Global Urban Immigration

Globalization has accelerated the movement of people across political borders. Economic restructuring has made cities and their metro areas depositories of the majority of these global migrants. In many cities, immigrants are the motor of economic development and civic rejuvenation, even as the undocumented are politically shunned and denied legal citizenship, along with its accompanying protections, and legal immigrants face increased scrutiny.

At no other time in United States history have there been so many immigrants, many of them undocumented and mostly from our own hemisphere, prompting heated debates about immigrants, borders and the changing identity of the country.

With these matters at the forefront of much public and political discourse, the Global Urban Immigration cluster’s objective is to meet an escalating need to examine existing standards and develop new concepts that could inform our understanding of the global movement of people, as well as influence comprehensive policy responses.

New faculty hires for the Global Urban Immigration cluster will feature scholars with research concentrations in the areas of emigration; global/post-national identities; transnational individual/community identities; immigration/borders/rights; and immigration/language and community.

Principal Investigator:

Maria de los Angeles Torres
Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
Inter-University Program for Latino Research’s Mellon Program Director
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Initiative Hire(s):

Andreas Feldmann (Fall 2014)
Associate Professor, Latin American and Latino Studies and Political Science
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Patrisia Macías-Rojas (Spring 2015)
Assistant Professor, Sociology and Latin American and Latino Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences