2018-2019 News | Global Migration Center

Santiago Perez and Katherine Eriksson's Research on Immigrant Families' Success Featured in Davis Enterprise

November 12, 2019

News Mentions/Interviews

Since taking office, President Donald Trump has made it a priority to restrict legal immigration to the United States. To bolster its anti-immigration policies, the Trump administration has pushed the narrative that poor immigrants are a drain on government resources. New research by UC Davis professor Santiago Pérez sheds light on the economic mobility of immigrants and suggests the government’s view may be shortsighted.

Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana Interviewed on her Interactive Mural Along US-Mexico Border on Slate News

November 11, 2019

News Mentions/Interviews

The mural is a community project conceived by Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana, as part of her dissertation at UC–Davis. Santana said she wanted specifically to tell stories of those who had been removed by President Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security, which set records for the number of deportations that even the Trump administration has not surpassed. “Anyone is vulnerable to deportation if you’re a noncitizen,” Santana said.

Giovanni Peri's Research on Immigration and Wages Featured in Foreign Affairs Article

November 11, 2019

News Mentions/Interviews

Immigrants also help the people in the communities to which they move. Research by the economists Gaetano Basso and Giovanni Peri indicates that in the United States, when immigrants move to an area, wages for natives of all education levels tend to rise.

Dean Johnson, Professors Aldana, Saucedo Write for New Edition of Immigration Law Guide

November 05, 2019

Publications

The Carolina Academic Press has published the third edition of Understanding Immigration Law, which features contributions from Dean Kevin R. Johnson, Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Professor of Law Raquel E. Aldana, and Professor Leticia Saucedo.

Humanizing Deportation Photography on Exhibit

November 05, 2019

News

Photographer/activist Leopoldo Peña is among the artists whose work is being featured through the end of the year at Oakland’s Asian Cultural Center in the group exhibition Transgressions on Humanity: Walls, Border Detentions, and Prisons.

Mellon Public Scholar Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana: Making Immigration Discourse More Inclusive through Art

November 04, 2019

News Mentions/Interviews

Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana, PhD candidate in Spanish at UC Davis, took her research on U.S./Mexico migration to the literal border this summer. As a 2019 Mellon Public Scholar, she conceived of, orchestrated, and painted her digitally interactive Playas de Tijuana Mural Project directly on the border wall.

David Kyle Interviewed on the Border Wall by CNN

November 04, 2019

News Mentions/Interviews

Professor David Kyle was recently interviewed about the border wall by CNN.

Santiago Perez's Research on Economic Mobility of Second-Generation Americans Featured in Vox, Irish Central, and Rio Grande Guardian

November 01, 2019

News Mentions/Interviews

The adult children of immigrants, almost universally, show more upward economic mobility than their peers whose parents were born in the United States. Indeed, a new working paper co-authored by Santiago Pérez finds that this is especially true for the lowest-income immigrants and remains true for the most recent cohorts for which data is available.

Recent Research by Santiago Perez on Economic Success of Second Generation Immigrants

October 30, 2019

Publications

In a new working paper, joint with Ran Abramitzky, Leah Boustan and Elisa Jacome, Center Affiliate Santiago Perez analyzes millions of father-son pairs spanning more than 100 years of U.S. history to show that children of poor immigrants from nearly every sending country have had greater success climbing the economic ladder than children of similarly poor fathers born in the United States. Moreover, the analysis documents that immigrants today are no slower to move into the middle class than immigrants from 100 years ago.

Santiago Perez's Research on Immigrant Assimilation Featured in The New York Times

October 29, 2019

News Mentions/Interviews

“The short-term perspective on immigrant assimilation that politicians tend to take might underestimate the long-run success of immigrants,” said Ran Abramitzky, a professor at Stanford and one of the paper’s authors, along with Leah Platt Boustan, Elisa Jácome and Santiago Pérez. “By the second generation, they are doing quite well.”