities Building

Erin Hamilton received her degree in Sociology from the University of Texas, Austin in 2009. Her current research investigates the social and demographic sources of international migration from Mexico to the United States.

More specifically, she focuses issues related to socioeconomic development and demographic change in Mexico, and, in particular, when and why migration flows are domestically- or internationally-bound. Additionally, her current work examines the process of immigrant incorporation in the United States, looking specifically at access to health care and health outcomes within a framework of racial and ethnic inequality. This work attempts to understand whether, how, and why immigrant health changes over time in the United States, examining the roles of socioeconomic inequality and access to social services.

Erin Hamilton's content

Family Separation and Remigration Intentions to the USA among Mexican Deportees

May 01, 2023

Eunice D. Vargas-Valle, Erin R. Hamilton, and Pedro P. Orraca-Romano // July 18th, 2021 // International Migration

Legal Status, Deportation, and the Health of Returned Migrants from the USA to Mexico

May 01, 2023

Erin R. Hamilton, Pedro P. Orraca-Romano, and Eunice Vargas Valle // March 2nd, 2023 // Population Research and Policy Review

DACA's Association With Birth Outcomes Among Mexican-Origin Mothers in the United States

April 26, 2023

Erin R. Hamilton, Paola D. Langer, Caitlin Patler // June 1st, 2021 // Duke University Press, Demography

The Life-Course Timing of Legalization: Evidence from the DACA Program

April 26, 2023

Erin R. Hamilton, Caitlin Patler, and Paola D. Langer // December 3rd, 2021 // Sage Journals, Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

Unauthorized Mexican-Born Immigrants, Occupational Injuries, and the use of Medical Services in the United States

April 25, 2023

Pedro P. Orraca-Romano, Erin R. Hamilton, and Eunice D. Vargas-Valle // February 7th, 2023 // International Migration Review

The Limits of Gaining Rights while Remaining Marginalized: The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program and the Psychological Wellbeing of Latina/o Undocumented Youth

March 08, 2023

Caitlin Patler, Erin R. Hamilton, Robin L. Savinar // October 29th, 2020 // Social Forces

U.S. Citizen Children De Facto Deported to Mexico

February 26, 2023

Erin R. Hamilton, Claudia Masferrer, Paola Langer // November 15th, 2022 // Population and Development Review

Immigrant Legal Status Disparities in Health Among First‑ and One‑point‑five‑Generation Latinx Immigrants in California

February 25, 2023

Erin R. Hamilton, Caitlin Patler, Robin Savinar // December 21st, 2021 // Springer Link

Why have millions of Americans moved to these countries instead?

January 02, 2023

U.S. Citizen Children De Facto Deported to Mexico

November 14, 2022

DHS Memo

August 30, 2022

Migration and Covid-19: Mexico, US, and the Border

March 15, 2022

Erin Hamilton, Caitlin Patler, and Robin Savinar publish in Springer Nature

December 17, 2021

Caitlin Patler, Erin Hamilton, and Robin Savinar have been awarded the 2021 "Best Publication Award" from the American Sociological Association Sociology of Mental Health Section

July 06, 2021

Erin Hamilton, Paola Langer, and Caitlin Patler Publish New Research in Duke University Press' Demography Journal

June 15, 2021

Caitlin Patler, Erin Hamilton, and Jo Hale get their research published in the American Behavioral Scientist Journal

March 10, 2021

Caitlin Patler, Erin Hamilton, and Robin Savinar featured in National Affairs

January 05, 2021

Op-Ed by Caitlin Patler and Erin Hamilton featured in CalMatters

June 19, 2020

New Paper published in Social Problems by GMC Faculty

May 04, 2020

Erin R. Hamilton's Article on U.S. Citizens Emigrating to Mexico Featured in The Chicago Reporter

July 11, 2019

Between 2000 and 2015, the population of U.S. citizen minors living in Mexico more than doubled. Who are the kids living on the other side of the border?

