International and Area Studies Commons^™

Advancing A Familial Understanding Of International Students, Prof-Collins Ifeonu Dr

Critical Internationalization Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Corazón De Nopal, Alma De Monarca: The Invisible Workforce, Vanessa Estrada Garza

McNair Summer Research Program

In many parts of the United States, Day Laborers, people who work for a daily wage, congregate in front of home improvement stores in the hopes that the customers buying materials are also in need of labor. Day laborers, who are mostly Latino men, experience a plethora of adversities (e.g., wage theft, discrimination based on status or race, on-site injuries). However, it is also important to understand day laborers’ experiences within the current sociopolitical climate (Fernandez-Esquer et al., 2022; Ramirez, 2011; Ordoñez, 2015; Walter et al., 2004). At times the stories and humanity of these individuals outside of their labor …

Connectivity And Selective Rural Migration, Lin Ma, Yuan Mei, Qunfeng Wu, Mingzhi Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

How does infrastructure shape rural development? Using household panel data from a nationally representative sample of Chinese villages, matched to high-resolution highway maps, we find that road expansion between 2000 and 2015 operates mainly through reallocation, with less productive farmers scaling down or exiting and more productive farmers remaining and expanding. We quantify the aggregate and distributional consequences in a dynamic spatial equilibrium model with heterogeneous households and endogenous migration. Improved connectivity not only accelerates urbanization but also increases aggregate rural output by 2.2%–5.3% in the long run, even as the rural workforce declines.

Flowing Borders: U.S. Border Externalization In Latin America And The Los Angeles Declaration On Migration And Protection, Magdalena Olvera Hernandez

Master's Theses

In recent years, Latin America has emerged as a central transit region for extracontinental migrants originating from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East who seek to reach North America through alternative routes. This thesis examines the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, among other regional migration governance frameworks that have reshaped migratory flows, state responsibilities, and protection outcomes in the Western Hemisphere. Focusing on the Darién Gap as a strategic chokepoint, the study analyzes the effects of coordinated migration policies, border externalization, and differentiated state roles on extracontinental mobility.

Drawing on official migration statistics from Panama, the United States, …

Splitting Shores: Comparative Analysis Of Italy’S And Spain’S Reactions To Immigration, William E. Montgomery V

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

The divergence in public immigration sentiment between Italy and Spain, two countries with striking historical, geographic, and demographic similarities, is seen as a mystery for popular theoretical frameworks. Although both nations transitioned from net emigration to net immigration beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, Italy has consistently exhibited more negative attitudes toward immigration relative to the European average, while Spain has seen sustained improvement in immigration sentiment despite receiving immigrants at historically unprecedented levels. Employing a Most Similar Systems Design and drawing on quantitative demographic and survey data, primary legislative texts, and secondary scholarly literature, this thesis tests Group Threat …

Art As Resistance, Art As Hope: The Crane, The Nopal, And The Knowledge They Carry, Mayra Urbina

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This reflection explores the crane-and-nopal motif in Talavera Poblana ceramics as a lens for understanding artisan knowledge, cultural identity, and the impacts of globalization on Indigenous communities. Through my own painting of a Talavera-style vase, I trace the layered colonial history embedded in this motif — including the quiet resistance of Indigenous artisans who encoded Aztec memory into colonial art forms by replacing the eagle with the crane. The reflection examines how globalization threatens artisan traditions through fast-fashion appropriation, the limitations of Mexico's 2022 cultural heritage protection law, and the displacement of Indigenous artisans in Mexico City. Ultimately, I argue …

A Market Of Care Skills: Profiting From Professional Education And Practice, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Who profits from the commodification of care and how does such accumulation occur? Focusing on the case of the nursing care market, this paper shows how professional schools and local hospitals within source nations like the Philippines profit from nurses seeking the credentials to qualify for jobs overseas. While existing studies show how nursing skills are exploited and undervalued, this paper argues that it is the process of skilling itself that allows for the accumulation of profit, regardless of whether nurses leave their origin countries to work abroad. This study reveals how global care economies are tightly linked to local …

Review Of African Migration And The Novel: Exploring Race, Civil War, And Environmental Destruction, Joseph L. Mbele

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Internationalization Struggles And Student Mobility: Ethnic Exclusion And Racism In Philippine Higher Education, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There is an extensive literature on student mobility that seeks to understand the nature of, rationales for and consequences of internationalisation in higher education. This scholarship primarily focusses on students studying in the ‘west’. This paper shows how ‘atypical’ student destinations also illuminate the contradictions of internationalisation, revealing the challenges faced by higher education settings beyond academic centres in the west. Drawing on the case of the Philippines, I discuss how private universities actively recruited international students to maximise profits from student tuition. Yet, these efforts led to a backlash among Filipino educators and students, prompting administrators to institute policies …

Black On Black Sounds: Music, Migration, And The ‘Nu-K Blak’ Identity Formation In Early 21st Century Britain, Monique Charles

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Examining literature on the under researched areas of Afrobeats and African migration to Britain, this article identifies significant internal shifts in the ethnic diversity of Black Britain —i.e., from Caribbean (predominantly Jamaican) to West African (Nigerian, Ghanaian) (ONS 2011). Interpreting literature and applying to the British context, it highlights how Afrobeats reshapes Blackness in Britain, particularly the incorporation of desirable Africanness through Afrobeats music. It argues that demographic and musical shifts in Britain result in a renegotiation of the Caribbean and US dominant 20th century Black Britishness — ‘UK Blak’ identity (as identified by Bradley 2013, Gilroy 1993 & Palmer …

Global Constructions Of Gender, Sexuality, And Migration: An Analysis Of Five Immigrant Memoirs, Grace Halvorson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone analyzes five memoirs by LGBTQ+ migrants—Jose Antonio Vargas, Edafe Okporo, Staceyann Chin, Danny Ramadan, and Samra Habib—to explore how governments weaponize gender and sexual orientation to construct national identity and exert control over both citizens and migrants. Their diverse migration experiences highlight how “gender border control” operates across families, communities, and national government systems, reinforcing heteronormative structures that regulate queer identities. My analysis of their memoirs reveals how both formal tools, such as immigration policies, and informal tools, such as social exclusion, make individuals outside heteronormative identity categories susceptible to state and societal violence. These personal narratives shed …

Migrant Women Along The Us-Mexico Border: Femicide And Gender Based Violence, Rylee Bondeson

Senior Theses

This paper examines the social and political factors that affect the rates of gender based violence against migrant women in areas around the US-Mexico border.

Living In Paradise? Cameroonian Women In The American Diaspora, Joseph Takougang

Journal of African Policy Studies

For decades after independence, African migration was a phenomenon that could be attributed to a patriarchal culture that encouraged male domination. Later, that traditional mindset was reinforced by a colonial system that often marginalized the role of women in many African societies. Indeed, because young men were more likely to be educated than their female counterparts under the colonial system, they were advantaged after independence to attend institutions of higher learning abroad when it became necessary to train young Africans to occupy important government and other decision-making positions in the newly independent states. Recently, however, women have become important players, …

The Humanity Of Globalization: Global Interconnectedness And Cross-Border Migration, Mary Huffman

Honors College Theses

Though scholarly discourse surrounding migration and globalization has often assumed migration causes globalization, this paper seeks to explore the opposite direction of causality. Using a generalized least squares regression and Quality of Governance time series data, the design analyzes the impact of three facets of globalization on net migration between 1970 and 2020. The design controls for population, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and Polity score. Based on a review of literature, I hypothesize that each facet– economic, political, and social– will exhibit a positive correlation with net migration levels for each country-year. I also predict that social globalization …

Chasqui, Nicole Lachat

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Chasqui is a creative dissertation comprised of a thirteen-page critical introduction and a series of poems which consider varying forms of migration, including that of border crossings. The internalization of displacement through longing and alienation is examined in these poems. The author considers questions of inheritance through an exploration of personal, familial and sociopolitical bonds. Varying forms of violence, including colonial and gendered violence are reflected upon in the work.

