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110 Immigration Research Paper Topics

Immigration is the process of people moving to a country and can be either voluntary or involuntary. Immigration is a very interesting aspect of education, and you may be asked at one point or another to come up with a research paper in the immigration niche.

Immigration is a broad topic, and it can be difficult to choose immigration research paper topics. Here are some broad categories of immigration.

• Voluntary migration : This refers to people who move to another country on their own accord and are not forced by the government. It could be for health reasons, lifestyle change, economic reasons, educational reasons, tax evasion, etc.
• Involuntary migration : This refers to people who are forced to move to another country because there is no other option for them. Examples include migration during a crisis, migration due to fear of persecution, etc.
• Emigration : This refers to people who decide on their own not to stay in a particular country and return home.
• Internal migration : This refers to people who move within a country for work or school purposes or simply for personal reasons, such as living closer to family members or friends.

Why Do You Need Help Choosing Immigration Research Paper Topics?  

You’re ready to write your immigration research paper, but you’re scared. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’re looking for research paper topics. Why? Because there are so many things that you can write about, it can be hard to know where to start.

You’ve put a lot of thought into the topic, but you’re not sure how to start. Maybe you have a great idea but don’t know where to start writing. Or maybe you’ve already written the outline, but it’s not working out. You feel stuck.

Whatever the case may be, it’s normal to get stressed out when writing a research paper on an important topic like immigration. When you’re in this situation, it can be really helpful to have someone who can point out what works and what doesn’t work with your outline or subject matter. And that’s where we come in.

There are many benefits to getting help with your immigration paper research topics.

• Immigration research paper topics are hard to come by.

Immigration has been a hot topic for quite some time now. Since the government has been putting a heavy focus on it, there are a lot of different angles to research. This can make it difficult to find a topic that is interesting and relevant to your own life experience.

• Immigration research paper topics are often controversial.

Immigration is a very touchy subject, which means that it can be hard to find something that accurately reflects your views on the issue without being too extreme or inflammatory.

• You’ll save time.

If your research paper is due soon, you might not have enough time to do the necessary research and choose topics yourself. Seeking help out there makes your work easier and saves you from stress!

• It will be well detailed.

Other than just looking at things from your point of view, seeking help from other sources can help you get detailed in-depth approaches.

Immigration Research Paper Topics

As a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic and other global military wars, the difficulties associated with immigration are now more widely recognized in the world. Are you looking for good topics to write about for your immigration research paper? If so, the list below includes some of the top options:

• How did the Covid-19 pandemic affect immigration into the UK and the United States?
• How does immigration affect the global economy?
• What are the benefits and disadvantages of immigration?
• What are the top five benefits of being an immigrant?
• What is the relationship between immigration and crime?
• How does the cost of immigration compare with other factors that influence business?
• How do illegal immigrants affect our economy and society, and how can they be made legal?
• What are the most common reasons people apply for a U.S. visa?
• What are some of the benefits of having an immigration visa program in the U.S.?
• How many countries have a visa waiver program with the U.S. and how does it work?

Simple Immigration Essay Topics

Selecting a simple topic for an immigration essay is not always an easy thing to do. At times, it requires you to spend a lot of time doing research here and there. To save you from this stress, we have compiled the top ten simple immigration essay topics for you!

• How has immigration impacted your life?
• What are your thoughts on illegal immigration?
• How would you improve the process for naturalized citizens?
• What are some of the challenges associated with immigration?  
• Give some examples of how immigration benefits the U.S.  
• What is the motivation for immigration?
• Discuss the attitude of nativism towards immigrants.
• How has being an immigrant changed the way you think about yourself?  
• What is the greatest barrier to becoming a citizen?
• What would you say to people who believe that immigrants should not be allowed into the U.S.?

International Immigration Essay Topics

We have compiled 10 international immigration essay topics for your essay because when it comes to choosing topics about immigration internationally, you need to make sure it covers the entire world of immigration. This can often be a difficult process.

• How have international immigration policies changed over time?
• How can we increase our understanding of the diversity of the world’s cultures?
• What are some of the benefits of allowing more immigration?
• Describe the UK’s current immigration system.
• Discuss Canada’s 20th-century immigration policies.
• Talk about the EU’s current immigration problems and how they affect the terrorism rate.
• Examine the connection between immigration and Australian national identity.
• Describe Switzerland’s newest immigration law.
• Examine the effects of Muslim immigration on Britain.
• Examine the importance of gender in Irish immigration.

Best Immigration Research Topics

Do you want to come up with the best topic for your essay in your class? We also want you to be the best, so we’ve put together a list of some of the best topics on immigration that you could pick from.

• The impact of immigration on wages and employment levels
• The impact of immigration on public health and other social outcomes
• The impact of immigration on local governments and their budgets
• How immigrants help contribute to economic growth
• What are the best ways to attract immigrants to your country?
• The impact of immigration on education and health care
• What is the relationship between immigration and terrorism?
• Does immigration increase or decrease social cohesion?
• What effect immigration has on things like forests, water sources, and wildlife habitats.
• What are the best ways to encourage new immigrants to stay in their new home country?

Immigration Argumentative Essay Topics

Because you would need to compare and view the issue from all sides, choosing an argumentative immigration topics to write about could be challenging. To make your job easier, we have compiled a list of 10 argumentative immigration essay ideas for you below.

• Immigrants are taking jobs away from American citizens who deserve them.
• Should an immigrant be given a path to citizenship?
• Do you think that it is important for countries to take in refugees who are fleeing war-torn countries?
• Immigrants contribute to the growth of our economy, our culture, and our society.
• Should immigrants pay taxes?
• Should immigration from certain countries be limited based on their economic impact on the country?
• Should incentives be given to people who want to immigrate legally instead of illegally?
• Should businesses be permitted to hire foreign workers over Americans if they can’t find any eligible Americans?
• Should immigrants be allowed to stay in the country indefinitely?
• Should people be treated differently based on their immigration status?  

Controversial Immigration Topics

When we discuss contentious topics, we typically engage in debate or discussion of divergent viewpoints. Finding a topic on this can be difficult at times, but don’t worry; to relieve some of your tension, we’ve selected 10 contentious immigration topics for research paper that you can choose from or use as a reference:  

• Should gay couples be allowed to marry?
• Race and Immigration
• Ethnicity and Immigration
• Should non-citizens be able to vote?
• Is it okay for parents to get deported because they refuse to pay child support?
• Undocumented immigrants and identity theft.
• Deportation rates for undocumented immigrants
• Immigration: Illegals vs. Legal Immigrants
• The wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

Immigration Thesis Topics

Choosing a thesis topic on immigration requires extensive research because the paper needs to be outstanding and well written. Do you need a thesis for an academic degree? Here are 10 thesis immigration topics for essays that could help you.

• The historical impact of immigration on America
• The impact of immigration on the economy
• The impact of immigration on our culture and society
• Why should immigrants be allowed into the United States?
• How can we make sure that immigrants are treated fairly and humanely in America?
• Immigration is a major issue that affects Americans in many ways.
• Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes
• Immigrants do not make any significant difference in the unemployment rate of native-born Americans
• Immigrants create more jobs than they take
• Immigrants need government assistance to survive

Global Politics Immigration Paper Topics

Global politics is a large topic. So, finding suitable global political immigration topics may be a bit tiresome. Here are 10 global research topics on immigration that you can choose from!

• Immigration policies in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
• International trade and immigration policies.
• The diversity of immigrants: A look at America’s immigrant population.
• The social structure of immigrants in the Netherlands.
• Globalization and migration patterns: A case study of Australia.
• Global recessions, financial crises, and the labor market.
• Immigration policy and human rights violations
• Migration patterns around the world
• The history of immigration in the U.S.
• Political and economic implications of immigration in Europe

Illegal Immigration Research Paper Topics

Illegal immigration is a big problem for law enforcement and the national security of many countries. It also often leads to violations of the human rights of the most vulnerable people.

Would you like to investigate this for a research paper? Here are some illegal immigration topics to research that can help.

• The effects of illegal immigration on businesses
• Illegal immigration and public safety
• Illegal immigration and workplace discrimination
• The impact of illegal immigration on the American workforce
• How does illegal immigration affect the U.S?
• Should illegal immigration be legalized?
• What are some of the consequences of legalizing illegal immigrants?
• What are some benefits of legalizing illegal immigrants?
• How many people illegally immigrate to the U.S. every year?
• How are illegal immigrants treated by society?

Research Paper Topics on Immigration in America

Are you seeking a topic to write about for a research paper about immigration in America? Here are 10 excellent American immigration research paper topics for you.  

• Why America’s immigration policies are unfair and unproductive, and why we need to change them.
• Why the Mexican border is a good immigration channel
• Border security and border policy in the U.S.
• How does immigrant crime compare to native crime?
• Immigrants are more likely to have good grades than native-born Americans
• Which groups of immigrants have been most affected by the rise in deportations and why?
• Are immigrants more likely to start businesses than native-born Americans?
• Immigrants have made incredible contributions to the U.S., like Levi Strauss and Albert Einstein
• Should undocumented immigrants have health insurance coverage in the U.S.?
• The Effect of Immigration on Social Security in the U.S.

Persuasive Speech Topics About Immigration

You need to make sure the topics you choose for your persuasive speeches are compelling enough to win over your audience. Finding a topic like this could be difficult, but we have nonetheless put together a list of the top 10 persuasive immigration topics for essay from which you can choose.

• Should immigration be a human right?
• Can immigrants help economies grow and make countries better
• Why immigration is not a threat to our culture but a benefit
• We need more immigrants in this country because it’s not sustainable otherwise!
• Immigrants are an asset to any country, not a burden.
• Are most immigrants hard-working, honest, and law-abiding citizens?
• Illegal immigration is not a problem—it’s a solution to problems—like unemployment and poverty
• The U.S. needs immigrants to keep growing and stay strong in the world economy
• Are immigrants good for business and do they make great contributions to society?
• Immigrants bring in new ideas and experiences that enrich culture and nation growth.