Content by Erin Hamilton

Family Separation and Remigration Intentions to the USA among Mexican Deportees

Author(s)

Eunice D. Vargas-Valle, Erin R. Hamilton, Pedro P. Orraca-Romano

Published in

International Migration

Publication Date

July 18, 2021

Abstract: Increasingly stringent immigration enforcement in the US interior has led to the deportation of large numbers of long-term Mexican immigrants with families in the USA. We analyse the statistical association between the intent to return to the USA and leaving minor children with spouses or other people in the USA among Mexican immigrants deported from the US interior in 2014–2018, and explore if this association varies by sex and year of deportation. We employ the deportees’ section of the Survey on Migration on Mexico's Northern Border. The results indicate that having left children in the USA considerably increases the likelihood of a plan to return to the USA, especially in the short term and when deportees left minor children with a spouse. Remigration plans were higher among women and slightly decreased over time among parents, suggesting a continued failure of policy to account for the family circumstances of immigrants.

Legal Status, Deportation, and the Health of Returned Migrants from the USA to Mexico

Author(s)

Erin R. Hamilton, Pedro P. Orraca-Romano, Eunice Vargas Valle

Published in

Population Research and Policy Review

Publication Date

March 02, 2023

Abstract: Since 2007, large numbers of Mexican migrants in the USA returned to Mexico voluntarily or through deportation. Theory argues that US immigration policy undermines immigrant health through the deprivations of undocumented legal status and deportation, but few studies have considered the combined influences of these exposures on health. We estimate the probability of poor self-rated health, recent physical health symptoms, and recent mental health symptoms by legal status and deportation experience among 42,853 Mexican migrants surveyed in the Survey of Migration in the Northern Border of Mexico (EMIF-Norte) between 2012 and 2014. Deportation is more strongly associated with health than undocumented legal status among returnees in Mexico. Considering the two dimensions of immigration enforcement combined reveals the especially poor health and mental health status of deported returnees, regardless of their legal status in the USA.

DACA's Association With Birth Outcomes Among Mexican-Origin Mothers in the United States

Author(s)

Erin R. Hamilton
Paola D. Langer
Caitlin Patler

Published in

Duke University Press, Demography.

Publication Date

June 01, 2021

Abstract

The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program granted work authorization and protection from deportation to more than 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who arrived to the United States as minors. We estimate the association between this expansion of legal rights and birth outcomes among 72,613 singleton births to high school–educated Mexican immigrant women in the United States from June 2010 to May 2014, using birth records data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Exploiting the arbitrariness of the upper age cutoff for DACA eligibility and using a difference-in-differences design, we find that DACA was associated with improvements in the rates of low birth weight and very low birth weight, birth weight in grams, and gestational age among Mexican immigrant mothers.

Read more here.

The Life-Course Timing of Legalization: Evidence from the DACA Program

Author(s)

Erin R. Hamilton
Caitlin Patler
Paola D. Langer

Published in

Sage Journals, Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

Publication Date

December 03, 2021

Abstract

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was created to mitigate some of the harmful consequences of undocumented immigration status. Although research shows that the DACA program promoted employment outcomes for the average DACA recipient, life-course theory and immigrant integration theory suggest that the program may differentially affect younger and older recipients. Using data from the American Community Survey, the authors test whether DACA was associated with different education and employment outcomes for younger and older Mexican immigrants. The results indicate that DACA was associated with increases in the likelihood of working among younger but not older DACA-eligible individuals and with greater decreases in the likelihood of school enrollment among younger DACA-eligible individuals. These results suggest that policy makers should ensure that opportunities to permanently legalize status are available to immigrants as early as possible in the life course.

Read more here.

Unauthorized Mexican-Born Immigrants, Occupational Injuries, and the use of Medical Services in the United States

Author(s)

Pedro P. Orraca-Romano, Erin R. Hamilton, Eunice D. Vargas-Valle

Published in

International Migration Review

Publication Date

February 07, 2023

Abstract: This article examines how unauthorized immigrant status is associated with the risk of suffering a work-related accident or illness and with the use of medical services after experiencing an injury among Mexican immigrants in the United States. Using individual-level data on 81,004 Mexican immigrants who previously worked in the United States and were interviewed when they returned to Mexico in the Survey of Migration in the Northern Border of Mexico from 2010 to 2018, we estimate a series of probit models and nonlinear decompositions to analyze legal status differences in the incidence of occupational injuries among immigrant workers. The results show that among Mexican immigrants in the United States unauthorized status was associated with a greater probability of experiencing an occupational injury. The higher injury rate among unauthorized immigrants was partly driven by the fact that they worked more hours per day, more days per week, and were employed in riskier occupations than authorized immigrants. If unauthorized immigrants were older and had higher levels of English-language ability, the injury gap would have been even larger. Unauthorized status was also associated with a lower likelihood of using medical services after suffering an occupational injury because unauthorized workers had less access to medical care. The findings show that the right to legal work has important implications for the health of immigrants by setting a higher risk level for injury on the job and limiting access to health care following such an injury.