Advisor: Kwame Dawes

Mobilizing Discord On The United States’ Many Borders: Critical Social Science And Geopolitical Complexity, Margath Walker

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Attention to the political landscape connecting the United States, Mexico, and Central America has returned with glaring intensity, highlighting the visibly geostrategic elements of bordering practice. Scholars have focused on how state power materializes at multiple scales while at the same time being attentive to the contestable and mutable nature of myriad agentic forces. This talk operates similarly by considering prospects for a frictional and at times ambiguous spatial politics. I extend the notion of discord as a productive lens through which to consider securitization, mobility, and migration. I use two short examples—the border-industrial complex and migrant caravans—to illustrate my …

A Tale Of Two Faiths: Contemporary Protestantism In The Spanish-Speaking Catholic World, Jackson B. Mitchell

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the shifting religious landscape of the Spanish-speaking Catholic world through the lens of Protestant growth, particularly Pentecostal and Evangelical movements. Beginning with a historical account of Spain’s Catholic hegemony and its colonial export of Catholicism to Latin America, the study traces how Latin America’s religious identity has gradually diverged from its Spanish roots. Over the past half-century, Protestantism has grown rapidly across Latin America, challenging Catholic dominance and reshaping the region’s spiritual and social fabric.

The thesis then turns back to Spain, where rising immigration from Latin America and changing cultural dynamics have facilitated the reintroduction of …

Argentine Diaspora In The United States: Experiences Of Recent Emigrants And Their Ties With The Homeland, Anabela Cibele Villach Vaquer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the Argentine diaspora settled in the United States. It analyzes both the experiences of Argentines who have migrated to the United States in the last decade and the transnational ties they develop with the home country as well as the diaspora engagement policies put in place by the Argentine State. The research addresses three key questions: What are the main characteristics of Argentine emigrants who have moved to the United States over the past decade? How do recent Argentine migrants in the United States construct and maintain their transnational ties with their country of origin? Is the …

Suspended Agency And The Habitus Of Waiting In A Migrant Shelter In Tijuana, Liam K. Ogden Iii

Senior Theses

This thesis explores idea of suspended agency and the development of a habitus of waiting within a women and children’s migrant shelter in Tijuana, Mexico. Relying on ten days of participant observation and an interview with a shelter director, I examine the lived experiences of residents, workers, and myself as a researcher navigating humanitarian space. Shelters are designed to be short term spaces, but migrants are often forced into long-term, uncertain stays due to restrictive border policies and structural barriers, resulting in a social stasis defined by boredom, anxiety, and monotony within the shelter. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus …

Between Borders And Belief: Perspectives Of Aid Workers On Religion In A Migrant Shelter In Mexico, Kendall O. Roy

Senior Theses

This thesis seeks to understand the significance of religion in the Central American migration context through the eyes of humanitarian aid workers. It is based on interviews that I conducted in May of 2024 with staff members at a migrant shelter in Mexico, analysis of prior scholarship, and building upon an understanding of relevant religious history in Latin America. I will delve into trends that the aid workers observed in areas such as religious practices and beliefs of migrants, shelter functions that addressed and nurtured spiritual well-being, and the influence of the Church as an institution on humanitarian aid work. …

Foucauldian Discourses At The Intersection Of Climate-Induced Migration And Cultural Heritage, Samantha L. Stuhlmiller

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The worsening climate crisis has created and exacerbated issues of migration, cultural heritage and power relations issues. States and communities worldwide face large-scale challenges that must be addressed to protect individuals and ensure the longevity of nations and their cultures. This thesis utilizes Foucauldian theories of power through a critical discourse analysis of relevant documents in international law, state policy, and research to assess how discourses impact the design and implementation of policies and practices that are intended to mitigate and solve these issues in Kiribati, Tuvalu, and for the Rohingya. When there are discrepancies between discourses created and reinforced …

Remedios Varo: Peregrinaciones, Julia Condes

Honors Undergraduate Theses

At the time of her death, the artist Remedios Varo (1908–1963) left behind over 500 works of art, the majority of which were created in her adopted country of Mexico. Known for her meticulously crafted fantastical paintings, Varo underwent exile and displacement due to first the Spanish Civil War, and later World War II, which led her to relocate to Mexico, where she would create prolifically for the remainder of her life. This paper will examine the effect of those experiences on the artist and the work she produced, attesting to Varo’s ability to translate complex emotions regarding the human …

Young Women In Cities: Urbanization And Gender-Biased Migration, Yumi Koh, Jing Li, Yifan Wu, Junjian Yi, Hanzhe Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Young women outnumber young men in cities in many countries during periods of economic growth and urbanization. This gender imbalance among young urbanites is more pronounced in larger cities. We use the gradual rollout of Special Economic Zones across China as a quasi-experiment to establish the causal impact of urbanization on gender-differentiated incentives to migrate. We highlight the role of the marriage market in increasing rural women’s chance of marrying and marrying up in urban areas during rapid urbanization.