How to Choose a Topic on Immigration

Choosing a topic for your immigration research paper is a big decision. You have to consider your audience, the content of the paper, and how much time you have to write it. Here are some tips for choosing the best immigration research paper topics.

• Know your audience.

You can’t write an immigration research paper if you don’t know who you’re writing it for! Before you start writing, sit down with the person in charge of your assignment (usually the professor) and get their feedback on what they need from you. This will help you narrow down topics that they’ll find interesting and relevant, which will make them more excited about reading your work!

• Look at what’s already out there.

You may want to try writing something new, but don’t forget about other people’s work! Go online and check out any papers written by professors on similar topics in your field. Have them give their opinions about whether or not those papers are good examples of quality work done well. If they love something else, maybe those details can help inspire yours!

• Do your research.

Do some research on current events. This is where most of the immigration news comes from, so it’s a great way to find out what’s happening in your community.

Read blogs and articles from reliable sources like newspapers or websites that focus on profiling immigrants and people who are looking for asylum.

Immigration research paper topics could be challenging to find. Sometimes they are complex and require an in-depth understanding. Here are 110 immigration research paper topics you can choose from. Sometimes, you might need help in writing your research paper. You can always outsource your research paper to a trusted writing company to help you!

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Home » Blog » Dissertation » Topics » Studies » 80 Migration Studies Research Topics

80 Migration Studies Research Topics

FacebookXEmailWhatsAppRedditPinterestLinkedInAre you a student embarking on the exciting journey of selecting research topics for your Migration Studies thesis or dissertation? Look no further; we’ve got you covered. Migration Studies, a multidisciplinary field, offers a plethora of fascinating research topics waiting to be explored. Whether you’re pursuing an undergraduate, master’s, or doctoral degree, this guide will […]

Are you a student embarking on the exciting journey of selecting research topics for your Migration Studies thesis or dissertation? Look no further; we’ve got you covered. Migration Studies, a multidisciplinary field, offers a plethora of fascinating research topics waiting to be explored. Whether you’re pursuing an undergraduate, master’s, or doctoral degree, this guide will provide you with a comprehensive list of research topics that cater to your academic level and interests.

Migration Studies, also known as immigration studies or emigration studies, is an interdisciplinary field that examines the complex dynamics of human migration, encompassing factors like drivers, consequences, and migration experiences.

A List Of Potential Research Topics In Migration Studies:

• Investigating the impact of immigration policies on the mental health of refugee children.
• Analyzing the role of social capital in the integration of migrant youth.
• Analyzing the role of remittances in poverty alleviation in migrant-sending countries.
• Exploring the impact of climate change on forced migration patterns.
• A comparative study of refugee resettlement programs across different countries.
• Exploring the relationship between migrant labor and agricultural sustainability.
• Investigating the challenges and opportunities for international humanitarian organizations in the post-COVID migration landscape.
• Analyzing the role of digital technology in facilitating remote work for migrants post-COVID-19.
• Investigating the effects of border enforcement policies on migrant fatalities.
• Assessing the healthcare disparities experienced by undocumented immigrants in the United States.
• Assessing the impact of refugee resettlement programs on host communities.
• Investigating the experiences of LGBTQ+ refugees in resettlement programs.
• Investigating the factors influencing migrants’ decision to return to their home countries.
• Analyzing the role of social networks in the integration of immigrants into host communities.
• Assessing the impact of immigration detention on the mental health of detainees.
• Assessing the economic consequences of irregular migration on host countries.
• Examining the effects of border walls and barriers on migration routes.
• Exploring the portrayal of migrant experiences in contemporary television dramas in Migration Studies and Media Studies .
• Exploring the factors influencing the choice of destination country among asylum seekers.
• Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on the migration aspirations and decisions of young adults.
• Investigating the role of religious institutions in supporting refugee resettlement.
• Evaluating the role of immigration policies in shaping the post-Brexit UK labor market.
• A critical review of the ethical considerations in migration research and policy.
• An analysis of the role of social networks in facilitating migration and integration.
• Exploring the educational experiences and outcomes of migrant children in UK schools.
• Assessing the role of the National Health Service (NHS) in providing healthcare access to migrants in the UK.
• Exploring the role of immigrant advocacy organizations in policy reform.
• Investigating the role of diaspora communities in transnational development efforts.
• Investigating the influence of cultural factors on the settlement choices of migrants in the UK.
• Assessing the impact of immigration policies on the mental health of undocumented youth.
• Assessing the impact of deportation on the mental health of U.S. citizen children.
• A review of the impact of climate change on migration patterns and policies.
• Examining the experiences of unaccompanied child migrants in detention centers.
• Analyzing the representation of migrants in media and its influence on public perception.
• Examining the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in accessing protection.
• Assessing the integration challenges faced by refugee entrepreneurs in host countries.
• Examining the impact of xenophobia and discrimination on migrant well-being.
• Exploring the role of transnational social networks in migrant decision-making.
• Investigating the role of cultural diversity in fostering social cohesion in multicultural cities.
• Analyzing the role of social media in shaping migration aspirations and decisions.
• Examining the effects of immigration policies on family reunification.
• Examining the integration experiences of second-generation immigrants in Europe.
• Examining the effects of Brexit on the social cohesion and diversity of UK communities.
• Examining the impact of Brexit on the migration patterns and integration of EU nationals in the UK.
• Exploring the experiences of stateless individuals in accessing basic rights.
• Investigating the influence of public opinion and media discourse on immigration policy in the UK.
• Analyzing the factors influencing migrant women’s access to reproductive healthcare.
• Exploring the experiences of migrant farmworkers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Investigating the impact of migration on the cultural identity of second-generation immigrants.
• Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrant labor market integration.
• Analyzing the role of language proficiency in immigrant labor market outcomes.
• An overview of the gender dimensions of migration studies.
• Analyzing the role of local government policies in fostering migrant integration in the UK.
• Exploring the cultural adaptation strategies of immigrant families in a new country.
• Exploring the cultural preservation efforts of diaspora communities.
• Investigating the economic contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs in the tech industry.
• Analyzing the impact of migration on urban development and social dynamics in Migration Studies and Urban Studies .
• Exploring the role of cultural diversity in promoting innovation in the workplace.
• Investigating the economic empowerment of female migrants through microfinance initiatives.
• Evaluating the impact of UK immigration detention policies on the mental health of detainees.
• Analyzing the relationship between migration and human rights violations.
• Examining the intersectionality of gender and migration in the context of domestic labor.
• A review of the challenges and opportunities in forced migration research.
• Examining the adaptation strategies employed by international students in the wake of COVID-19.
• Assessing the impact of language barriers on healthcare access for migrants.
• Examining the gendered experiences of migrant domestic workers in the Middle East.
• Exploring the role of art and culture in the expression of migrant experiences.
• Examining the effectiveness of parent training programs in supporting the development of children with ASD in migrant families.
• Assessing the impact of deportation on community trust in law enforcement.
• Examining the role of migrant-led organizations in advocating for policy change.
• Investigating changes in immigration policies and their consequences in the post-pandemic era.
• Analyzing the experiences of indigenous migrants in urban areas.
• Analyzing the effects of deportation on families and communities.
• Assessing the labor market outcomes of refugees in host countries.
• Analyzing the experiences of undocumented migrants in the United Kingdom.
• Investigating the factors influencing the success of refugee entrepreneurship programs.
• Examining the impact of globalization on transnational migration patterns.
• Analyzing the relationship between environmental degradation and forced migration.
• Assessing the educational outcomes of refugee children in temporary settlements.
• An examination of migration’s economic impact on sending and receiving countries.

In conclusion, Migration Studies presents an enticing landscape of research opportunities at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels. By selecting a research topic from the list provided, you can embark on a journey of discovery within this dynamic field. Whether you’re interested in the sociopolitical aspects of migration, the impact on communities, or the psychological aspects of immigrant experiences, there’s a topic waiting for you to explore and contribute to our understanding of this crucial global phenomenon. Happy researching!

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An Introduction to Migration Studies: The Rise and Coming of Age of a Research Field

• Open Access
• First Online: 04 June 2022

Cite this chapter

You have full access to this open access chapter

• Peter Scholten 2 ,
• Asya Pisarevskaya 3 &
• Nathan Levy 3  

Part of the book series: IMISCOE Research Series ((IMIS))

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5 Citations

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Migration studies has contributed significantly to our understanding of mobilities and migration-related diversities. It has developed a distinct body of knowledge on why people migrate, how migration takes place, and what the consequences are of migration in a broad sense, both for migrants themselves and for societies involved in migration. As a broadly-based research field, migration studies has evolved at the crossroads of a variety of disciplines. This includes disciplines such as sociology, political science, anthropology, geography, law and economics, but increasingly it expands to a broader pool of disciplines also including health studies, development studies, governance studies and many more, building on insights from these disciplines.

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Changing Perspectives on Migration History and Research in Switzerland: An Introduction

15 Internal Migration

Introduction: Contemporary Insights on Migration and Population Distribution

Migration is itself in no way a new phenomenon; but the specific and interdisciplinary study of migration is relatively recent. Although the genesis of migration studies goes back to studies in the early twentieth century, it was only by the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century that the number of specialised master programmes in migration studies increased, that the number of journal outlets grew significantly, that numerous specialised research groups and institutes emerged all over the world, and that in broader academia migration studies was recognised as a distinct research field in its own right. By 2018 there were at least 45 specialised journals in migration studies (Pisarevskaya et al., 2019 , p. 462). The field has developed its own international research networks, such as IMISCOE (International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe), NOMRA (Network of Migration Research on Africa), and the global more policy-oriented network Metropolis. Students at an increasingly broad range of universities can study dedicated programs as well as courses on migration studies. Slowly but gradually the field is also globalising beyond its European and North American roots.

Migration studies is a research field, which means that it is not a discipline in itself with a core body of knowledge that applies to various topics, but an area of studies that focus on a specific topic while building on insights from across various disciplines. It has clear roots in particular in economics, geography, anthropology and sociology. However, when looking at migration publications and conferences today, the disciplinary diversity of the field has increased significantly, for instancing bringing important contributions from and to political sciences, law, demography, cultural studies, languages, history, health studies and many more. It is hard to imagine a discipline to which migration studies is not relevant; for instance, even for engineering studies, migration has become a topic of importance when focusing on the role that social media play as migration infrastructures. Beyond being multidisciplinary (combining insights from various disciplines), the field has become increasing interdisciplinary (with its own approach that combines aspects from various disciplines) or even transdisciplinary (with an approach that systematically integrates knowledge and methods from various disciplines).

1 A Pluralist Perspective on Migration Studies

Migration studies is a broad and diverse research field that covers many different topics, ranging from the economics of migration to studies of race and ethnicity. As with many research fields, the boundaries of the field cannot be demarcated very clearly. However, this diversity does also involve a fair degree of fragmentation in the field. For instance, the field features numerous sub-fields of study, such as refugee studies, multicultural studies, race studies, diversity studies, etc. In fact, there are many networks and conferences within the field with a specific focus, for instance, on migration and development. So, the field of migration studies also encompasses, in itself, a broad range of subfields.

This diversity is not only reflected in the topics covered by migration studies, but also in theoretical and methodological approaches. It is an inherently pluralistic field, bringing often fundamentally different theoretical perspectives on key topics such as the root causes of integration. It brings very different methods, for instance ranging from ethnographic fieldwork with specific migrant communities to large-n quantitative analyses of the relation between economics and migration.

Therefore, this book is an effort to capture and reflect on this pluralistic character of field. It resists the temptation to bring together a ‘state of the art’ of knowledge on topics, raising the illusion that there is perhaps a high degree of knowledge consensus. Rather, we aim to bring to the foreground the key theoretical and methodological discussions within the field, and let the reader appreciate the diversity and richness of the field.

However, the book will also discuss how this pluralism can complicate discussions within the field based on very basic concepts. Migration studies stands out from most other research fields in terms of a relatively high degree of contestation of some of its most basic concepts. Examples include terms as ‘integration’, ‘multiculturalism’, ‘cohesion’ but perhaps most pertinent also the basic concept of ‘migration.’ Many of the field’s basic concepts can be defined as essentially contested concepts. Without presuming to bring these conceptual discussions to a close, this book does bring an effort to map and understand these discussions, aiming to prevent conceptual divides from leading to fragmentation in the field.

This conceptual contestation reflects broader points on how the field has evolved. Various studies have shown that the field’s development in various countries and at various moments has been spurred by a policy context in which migration was problematised. Many governments revealed a clear interest in research that could help governments control migration and promote the ‘integration’ of migrants into their nation-states (DeWind, 2000 ). The field’s strong policy relevance also led to a powerful dynamic of coproduction in specific concepts such as ‘integration’ or ‘migrant.’ At the same time, there is also clear critical self-reflection in the field on such developments, and on how to promote more systematic theory building in migration studies. This increase of reflexivity can be taken as a sign of the coming of age of migration studies as a self-critical and self-conscious research field.

An introduction to migration studies will need to combine a systematic approach to mapping the field with a strong historical awareness of how the field has developed and how specific topics, concepts and methods have emerged. Therefore, in this chapter, we will do just that. We will start with a historical analysis of how the field emerged and evolved, in an effort to show how the field became so diverse and what may have been critical junctures in the development of the field. Subsequently, we will try to define what is migration studies, by a systematic approach towards mapping the pluralism of the field without losing grip of what keeps together the field of migration studies. Therefore, rather than providing one sharp definition of migration studies, we will map that parts that together are considered to constitute migration studies. Finally, we will map the current state of the research field.

To provide a comprehensive overview of such a pluralist and complex field of study, we employ a variety of methods. Qualitative historical analysis of key works that shaped the formation and development of the field over the years is combined with novel bibliometric methods to give a birds-eye view of the structure of the field in terms of volume of publications, internationalisation and epistemic communities of scholarship on migration. The bibliometric analysis presented in this chapter is based on our previous articles, in which we either, used Scopus data from 40 key journals (Pisarevskaya et al., 2019 , or a complex key-word query to harvest meta-data of relevant publications from Web of Science (Levy et al., 2020 ). Both these approaches to meta-data collection were created and reviewed with the help of multiple experts of migration studies. You can consult the original publications for more details. Our meta-data contained information on authors, years of publication, journals, titles, and abstracts of articles and books, as well as reference lists, i.e. works that were cited by each document in the dataset.

In this chapter you will see the findings from these analyses, revealing the growth trends of migration specific journals, and yearly numbers of articles published on migration-related topics, number and geographical distribution of international co-authorships, as well as referencing patterns of books and articles – the “co-citation analysis”. The colourful network graphs you will see later in the chapter, reveal links between scholars, whose writings are mentioned together in one reference list. When authors are often mentioned together in the publications of other scientists, it means that their ideas are part of a common conversation. The works of the most-cited authors in different parts of the co-citation networks give us an understanding of which topics they specialise in, which methods they use in their research, and also within which disciplinary traditions they work. All in all, co-citation analysis provides an insight on the conceptual development of epistemic communities with their distinct paradigms, methods and thematic foci.

In addition, we bring in some findings from the Migration Research Hub, which hosts an unprecedented number of articles, book chapters, reports, dissertation relevant to the field. All these items are brought together with the help of IT technologies, integration with different databases such as Dimensions, ORCID, Crossref, and Web of Science, as well as submitted by the authors themselves. At the end of 2020, this database contains around 90,000 of items categorised into the taxonomy of migration studies, which will be presented below.

2 What Is Migration Studies?

The historical development of migration studies, as described in the next section, reveals the plurality of the research field. Various efforts to come up with a definition of the field therefore also reflect this plurality. For instance, King ( 2012 ) speaks of migration studies as encompassing ‘all types of international and internal migration, migrants, and migration-related diversities’. This builds on Cohen’s ( 1996 , p. xi–xii) nine conceptual ‘dyads’ in the field. Many of these have since been problematised – answering Cohen’s own call for critical and systematic considerations – but they nonetheless provide a skeletal overview of the field as it is broadly understood and unfolded in this book and in the taxonomy on which it is based:

Individual vs. contextual reasons to migrate

Rate vs. incidence

Internal vs. international migration

Temporary vs. permanent migration

Settler vs. labour migration

Planned vs. flight migration

Economic migrants vs. political refugees

Illegal vs. legal migration

Push vs. pull factors

Therefore, the taxonomy provides the topical structure—elaborated below—by which we approach this book. We do not aim to provide a be-all and end-all definition of migration studies but rather seek to capture its inherent plurality by bringing together chapters which provide a state-of-the-art of different meta-topics within the field.

The taxonomy of migration studies was developed as part of a broader research project, led by IMISCOE, from 2018 to 2020 aimed at comprehensively taking stock of and providing an index for the field (see the Migration Research Hub on www.migrationresearch.com ). It was a community endeavour, involving contributors from multiple methodological, disciplinary, and geographical backgrounds at several stages from beginning to end.

It was built through a combination of two methods. First, the taxonomy is based on a large-scale computer-based inductive analysis of a vast number—over 23,000—of journal articles, chapters, and books from the field of migration studies. This led to an empirical clustering of topics addressed within the dataset, as identified empirically in terms of keywords that tend to go together within specific publications.

Secondly, this empirical clustering was combined with a deductive approach with the aim of giving logical structure to the inductively developed topics. Engaging, at this stage, with several migration scholars with specific expertise facilitated a theory-driven expansion of the taxonomy towards what it is today, with its hierarchical categorisation not only of topics and sub-categories of topics, but also of methods, disciplines, and geographical focuses (see Fig. 1.1 below).

The structure of the taxonomy of migration studies

In terms of its content, the taxonomy that has been developed distinguishes various meta-topics within migration studies. These include:

Why do people migrate ? This involves a variety of root causes of migration, or migration drivers.

How do people migrate ? This includes a discussion of migration trajectories but also infrastructures of migration.

What forms of migration can be distinguished ? This involves an analytical distinction of a variety of migration forms

What are major consequences of migration , and whom do these consequences concern? This includes a variety of contributions on the broader consequences of migration, including migration-related diversities, ethnicity, race, the relation between migration and the city, the relation between migration and cities, gendered aspects of migration, and migration and development.

How can migration be governed ? This part will cover research on migration policies and broader policies on migration-related diversities, as well as the relation between migration and citizenship.

What methods are used in migration studies ?

All the topics in the taxonomy are grouped into several branches: Migration processes, Migration Consequences, Migration governance and Cross-cutting. In Fig. 1.2 below you can see how many journal articles, books, book chapters and reports can be found in the migration research hub just for the period of the last 20 years. The number of items belonging to each theme can vary significantly, because some of them are broader than others. Broader themes can be related to larger numbers of items, for instance ‘migration forms’ is very broad, because it includes many types and forms of migration on which scientific research in this field chooses to focus on. On the contrary, the theme of ‘governance processes’ is narrower because less studies are concerned with specific processes of migration management, such as criminalisation, externalisation or implementation.

Distribution of taxonomy branches in the Migration Research Hub

The various chapters in this book can of course never fully represent the full scope of the field. Therefore, the chapters will include various interactive links with the broader literature. This literature is made accessible via the Migration Research Hub, which aims to represent the full scope of migration studies. The Hub is based on the taxonomy and provides a full overview of relevant literature (articles, chapters, books, reports, policy briefs) per taxonomy item. This not only includes works published in migration journals or migration books, but also a broader range of publications, such as disciplinary journals.

Because the Hub is being constantly updated, the taxonomy—along with how we approach the question of ‘what is migration studies?’ in this book—is interactive; it is not dogmatic, but reflexive. As theory develops, new topics and nomenclature emerge. In fact, several topics have been added and some topics have been renamed since “Taxonomy 1.0” was launched in 2018. In this way, the taxonomy is not a fixed entity, but constantly evolving, as a reflection of the field itself.

3 The Historical Development of Migration Studies

3.1 an historical perspective on “migration studies”.

A pluralist perspective on an evolving research field, therefore, cannot rely on one single definition of what constitutes that research field. Instead, a historical perspective can shed light on how “migration studies” has developed. Therefore, we use this introductory chapter to outline the genesis and emergence of what is nowadays considered to be the field of migration studies. This historical perspective will also rely on various earlier efforts to map the development of the field, which have often had a significant influence on what came to be considered “ migration studies ”.

3.2 Genesis of Migration Studies

Migration studies is often recognised as having originated in the work of geographer Ernst Ravenstein in the 1880s, and his 11 Laws of Migration ( 1885 ). These laws were the first effort towards theorising why (internal) migration takes place and what different dynamics of mobility look like, related, for instance, to what happens to the sending context after migrants leave, or differing tendencies between men and women to migrate. Ravenstein’s work provided the foundation for early, primarily economic, approaches to the study of migration, or, more specifically, internal or domestic migration (see Greenwood & Hunt, 2003 ; Massey et al., 1998 ).

The study of international migration and migrants can perhaps be traced back to Znaniecki and Thomas’ ( 1927 ) work on Polish migration to Europe and America. Along with Ravenstein’s Laws , most scholars consider these volumes to mark the genesis of migration studies.

The Polish Peasant and the Chicago School

The Polish Peasant in Europe and America —written by Florian Znaniecki & William Thomas, and first published between 1918 and 1920—contains an in-depth analysis of the lives of Polish migrant families. Poles formed the biggest immigrant group in America at this time. Thomas and Znaniecki’s work was not only seminal for migration research, but for the wider discipline of sociology. Indeed, their colleagues in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago, such as Robert Park, had a profound impact on the discipline with their groundbreaking empirical studies of race and ethnic relations (Bulmer, 1986 ; Bommes & Morawska, 2005 ).

Greenwood and Hunt ( 2003 ) provide a helpful overview of the early decades of migration research, albeit through a primarily economic disciplinary lens, with particular focus on America and the UK. According to them, migration research “took off” in the 1930s, catalysed by two societal forces—urbanisation and the Great Depression—and the increased diversity those forces generated. To illustrate this point, they cite the bibliographies collated by Dorothy Thomas ( 1938 ) which listed nearly 200 publications (119 from the USA and UK, 72 from Germany), many of which focused on migration in relation to those two societal forces, in what was already regarded as a “broadly based field of study” (Greenwood & Hunt, 2003 , p. 4).

Prior to Thomas’ bibliography, early indications of the institutionalisation of migration research came in the US, with the establishment of the Social Science Research Council’s Committee on Scientific Aspects of Human Migration (see DeWind, 2000 ). This led to the publication of Thornthwaite’s overview of Internal Migration in the United States ( 1934 ) and one of the first efforts to study migration policymaking, Goodrich et al’s Migration and Economic Opportunity ( 1936 ).

In the case of the UK in the 1930s, Greenwood and Hunt observe an emphasis on establishing formal causal models, inspired by Ravenstein’s Laws . The work of Makower et al. ( 1938 , 1939 , 1940 ), which, like Goodrich, focused on the relationship of migration and unemployment, is highlighted by Greenwood and Hunt as seminal in this regard. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics regards Makower and Marschak as having made a “pioneering contribution” to our understanding of labour mobility (see also the several taxonomy topics dealing with labour).

3.3 The Establishment of a Plural Field of Migration Studies (1950s–1980s)

Migration research began to formalise and expand in the 1950s and 1960s (Greenwood & Hunt, 2003 ; Pedraza-Bailey, 1990 ). A noteworthy turning point for the field was the debate around assimilation which gathered pace throughout the 1950s and is perhaps most notably exemplified by Gordon’s ( 1964 ) typology of this concept.

Gordon’s Assimilation Typology and the Problematisation of Integration

Assimilation, integration, acculturation, and the question of how migrants adapt and are incorporated into a host society (and vice versa), has long been a prominent topic in migration studies.

Gordon ( 1964 ) argued that assimilation was composed of seven aspects of identification with the host society: cultural, structural, martial, identificational, behavioural, attitudinal, and civic. His research marked the beginning of hundreds of publications on this question of how migrants and host societies adapt. The broader discussions with which Gordon interacted evolved into one of the major debates in migration studies.

By the 1990s, understandings of assimilation evolved in several ways. Some argued that process was context- or group-dependent (see Shibutani & Kwan, 1965 ; Alba & Nee, 1997 ). Others recognised that there was not merely one type nor indeed one direction of integration (Berry, 1997 ).

The concept itself has been increasingly problematised since the turn of the century. One prominent example of this is Favell ( 2003 ). Favell’s main argument was that integration as a normative policy goal structured research on migration in Western Europe. Up until then, migration research had reproduced what he saw as nation-state-centred power structures. It is worth reading this alongside Wimmer and Glick Schiller (2003) to situate it in broader contemporary debates, but there is plenty more to read on this topic.

For more on literature around this topic, see Chaps. 19 , 20 , and 21 of this book.

Indeed, these debates and discussions were emblematic of wider shifts in approaches to the study of migration. The first of these was towards the study of international (as opposed to internal) migration in the light of post-War economic dynamics, which also established a split in approaches to migration research that has lasted several decades (see King & Skeldon, 2010 ). The second shift was towards the study of ethnic and race relations, which continued into the 1970s, and was induced by the civil rights movements of these decades (Pedraza-Bailey, 1990 ). These two shifts are reflected in the establishment of some of the earliest journals with a migration and diversity focus in the 1960s—the establishment of journals being an indicator of institutionalisation—as represented in Fig. 1.3 . Among these are journals that continue to be prominent in the field, such as International Migration (1961-), International Migration Review (1964-), and, later, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (1970-) and Ethnic & Racial Studies (1978-).

Number of journals focused on migration and migration-related diversity (1959–2018). (Source: Pisarevskaya et al., 2019 , p. 462) ( R&C Race & Class, IM International Migration, IMR International Migration Review, SE Studi Emigrazione, PP Patterns of Prejudice, JBS Journal of Black Studies, JEMS Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, PDR Population and Development Review, IJIR International Journal of Intercultural Relations, ERS Ethnic & Racial Studies, JIS Journal of Intercultural Studies, RSQ Refugee Survey Quarterly, REMI Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, MW Migration World, JRS Journal of Refugee Studies, LCC Language, Culture, and Curriculum, APMJ Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, HM Hommes et Migrations, Id . Identities, PSP Population, Space, and Place, CDEMP Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, IMIS IMIS-Beitrage, EH Ethnicity & Health, CS Citizenship Studies, JSIE Journal of Studies in International Education, REE Race, Ethnicity, and Education, EJML European Journal of Migration and Law, JIMI Journal of International Migration and Integration, NJMR Norwegian Journal of Migration Research, Ethn . Ethnicities, GN Global Networks, JIRS Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, ML Migration Letters, ZAA Zeitschrift für Ausländerrecht und Ausländerpolitik, IJMHSC International Journal of Migration, Health, and Social Care, LS Latino Studies, FJEM Finnish Journal of Ethnicity and Migration, Mob . Mobilities, JDHE Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, NJMR Nordic Journal of Migration Research (merger of NJMR and FJEM), IZAJM IZA Journal of Migration, CEEMR Central and Eastern European Migration Review, MS Migration Studies, CMS Comparative Migration Studies, Mov . Movements, JMH Journal of Migration History, M&S Migration & Society. For more journals publishing in migration studies, see migrationresearch.com )

By the 1970s, although several new journals of migration studies had emerged and the field was maturing in terms of theory-building, there remained a lack of interdisciplinary “synthesis” (Kritz et al., 1981 ; King, 2012 ). This is reflected in the research of Levy et al. ( 2020 ). Based on citation data showing who migration researchers cited over the years, Fig. 1.4 maps the embryo-like development of migration studies every half-decade from 1975 to the present day. In the early decades it shows distinct “epistemic communities” (represented by colours) clustered together based on disciplines in migration research. For example, the earlier decades show economists focused on development (sky blue); economic sociologists analysing the labour market behaviour of migrants (royal blue); demographers (green); and sociologists studying the assimilation topic (red) mentioned above. By the late 1980s, a new cluster of social psychologists (yellow) emerged, with a combination of demographers and economists clustering (pink) in the 1990s. The figure shows an increasing coherence to the field since then, as the next section elaborates, but the 1970s and 1980s was a period of disciplinary differentiation within migration studies.

Co-citation clusters of authors cited in migration studies literature 1975–2018. (From Levy et al., 2020 , p. 18)

Although the field may not have been interdisciplinary in the 1980s, it was indeed multi disciplinary, and research was being conducted in more and more countries: This period entailed a “veritable boom” of contributions to migration research from several disciplines, according to Pedraza-Bailey ( 1990 ), along with a degree of internationalisation, in terms of European scholarship “catching up” with hitherto dominant North American publications, according to Bommes & Morawska, ( 2005 ). English-language migration research was still, however, dominated by institutes based in the global North and the ‘West’.

Interdisciplinarity and Internationalisation in Migration Studies: Key Readings

There have been several publications dealing with the development of migration studies over the years. These readings identify some of the key points related to interdisciplinarity in the field, and how the field has evolved internationally.

Brettell, C. B., & Hollifield, J. F. (2000). Migration theory: Talking across disciplines (1st ed.). Abingdon: Routledge; 2 nd ed. (2008); 3 rd ed. (2015).

Talking Across Disciplines has been used as a standard textbook in migration studies for several years. It represents the first effort towards highlighting the key ideas of the multiple disciplines in the field. It offers an introduction to the contributions these disciplines, as well as critical reflections on how those disciplines have interacted.

Bommes, M., & Morawska, E. (2005). International migration research: Constructions, omissions and the promises of Interdisciplinarity. Farnham: Ashgate.

International Migration Research is one of the first attempts to explore and synthesise migration studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. In this book, scholars from multiple disciplines provide a state of the art of the field which illuminates the contrasts between how these disciplines approach migration studies. It is one of the first works in which migration studies is understood to be an institutionalised field of study.

Thränhardt, D., & Bommes, M. (2010). National Paradigms of migration research. Osnabrück: V&R.

In this book, readers are introduced to the idea that migration studies developed as a policy-driven field in several countries in the twentieth century. Not only did this entail diverse policy priorities, but also diverse “paradigms” of knowledge production in terms of terminology, concepts, and measures. This diversity reflects different national science policies. There are chapters reflecting on these processes from multiple continents, and from both “old” and “new” immigration countries.

In the decades before the 1990s—with a heavy reliance on census and demographic data—quantitative research abounded in migration studies (Greenwood & Hunt, 2003 ). But by the beginning of the 1990s, a “qualitative turn”, linked more broadly to the “cultural turn” in social sciences, had taken place (King, 2012 ). In other words, migration studies broadly shifted from migration per se, to migrants. King notes the example of geographical research: “human geography research on migration switched from quantitatively inclined population geography to qualitatively minded cultural geographers […] this epistemological shift did not so much re-make theories of the causes of migration as enrich our understanding of the migrant experience ” (King, 2012 , p. 24). Indeed, this is also reflected in how Pedraza-Bailey ( 1990 , p. 49) mapped migration research by the end of the 1980s into two main categories: (i) the migration process itself and (ii) the (subjective) processes that follow migration.

Even though it is clear that migration studies is made up of multiple communities—we have already made the case for its pluralist composition—it is worth re-emphasising this development through the changing shape and structure of the ‘embryos’ in Fig. 1.4 above. The positioning of the clusters relative to each other denotes the extent to which different epistemic communities cited the same research, while the roundness of the map denotes how the field can be considered an integrated whole. We clearly see that in the period 1975–1979, the disciplinary clusters were dispersed, with loose linkages between one another. In the 1980s through to the mid-1990s, while some interdisciplinarity was emerging, several clusters, such as demographers and psychologists, were working largely within their own disciplines. In other words, in the 1970s and 1980s, authors working on migration referred to and were cited by other scholars primarily within their own disciplinary traditions. In this time, although a few migration journals had been established, this number was small compared to today. Without many scientific journals specialised in their topic, migration scholars were largely reading and publishing in disciplinary journals. By today—particularly in Europe—this has changed, as the increasing roundness of the maps demonstrate and as the rest of this chapter substantiates.

3.4 Expansion of Migration Studies Since the Turn of the Century

In the 2000s the expansion of migration studies accelerated further (see Fig. 1.5 ). In 1975, there were just under 350 articles published on migration; there were 900 published in 2000; in 2017, over 3000 articles were published. This growth not only involved a diversification of the field, but also various critical conceptual developments and the rise of an increasingly self-critical approach to migration studies. One of these critical developments involved a move beyond a strong focus on the national dimension of migration and diversities, for example in terms of understanding migration as international migration, on integration as a phenomenon only within nation-states, and on migrants as either being connected to the ‘home’ or ‘host’ society.

Number of articles, per year, in migration studies dataset based on advanced query of Web of Science for Migration Research Hub, 12 March 2019. (Based on Levy et al., 2020 , p. 8)

Several key publications marked this important turn. Wimmer and Glick-Schiller ( 2002 ) refer to “ methodological nationalism ” and critique the notion of taking the nation-state as a given as if it were a natural entity. In fact, for Wimmer and Glick Schiller, this way of understanding reality helps contribute to nation-state building more than it enhances scientific knowledge. In a similar contribution, Favell ( 2003 ) critiques the concept of ‘integration’ as naturalising the nation-state in relation to migration. Favell’s main argument was that integration as a normative policy goal structured research on migration in Western Europe. Up until then, migration research had reproduced what he saw as nation-state-centred power structures. Thranhardt and Bommes ( 2010 ) further substantiate this point by showing empirically how migration studies developed within distinct national context leading to the reification of distinct national models of integration/migration.

Where did this turn beyond methodological nationalism lead to? Several important trends can be defined in the literature. One involves the rise of perspectives that go beyond nation-states, such as transnationalist (Faist 2000 , Vertovec 2009 ) and postnationalist (Soysal & Soyland, 1994 ) perspectives. Such perspectives have helped reveal how migration and migrant communities can also be shaped in ways that reach beyond nation-states, such as in transnational communities that connect communities from across various countries or in the notion of universal personhood that defines the position of migrants regardless of the state where they are from or where they reside.

Another perspective takes migration studies rather to the local (regional, urban, or neighbourhood) level of migration and diversity. Zapata-Barrero et al. speak in this regard of the local turn in migration studies (2010). They show how migration-related diversities take shape in specific local settings, such as cities or even neighbourhoods, in ways that cannot be understood from the traditional notion of distinct national models.

Also, in the study of migration itself, an important trend can be identified since the 2000s. Rather than focusing on migration as a phenomenon where someone leaves one country to settle in another, the so-called “mobility turn” (Boswell & Geddes, 2010 ) calls for a better comprehension of the variation in mobility patterns. This includes for instance variation in temporalities of migration (temporary, permanent, circular), but also in the frequency of migration, types of migration, etc. In this book we will address such mobilities in the forms of different types of migration, frequencies and temporalities by discussing very different migration forms .

3.5 Growing Self-Critical Reflection in Migration Studies

Since the 2000s, there has also been a growing reflexive and self-critical approach within migration studies. Studies like those of Wimmer and Glick-Schiller, Favell, and Dahinden are clear illustrations of this growing conceptual self-consciousness. The field of migration studies has itself become an object of critical reflection. In the context of this book, we take this as a signal of the coming of age of migration studies.

This critical reflection touches upon a variety of issues in the field. One is how the field has conceptualised ethnicity, which was criticised as “ethnic lensing” (Glick Schiller & Çağlar, 2009 ). This would involve an inherent tendency to connect and problematise a broad range of issues with ethnicity, such as studies on how ethnic communities do on the labour market or the role that ethnicity plays in policies. The core argument to move beyond ethnic lensing is that focusing only on ethnicity risks defying social complexity and the importance of intersectionalities between ethnicity and, for instance, class, citizenship, education, location, cultural, or political disposition, etc. Dahinden ( 2016 ) calls in this context for a “ de-migrantisation ” of migration studies to avoid the naturalisation of migrants in relation to all sorts of issues and problems. Vertovec ( 2007 ) develops the concept “ super-diversity ” in this context to capture the social complexity of migration-related diversities.

Another strand of critical reflection concerns the field’s relationship to policymaking . Studies like those by Scholten et al. ( 2015 ) and Ruhs et al. ( 2019 ) offer critical reflection on the role that the relationship between migration studies and broader policy settings has played in the conceptual and methodological development of the field. On the one hand, the evolution of the field has been spurred on in its policy relevance, for instance in research on migration management or ‘migrant integration’. This relationship has contributed to the co-production of knowledge and key concepts, such as ‘integration’, and impeded the critical and independent development of the field. On the other hand, the field also leaves important gaps in research-policy relations, leaving important areas of knowledge production hardly connected to knowledge utilisation. Such studies have raised awareness of the necessity of research-policy relations for the societal impact of the field, while also problematising the nature of research-policy relations and their impact on the development of the field itself.

Finally, also in the context of growing public awareness on racism, the field has increasingly become self-reflexive in terms of how it deals with issues of discrimination and racism . This includes a growing awareness of institutional racism in the field itself, such as in institutes or training programs. Besides contributing to the broader field, there has been an increase of instances where institutes revise their own management and procedures in order to enhance racial justice. This includes participation of scholars from the global south, but also a proliferation of diversity policies in the field. At the same time, criticism remains on the extent to which the field has acknowledged issues of racial justice, for instance in studies on integration, migration management, or social cohesion.

4 Mapping Migration Studies Today

4.1 co-citation communities.

Nowadays, migration studies has become a more interdisciplinary field. In the last 15 years, as the “embryo” development in Fig. 1.4 shows, it became more oval-shaped without sharp “tails”. This form indicates a cross-disciplinary osmosis ; a growing interlinkage of epistemic communities. Co-referencing of authors from different disciplinary orientations became more common in the twenty-first century. Such developments can be attributed, on one hand, to the rapid digitisation of libraries and journals, as well as the multiplication of migration-focused journals, which accepted relevant contributions to discussion on migration, no matter the discipline. On the other hand, interdisciplinary endeavours were encouraged externally, for instance via grants (see European Union, 2016) and interdisciplinary master programmes created in various universities. It became fashionable to work at the intersection of disciplines, to an extent that nowadays it is often difficult to determine the disciplinary origin of a publication about migration. Whether such developments have yielded any theoretical or empirical breakthroughs is yet to be seen. In any case, it is clear that migration studies moved from being a multi-disciplinary field (with few connections between them) to an interdisciplinary field (with more connections between multiple disciplines) (Levy et al., 2020 ).

Let us now dive into the most recent co-citation clusters. Such clusters are, of course, not only categorised in terms of disciplines. They also have certain topical focuses. Figure 1.6 below zooms in to the data from Fig. 1.4 and shows the co-citation network in the period 2005–2014 in more detail. We can see seven different groups of migration scholarship that are nevertheless rather interlinked, as the oval shape of the network indicates. At 1 o’clock we can see the cluster we have elsewhere called the “Global systems school”, which has developed around such scholars as Vertovec, Soysal, Levitt, Favell, Faist, and Glick-Schiller, who introduced and developed the concept of transnationalism since the late 1990s. Contrasting with longstanding conventions of looking at migration as having an ‘endpoint’ in the countries of reception, they developed a different view of migration as a global, on-going, and dynamic process impacting receiving as well as sending societies, along with the identities, belonging, and ‘sense of home’ of migrants themselves. Nowadays, this cluster includes a very diverse group of scholars with different thematic focuses, such as the migration-development nexus (see also Chap. 18 , this volume) including de Haas, Carling, and Castles; prominent scholars on Asian migration, such as Ong and Yeoh; and many others, Guarnizo, King, Anderson, Sassen, Joppke and Baubock. Yet, the fact that they all belong to one cluster, proves that their work has been cited in the same reference lists, thus constituting an interlinked conversation on migration as global phenomenon.

Co-citation map of authors with 10+ citations in migration research in the period 2005–2014. (From Levy et al. 2020 , p. 17)

Closer to the centre of the network, we find a blue cluster, centred around Portes, a widely-cited founding father of migration studies in the USA. Next to him we also see other leading American scholars such as Waldinger, Alba and Zhou, Waters, Rumbaut, and Putnam, whose primary concern is the (economic) integration of immigrants. This cluster of scholars has elsewhere been understood as the “Michigan-Wisconsin” school of migration research, given the two universities’ success in training migration scholars in the US (cf. Hollifield, 2020 ). Traditionally this scholarship has developed in the USA and has been very prominent in the field for decades. Especially Portes is cited extensively, and widely co-cited across the epistemic communities of the whole field.

This cluster is closely interlinked with the neighbouring (at 4 o’clock) cluster of economists, demographers, and other quantitative social scientists (turquoise). At the centre of it is Massey , another giant of migration studies, who mainly conducted his migration research from a demographic perspective. Here we also see economists such as Borjas, Chiswick, and Stark, who predominantly studied the immigration reality of the USA.

Then, at 6 o’clock, we see a light-green cluster. The highly cited scholars in its core are Williams and Krieger, who study migration- and race-related differences in health. For instance, Williams’ highly-cited paper is about the experiences of racism and mental health problems of African Americans, while Krieger investigated how racism and discrimination causes high-blood pressure. Health is one of the ‘younger’ topics in contemporary migration studies; the amount of research on the intersection of migration and health has increased significantly in the last decade (Pisarevskaya et al., 2019 ).

Closely interlinked with ‘health’ is the cluster of ‘acculturationists’, positioned at 7 o’clock. The cluster is formed around J.W. Berry, a social-psychologist who introduced a theory of immigrant acculturation ( 1997 ). Scholars in this cluster investigate cross-cultural and intercultural communication from the psychological perspective. Other prominent authors in this cluster include Phinney, Pettigrew, Ward and Tajfel who studied cognitive aspects of prejudice, and Stephan famous for their integrated threat theory of prejudice (Stephan & Stephan, 2000 ).

Another significant group of scholars is positioned between 9 and 12 o’clock of the co-citation network. These are scholars focused on the politics of ethnic and race relations; prominent critical sociologists such as Foucault and Bourdieu are frequently co-cited in this cluster. Among the key authors in this group are Hall, Gilroy, Brubaker, Kymlicka, Asante, Du Bois, and Bonilla-Silva.

At 12 o’clock, we can see an orange cluster, positioned between the ethnic/race relations cluster and the “Global systems school” – this is a relatively new cluster of scholars working on the topic of mobility, developed by Urry, Scheller, and T. Cresswell. Other researchers within this loosely connected cluster focus in their research on mobilities from related to work and studies from the perspective of social and economic geography. The focus on mobility has been on the rise; it entered top three most prominent topics in migration studies in the period 2008–2017 (Pisarevskaya et al., 2019 ).

Overall, in the twenty-first century, the scholarship of migration in its variety of approaches and intertwined themes has seemed to move away from “‘ who’- and ‘what’- questions, to ‘how’- and ‘why’-questions”, compared to the early days of this field. Efforts towards quantifying and tracing geographies of migration flows and describing migrant populations in the receiving countries have somewhat declined in academic publications, while research on the subjective experiences of migrants, perceptions of migrants’ identity and belonging, as well as attention to the cultural (super)diversity of societies has become more prominent (ibid. ).

4.2 Internationalisation

Since migration is a global phenomenon, it is important that it is studied in different countries and regions, by scholars with different academic and personal backgrounds, as well as for knowledge to be transferred around the world. Only by bringing together the diversity of perspectives and contexts in which migration is studied we can achieve a truly global and nuanced understanding of migration, its causes, and its consequences.

Over the course of the field’s development, migration studies has internationalised. Even though analysis of internationalisation trends has only been conducted on English-language literature, the trends seem to be rather coherent. The number of the countries producing publications on migration has increased from 47 to 104 in the past 20 years. Publications from non-Anglophone European countries have increased by 15%, to constitute by today almost a third of English-language publications on migration, while the relative share of developed Anglophone countries (USA, UK, Canada, Australia) has declined (Pisarevskaya et al., 2019 ). The proportion of migration research that is internationally co-authored has also increased over the past 20 years, from 5% of articles in 1998 to over 20% in 2018 (Levy et al., 2020 ).

Nevertheless, international collaboration is not equally spread across the world. European and North American migration scholars have produced the highest absolute number of international collaborations between 1998 and 2018, though the relative share of collaborations among Europe-based scholars is much higher (36%) than that of their North American colleagues (15%). The suggested reasons behind these trends could be that critiques of national paradigms in migration studies have been taken up in Europe more eagerly than in North America. This has not happened without facilitation by broader science policies , particularly in the European Union, which funded the creation of the IMISCOE Network of Excellence, a network which intensified international collaborations between the research institutes working on migration and integration issues in various European countries.

In the global south, similar initiatives have been established, such as the Network for Migration Research on Africa and the Asia Pacific Knowledge Network on Migration. In these regions, international co-authorships are not uncommon, but the absolute number of publications in English compared to those from the north is small. We have thus observed an “uneven internationalisation” of migration studies (Levy et al., 2020 ); in the case of the gender and migration nexus, for instance, Kofman ( 2020 ) argues that the concentration of institutions and publishers in migration studies headquartered in the north perpetuates such inequalities.

5 An Outlook on This Interactive Guide to Migration Studies

This book is structured so as to provide an overview of key topics within the pluralist field of migration studies. It is not structured according to specific theories or disciplines, but along topics, such as why and how people migrate, what forms of migration are there, what the consequences of migration are, and how migration can be governed. Per topic, it brings an overview of key concepts and theories as well as illustrations of how these help to understand concrete empirical cases. After each chapter, the reader will have a first overview of the plurality of perspectives developed in migration studies on a specific theme as well as first grasp of empirical case studies.

The book is designed as an ‘interactive guide’; it will help connect readers to readings, projects, and reports for the selected themes via interactive links. To this aim, the book outline largely follows the official taxonomy of migration studies at migrationresearch.com . Throughout the text, there will be interactive links to overview pages on the Migration Research Hub, as well as to specific key readings. This marks the book as a point of entry for readers to get to know the field of migration studies.

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Scholten, P., Pisarevskaya, A., Levy, N. (2022). An Introduction to Migration Studies: The Rise and Coming of Age of a Research Field. In: Scholten, P. (eds) Introduction to Migration Studies. IMISCOE Research Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92377-8_1

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Migration Studies

Dissertation topics can focus on various aspects of both international migration movements and migrants´ integration processes. Although there is an emphasis on geographic aspects of international migration and integration, an interdisciplinary research perspective is highly supported.  Various innovative, theoretical/conceptual, and methodological approaches are appreciated. More specifically, research activities could tackle the underlying factors of international migration, and its mechanics and impacts, at various regional-geographic levels. Besides studying real processes, addressing migration and integration policy issues is welcome too. Please, feel free to contact any expert or prospective tutor who will consult you on the given issue. Below are some illustrations of broader topics:

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• Spatial organisation of migrants
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• Migration, integration and diaspora policies

After the discussion it is also possible to choose your own research topic.

Supervisors: Dušan Drbohlav , Zdeněk Čermák , Dagmar Dzúrová , Eva Janská , Dita Čermáková , Jiří Hasman , Josef Novotný

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799c dissertation (ma) in migration and diaspora studies.

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Module overview.

The MA dissertation gives you a unique opportunity to pursue a long-standing or new interest and/or to explore, in some depth, a topic that is relevant to your anticipated career and/or future research plans.

The 10,000 word dissertation must be submitted by September in the final year of study. The topic is chosen by the student, with guidance from the MA programme convenor and/or dissertation supervisor (who will be allocated early in Term 2). Students should link their topic with themes and concerns raised in the MA programme's core modules, but may also wish to pursue angles of inquiry suggested by option modules that speak to their own particular interests, whether disciplinary, geographic or thematic in focus.

There is also ample scope for developing such special interests by taking advantage of the rich calendar of regular seminars and special lectures at SOAS, organised by all the School’s departments and centres.

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Compulsory for all final-year students on:

• MA Migration and Diaspora Studies
• MA Migration and Diaspora Studies + Intensive Language

Objectives and learning outcomes of the module

• Demonstrate their command of relevant literature in anthropology and allied fields, as appropriate to the topic
• Work independently under the guidance of an academic supervisor
• Pursue independent research involving secondary and in some cases primary sources in their field
• Organize their ideas in response to relevant theoretical and empirical material, and plan and develop a written argument in relation to this
• Present their data and articulate their arguments coherently and clearly

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Immigration Research Topics: 180+ Topic Ideas

Immigration is the process by which individuals move to a host country to live there permanently. Students explore more than one discipline when writing and studying immigration research papers. These subjects include history, economics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, etc. Thus, students must focus on immigration as an interdisciplinary subject.

Writing a research paper about immigration may appear to be a difficult task. Since immigration has always been a significant issue among various nations, you can get a wide range of hot topics about immigration for your study. All you need to ace your research paper is a brilliant topic, relevant data, and setting the scene.

The team of Edumagnate’s assignment experts has listed some crucial tips that will navigate you select a fascinating topic on immigration. Along with that, this article will also provide you with some brilliant immigration research topics. You can choose these topics as it is or can tweak them according to your preferences. So, without any further ado, let’s get started!

Table of Contents

Choosing the Perfect Immigration Topic

Students studying sociology, politics, law, human rights, and other subjects are usually well-versed in immigration and its impacts on humankind.

Today, it is certainly a broad subject. One can explore a plethora of information about immigration on the internet. As a result, researching immigration research topics will be a smooth journey for most students.

However, if you are having a hard time choosing your topic, then the below-given suggestions will assist you in selecting the right immigration topic for your research paper.

• While exploring topics about immigration, always consider whether that topic will allow you to explore the mentioned issues thoroughly. Check if you can provide relevant statistics and data concerning that issue.
• Now that you know immigration is a broad topic, you can also explore anthropology, history, and sociology. Studying the demographics will help you understand the impact of immigration on human society.
• Most research papers on immigration address cultural or social issues. Why? Because it’s easier to elaborate on what immigrants are mentioned as a sample group. So consider choosing immigration research topics that are relevant not only to a nation but to the entire world.
• When you select your topic, start building your basic understanding of the chosen topic. It will allow you to understand different aspects of your research topic. Additionally, you will discover further insights and information that you can incorporate into your research paper. Moreover, you can formulate significant research questions related to your topic.
• If you believe the chosen topic is too broad, consider breaking it into different essential subtopics. After that, select a flexible subtopic with comprehensive data and sources. Focus on the relevant sources, statistics, surveys, and other crucial data that you think would be helpful for your research and claims.

Below are some excellent immigration research paper topics that will help you ace your upcoming research paper. Take a closer look at each given topic, and don’t forget to miss any one of them!

180+ Immigration Research Topics

We’ve compiled a list of 180+ fascinating immigration topics for research papers. These topics will help you craft a top-quality research paper on immigration.

International Immigration Topics for Research Papers

• Measuring the massive case of immigration in Spain
• Contesting ethnic immigration: Germany and Israel compared
• Homo sapiens and the great early human migration of east Africa
• Migrants in the UK: Economic Benefits to the UK
• Immigration policies in Germany
• The history of the North Korean diaspora
• The political dynamics and immigration issues in Sweden
• Evaluating immigration statistics and data for the twenty-first century
• Spain: from massive immigration to vast emigration?
• Overpopulation due to illegal migrants
• An overview of the relationship between immigrants and terrorism.
• Migration and gender: a detailed analysis of women’s roles in Irish American
• Cherokee Nation: Evaluating the History of Survival and Identity
• impact of immigration and refugees on domestic economic
• Switzerland’s migration policies
• Indian Diaspora: A Study on Indian Immigration and Intestinal Anxiety
• Muslims’ law in Britain: an overview of the identity of immigrants in Britain
• Immigration policies in Canada from the 20th century to the present
• Sections on Migrants and Refugees in Saudi Arabia
• International migration and trade agreements
• Discrimination against immigrants in Canada
• Key challenges for Afghan refugees in India
• Evaluating the core issues and emerging trends in the politics of immigration
• US-Mexico border wall: bordering discourse in modern politics
• Australian immigration program: immigration and citizenship
• Why Americans Oppose DACA ( Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) ISIS Activity and Syrian Refugees
• The Border Wall in the USA: Economic Effectiveness, Environmental Impacts, and Humanitarian Consequences

Read Also – 100+ Anthropology Research Paper Topics

Legal Immigration Research Topics

• Imaginings of immigrants and immigration law
• The US naturalization procedure
• Immigration and Human Rights Law Review
• Understanding sanctuary cities and local citizenships
• Analyzing the transformations in the immigration laws in the United States
• The development of immigration policies in the United Kingdom
• Measuring immigration law: a state-by-state analysis
• Should TPS be an ongoing initiative?
• Citizenship and immigration in Canada
• Evaluating immigration under Trump versus Obama
• Concerns about the health of illegal immigrants
• The significance of the DACA initiative
• A detailed analysis of immigration and refugee boards
• Naturalization and citizenship
• Understanding visas as the pathway to legal immigration
• Canadian Council for Refugees
• The 1951 UN Refugee Convention for the Status of Refugees
• International Journal of Refugee Law
• The economics of immigration
• Immigration and growing overpopulation are global issues causing community change.

Topics for Research Papers on Illegal Immigration

• North Korean refugees in South Korea: an overview
• American Illegal Immigration as a Political Issue
• Disputes Regarding the Return Directive
• The effects of illegal immigration on society
• Trafficking of migrants: the modern enslavement of migrants
• Malaysia’s Growing Illegal Immigrant Population
• The economics of human trafficking
• Immigration Policy at the time of Donald Trump: The Implications of the Border Wall
• The unfair criminalization of immigrants in the United States
• The unfair criminalization of immigrants from Mexico
• The Evolution of Illegal Immigration and Illegal Trafficking Across Decades
• Illegal Immigration: Internal Tensions Against the Concept of Freedom and Opportunity
• End of DACA and DREAMers
• The Hispanic Challenge: Perspectives and a Critical Analysis
• The Afghan Refugees in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis
• Legal and illegal migrants in the United States
• Understanding the lives of undocumented immigrants in the USA
• Measures to Control Illegal Immigration
• Comprehensive legal immigration reforms and the economic impact
• Understanding migration and national border security
• Perspectives on Immigrants in Australia After 9/11
• The forgotten story of 1971 East Bengali refugees

Read Also – Sociology Research Topic Ideas

Personal Immigration Paper Topics

• Are other nations’ retirement systems better for the elderly?
• Do some personality types have a higher likelihood of immigrating?
• Parents may be inspired to relocate overseas by their affection for their kids.
• Relationship issues force individuals to leave their home countries.
• Should immigration be regarded as a brave act?
• psychological issues following the immigration
• Understanding the grief and loss among immigrants
• Health issues are a good enough justification for immigration.
• What makes athletes want to relocate overseas?
• Evaluating postpartum depression among immigrants
• Understanding relocation overseas as an ideal method of transforming one’s life
• Measuring the psychological impact of immigration on the immigrants
• Personal migratory loss and grief among individuals
• The psychosocial phenomenon of migration
• The sociology of refugee migration
• Assessing migration as a way to escape financial crises
• Major challenges faced by immigrants
• Gender-based prejudices among immigrants: theory, intervention, and evidence
• The neglected rights of Syrian refugees

Environmental Topics About Immigration

• Migration due to a lack of clean water: a global overview
• Climate migrants, not climate refugees
• Understanding the climate crisis and migration from a global perspective
• Mapping Immigration and the Environment in the United States
• Indian Ocean Tsunami: Analyzing the Tsunami’s Effects on Immigration
• Exploring the bridge between human health and ocean pollution
• A thorough examination of the environmental consequences of migration
• The challenges of US immigration policies for Haitian migrants
• The post-disaster Haitian migration through the Americans
• Environmental impact on migration
• Building global governance for “climate refugees.”
• Global warming and the problem of environmental refugees
• Climate refugees should receive support from the host countries.
• Migration of Chinese citizens following the flood
• Theoretical analysis and empirical research on ecological migration throughout history
• Empirical research on the world’s forgotten victims of climate crises
• The concept of “climate refugees”: are they legitimate?
• Natural disasters and migration: an empirical analysis of the developing nations
• The changing emphasis on disasters and population mobility in Bangladesh
• North Korea refugee and international refugee policy

Thesis Topics Concerning Immigration in the US

Read Also – 90+ History Dissertation Topics

• Voting rights for immigrants: who can or cannot vote?
• The re-evaluation of American citizenship
• Understanding immigration due to religious beliefs and practices
• Nations of immigrants: USA vs. Australia
• Aliens who received American citizenship
• Trends in the Turkish migration policy from the 1960s till today
• Mexican immigration as a political debate
• Green card lottery: the American dream
• The green card lottery vs. citizenship in the US
• Citizenship of the children of documented aliens
• Immigration in America from a historical perspective
• Illegal immigration in America
• Exploring the role of immigration in the American industrial revolution
• History of the Great Migration in the USA: 1910–1970
• Waves of immigration in America during the colonial times
• Discussing the administration’s stances on immigration
• A critical analysis of the anti-discrimination provisions of the USA’s immigration law
• The history of Chinese Americans in the USA
• History of the Green Card Lottery
• Can immigrants granted citizenship in the United States be considered “Americans”?
• Immigrants’ vulnerability and resilience during the great American recession
• The theoretical connection between religion and immigration
• Immigration of the Vietnamese following the Vietnam War
• An empirical study of the current immigration debates in the United States
• Do immigrants fill the gaps in the American labour market?

Job and Education Concerning Immigration Research Topics

• Understanding the impact of immigration on education
• The government should assist religious missionaries.
• Mapping the relocation of individuals abroad for academic purposes
• Education and immigration: a historical perspective
• Social and economic difficulties faced by immigrants in Toronto
• Employment and immigration in the United States
• Education policies for Australian immigrants
• Introducing the issue of education for immigrant children
• Impact of immigration on the long-term educational outcomes of the natives
• Education and immigration: immigrant employment opportunities and crises
• International students and workers in America
• Working overseas and managing cross-culturally
• Illegal immigration as an economic burden in America
• Exploring the DREAM Act where we all can benefit
• Mapping the field of international education: teachers’ immigration
• Impact of immigration on public education expenditure
• Immigrant teachers in America
• Overseas immigration of students: should they return after their studies?