The Limits of Gaining Rights while Remaining Marginalized: The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program and the Psychological Wellbeing of Latina/o Undocumented Youth

Author(s)

Caitlin Patler, Erin R. Hamilton, Robin L. Savinar

Published in

Social Forces

Publication Date

October 29, 2020

Abstract

Policies that expand the rights of marginalized groups provide an additional level of structural integration, but these changes do not always come with broad social acceptance or recognition. What happens when a legally marginalized group attains increased rights but not full political or social inclusion? In particular, what are the mental health implications of these transitions for impacted groups? We bring together theories of liminal legality and stress process to offer a framework for understanding how expansions in the legal rights of a highly politicized and vulnerable social group can be initially beneficial, but can attenuate due to renewed or new stress events, chronic stressors, and anticipatory stressors. We use the case of Latina/o immigrant youth who transitioned from undocumented legal status to temporarily protected status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Analyses of representative California statewide survey data from 2007 to 2018, combined with surveys and in-depth interviews with DACA recipients, suggest that without full social and structural inclusion, legal transitions that expand rights will produce short-term psychological benefits that do not hold up over time.

Read more here.

U.S. Citizen Children De Facto Deported to Mexico

Author(s)

Erin R. Hamilton, Claudia Masferrer, Paola Langer

Published in

Population and Development Review

Publication Date

November 15, 2022

Between 2000 and 2015, the U.S. deported unprecedented numbers of Mexican immigrants. During the same period, the population of U.S.-born children living in Mexico doubled in size. This study estimates the number of U.S.-born children who emigrated to Mexico from the United States in order to accompany a deported parent: de facto deported children. The data come from the Mexican National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (ENADID), a national probability sample of households in Mexico collected in 2014 and 2018. About one in six U.S.-born children living in Mexico in 2014/2018, amounting to an estimated 80,000–100,000 U.S.-born children, were there because the U.S. government deported one or both of their parents. De facto deported U.S.-born children are socioeconomically disadvantaged in Mexico compared to U.S.-born children whose parents migrate to Mexico for other reasons. Women are overrepresented among deported people who bring their U.S.-born children to Mexico, and when deported mothers bring their children, they are far less likely to do so with a partner than are deported fathers. U.S. policy should consider the interests of U.S. citizen children forced to live abroad when redesigning immigration and child welfare policies.

Read more here.

Immigrant Legal Status Disparities in Health Among First‑ and One‑point‑five‑Generation Latinx Immigrants in California

Author(s)

Erin R. Hamilton
Caitlin Patler
Robin Savinar

Published in

Springer Link

Publication Date

December 21, 2021

Restrictive US immigration laws and law enforcement undermine immigrant health by generating fear and stress, disrupting families and communities, and eroding social and economic wellbeing. The inequality and stress created by immigration law and law enforcement may also generate disparities in health among immigrants with different legal statuses. However, existing research does not find consistent evidence of immigrant legal status disparities in health, possibly because it does not disaggregate immigrants by generation, defined by age at migration. Immigration and life course theory suggest that the health consequences of non-citizen status may be greater among 1.5-generation immigrants, who grew up in the same society that denies them formal membership, than among the 1st generation, who immigrated as adolescents or adults. In this study, we examine whether there are legal status disparities in health within and between the 1st generation and the 1.5 generation of 23,288 Latinx immigrant adults interviewed in the 2005–2017 waves of the California Health Interview Survey. We find evidence of legal status disparities in heart disease within the 1st generation and for high blood pressure and diabetes within the 1.5 generation. Non-citizens have higher rates of poor self-rated health and distress within both generations. Socioeconomic disadvantage and limited access to care largely account for the worse health of legally disadvantaged 1st- and 1.5-generation Latinx adults in California.

Read more here.

Erin Hamilton

Position Title Executive Committee Member

Erin Hamilton's content

Abstract

Abstract

Abstract

Position Title

Executive Committee Member