Trends And Shifts: Migration, Reverse Missions, And African Catholic Priests In Iowa City, Usa, Kefas Lamak

Journal of Global Catholicism

This study uses ethnographic research to examine the work and self-conception of African-trained priests in a city in the American state of Iowa. This phenomenon is part of a broader trend and shift as African-trained priests take up positions as pastors and missionaries throughout Europe and America. The article argues that the movement of African priests to the West in recent years should be understood as “reverse mission” because of its similarities to Western missionary activity in third world countries in earlier historical periods. This study mainly focuses on Iowa City, where the researcher interviewed five African priests serving in …

Attitudes Around Circulatory Migration In Puerto Rico, 2017-2023: Puerto Rico Without Puerto Ricans, Alondra Sostre Gotay

Senior Theses

Puerto Rican migration to the United States has historically been circulatory, as is characteristic of Caribbean migration and migration from territories. After the mass exodus from Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017, newspapers are reporting that Puerto Ricans are returning to the island. This study used posts from social media to obtain people’s perspective on return migration, and understood these through a framework of push and pull factors. The study created an informal database in order to break down close readings of social media. From that, a table was created that quantified recurrences of common patterns. The study determined …

The Role Of Soft Infrastructure In Developing Sustainable Volunteer-Based Healthcare For Transient Migrants In The El Paso-Ciudad Juárez Border Region, Daniel Avitia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Distributional Impacts Of Transportation Networks In China, Lin Ma, Yang Tang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We document that the quality of roads and railroads vary substantially over time and space in China, and neglecting these variations biases the distributional impacts of transportation networks. To account for quality differences, we construct a new panel dataset and approximate quality using the design speed of roads and railroads that varies by vintage, class, and terrain at the pixel level. We then build a dynamic spatial general equilibrium model for multiple modes, transportation routes, and forward-looking migration decisions. Our findings demonstrate that disregarding quality differences leads to a median bias of approximately 31% in estimating real wage growth rates …

What Is Beyond Graduation For Mena Scholarship Alumni? Understanding The Global Journeys Of Tomorrow’S Leaders Scholarship Alumni, Albaraa Quradi

Theses and Dissertations

The research conducted by the author delves deeply into the migration experiences of students from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with a specific focus on graduates of the Tomorrow's Leaders scholarship program. Through the use of a case study methodology, the study investigates the complex interconnections between migration, development, inequality, and the students' countries of origin.

The investigation critically analyzes the aftermath of pursuing higher education on a scholarship basis, shedding light on how migration experiences are intertwined with broader issues of development and inequality in the MENA region. Furthermore, the research examines the factors that drive …

Adapting And Validating A Survey To Assess Host Communities Support For Migration, Jhon G. Botello, Katherine Palacio, Erika Frydenlund, Humberto Llinás, Jose Padilla

VMASC Publications

Migration presents challenges to receiving communities, as it tests their ability to respond to unexpected expenditures and social stresses. Evaluating the local impact of rapid and substantial migration flows is difficult due to the absence of a validated instrument for assessing community support for migration. Our study adapted and validated a Support for Migration Assessment survey (SMA) based on Social Exchange Theory (SET). The validation of the SMA contributes in two significant ways. First, it establishes an instrument that enables the assessment of support for migration (SFM) by considering community-level factors: trust in institutions (TII), overall community satisfaction (OCS), and …

Should I Stay Or Should I Go: A Preliminary Case Study Of Labor Migration Aspirations Among Female Undergraduate Students At The University Of Jordan, Simon Khairallah

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This preliminary case study investigated the composition, complexity, and presence of labor migration aspirations among female undergraduate students at the University of Jordan. The University of Jordan was selected as the research site due to its size and prominence in Jordan. The study sought to explore female participants’ perspectives on the current economic situation in Jordan, migration aspirations, and desired destinations. Interviews were conducted with undergraduate students at the University of Jordan. Of these ten participants, six expressed clear labor migration aspirations, three expressed aspirations to stay, and one expressed ambivalent migration aspirations. Nearly all participants expressed negative views of …