Read Also – 100+ Education Research Proposal Topics

Worldwide Immigration Research Paper Topics

• Ukraine’s refugee crises: an overview
• Analyzing the history of Korean immigration to America after World War II
• Moving abroad to support one’s family is a beautiful deed.
• Falling immigration due to COVID-19
• Relocation due to religious persecution
• Immigration-related moral responsibility issues exist around the world.
• Immigrants’ immediate effects on Canada
• The sale of weapons and wars as the root of immigration
• Health issues with refugees as seen through the perspective of immunization
• The origins of nationalism: What impact do immigrants have on national interests?
• Issues with forced relocation caused by the global immigration crisis.
• Exploring the legal immigration policies of the European nations
• The Second World War served as the main impetus for significant immigration.
• Immigrants and refugees: differences and comparisons
• Immigrant and refugee rights: unique characteristics of Muslim nations
• The global refugee crisis
• The Syria refugee crisis
• Multiple suicides among immigrants during the India-Pakistan separation
• The refugee crisis in East Africa
• The Participation of Migrant and Refugee Children, Both Objectively and Subjectively
• The US and Refugees from Ethiopia
• Concerning Migrant Care Workers with Justice and Care Principles
• The Migrant and Refugee Crisis
• Understanding the current status and prospects of Afghan refugees
• Understanding immigration as a worldwide crisis
• The Rohingya crisis: an overview

The Bottom Line

It will be challenging to choose a topic for your immigration research paper. However, once you’ve overcome this hurdle, no obstacle can stop you from writing a stellar paper. Our contribution is to provide you with essential help for your upcoming papers. You can always contact our experts if you need any  help with paper writing .

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Migration, immigration and emigration'

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Eule, Tobias Georg. "Inside immigration law : decision-making and migration management in German immigration offices." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.610093.

Nkau, Dikeledi Johanna. "Cross-border migration to South Africa in the 1990's the case of Zimbabwean women /." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2003. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03022004-111426/.

Ryan, Christopher J. "Migration, the World, and the Church: Transcending Citizenship with Ecclesial Vision." Thesis, Boston College, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107477.

King, Karen Margaret Newbold K. Bruce. "International and internal migration dynamics of Canadian immigrants subsequent migrations and intermediate destinations /." *McMaster only, 2006.

Ma, Sandra Ai-hsuan. "Contextualizing migration decisions migration decision making of Chinese and Taiwanese scientists in the U.S. /." access full-text online access from Digital dissertation consortium, 1999. http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/er/db/ddcdiss.pl?9938482.

Ivanova, Tatiana V. "Immigration policy in the U.S. and trends in international migration." Instructions for remote access. Click here to access this electronic resource. Access available to Kutztown University faculty, staff, and students only, 1999. http://www.kutztown.edu/library/services/remote_access.asp.

Scott, Petrocelli D. "Mexican migration assessing the root causes." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Naval Postgraduate School, 2007. http://bosun.nps.edu/uhtbin/hyperion-image.exe/07Jun%5FScott.pdf.

Kóczán, Zsóka. "Essays in the economics of migration." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648797.

Guo, Jing. "The regulation of international irregular migration : a study of irregular migration from China to USA and the role of international norms." Thesis, University of Macau, 2008. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b1880485.

Johnstone, Julia. "Consequences of ethnic conflict : explaining refugee movements in the Southeast Asia/Pacific Region /." Saarbrücken, Germany : VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2008. http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/etd/adt-NZCU20060830.124838.

Slaymaker, Rachel. "Essays on international migration." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50664/.

Gammoudi, Taoufik. "Emigration, immigration et développement dans l’île de Djerba (Sud-Est tunisien)." Paris 5, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011PA05H031.

Chowdhury, Mehdi Mahmud. "Essays on international migration." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2011. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12013/.

Mesnard, Alice. "Migration internationale : accumulation d'épargne et retour des travailleurs." Paris, EHESS, 1999. http://www.theses.fr/1999EHESA026.

James, Pamela. "Differing patterns of international migration in Southern Africa: A regional analysis." University of the Western Cape, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/8116.

Lu, Chien-yi. "Harmonization of migration policies in the European Union : a state-centric or institutionalist explanation? /." Digital version accessible at:, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.

Lorenz, Melanie Simone. "Emigrants, Immigrants and the State: The role of Individual States in Fostering Migration - A Swiss and American Case Study." Thesis, Boston College, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108834.

Testaverde, Mauro. "Emigration and political institutions in sending countries." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2013. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/354725/.

Telli, Anvernali Henry. "Empirical essays on determinants of, and attitudes towards, immigration." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2011. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13922/.

Laas, Matthias. "Die Entstehung eines europäischen Migrationsverwaltungsraumes : eine Untersuchung aus der Perspektive des deutschen und des spanischen Rechts /." Baden-Baden : Nomos, 2008. http://d-nb.info/990129837/04.

Biernbaum, Lee L. "Toward a common market in residency international migration and regional integration /." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/4271.

Abel, Guy J. "International migration flow table estimation." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2009. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/69577/.

Hartman, Tod Greenfield. "The economy, labour and the new Romanian migration to Spain." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.609432.

Warmsingh, Subordas. "Determinants and impacts of international labour migration in rural Thailand /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1998. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phw277.pdf.

Erdemir, Halil. "The westernization of Turkey and Turkish migration to the Federal Republic of Germany." Thesis, Swansea University, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.546059.

Susai, Ayumi. "Health Care Migration in Japan: Immigration Policy in Terms of Language." PDXScholar, 2011. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/190.

Wright, Higgins Katie. "Ambiguous migrants : contemporary British migrants in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2016. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/62469/.

Scotto, Giuseppe. "The political participation of migrants : a study of the Italian communities in London." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2012. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/43188/.

Zottarelli, Lisa Katherine. "Determinants of Refugee Production: an Exploratory Analysis." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1998. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278940/.

Stierl, Maurice. "Migration resistance as border politics : counter-imaginaries of EUrope." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2014. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/66963/.

Giua, Ludovica. "On immigration, geographic and labour market mobility." Thesis, University of Essex, 2017. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/19538/.

Schanze, Livia Sophie. "Language and immigration in Germany : the role of German language in recent immigration debates." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2010. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/344779/.

Howenstine, Erick. "Misperception of destination encouraging migration of Mexican labor to Yakima Valley, Washington /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/5623.

Cason, Rachel May. "'Third culture kids' : migration narratives on belonging, identity and place." Thesis, Keele University, 2015. http://eprints.keele.ac.uk/1029/.

Klanarong, Nisakorn. "Female international labour migration from Southern Thailand /." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 2003. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phk632.pdf.

Yugova, Ksenia. "MIGRATION POLICY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2012. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-125224.

Rasool, Fathima. "The role of skills immigration in addressing skills shortages in South Africa / by Fathima Rasool." Thesis, North-West University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/4618.

Gonzalez, Daiana A. "Migrating Latinas and the grief process /." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2005. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd1015.pdf.

Zhang, Weiwei. "EXPLAINING THE HISPANIC PARADOX: AN EXAMINATION OF THE OUT-MIGRATION EFFECT ON THE HEALTH COMPOSITION OF THE MEXICAN IMMIGRATION POPULATION." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1134574078.

Nzima, Divane. "The 'failure-success' dichotomy in migration discourse and practice : revisiting reverse migration deterrents for South Africa based Zimbabwean skilled migrants." Thesis, University of Fort Hare, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10353/5434.

Anis, Hamim Asyari Varaporn Chamsanit. "Indonesia's administrative and legislative measures on labor migration from a rights-based perspective /." Abstract, 2008. http://mulinet3.li.mahidol.ac.th/thesis/2551/cd421/5038128.pdf.

Maronitis, Konstantinos. "Immigration and its discontents : social theory and the reorganisation of society." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 2011. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/7148/.

Giulietti, Corrado. "Essays on migration and labour markets." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2009. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/141971/.

Rubyan-Ling, David. "Diaspora and diversity : an ethnography of Sierra Leoneans living in South London." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2014. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/48916/.

Vorobyeva, Daria. "Forced ethnic migrants' integration : Syrian Armenians in Armenia and Lebanon (2011-2016)." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14215.

Thompson, Caryl. "A necessary evil : the Copenhagen School and the construction of migrants as security threats in political elite discourse : a comparative study of Malaysia and Singapore." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38565/.

Guataquí, Roa Juan Carlos. "Forced displacement and internal migration in Colombia, 1992-2004." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2006. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2453/.

Moro, Domenico. "Modelling economic effects of international retirement migration within the European Union." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2007. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2584/.

Ouali, Nouria. "Migration et accès au marché du: les effets émancipateurs sur la condition des femmes issues de l'immigration." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210479.

Hamid, Adil A. (Adil Abdelaziz). "Perceptions of the Sudanese Professional Working in Saudi Arabia on Migration and Economic Development of the Sudan." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1990. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc330989/.

International Migration and International Trade

This paper surveys key developments in the theory of international migration and international trade, and provides a few stylized facts. International migration, in many important cases, such as cross-country differences in productivity, can be a complement to international flows of commodities. In the presence of a productivity difference that is generated by an external economy effect of human, capital physical capital has weak incentives to flow from developed to underdeveloped countries while pressures for international migration from poor to rich countries are strong. The balancing factors underlying an efficient global dispersion of population are those which generate advantages to size, such as public goods, or increasing returns to scale on one hand, and those which generate disadvantages to size, such as immobile factors or congestion effects in the utilization of public services, on the other hand. The modem welfare state typically redistribute income from the rich to the poor in a way which attracts poor migrants from the less developed countries. Since migration could impose a toll on the redistribution policy of the Developed Country it may benefit from the extension of foreign aid to the Less Developed Country if this aid serves to finance a subsidy to workers in the Less Developed Country, thereby containing migration.

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Chapter 15 in Handbook of Population Economics, ed. Mark Rosenzweig and Oded Stark, vol. 1, part 2, pp. 851-887, Elsevier, 1997

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Home > UGS > FIU ETD > 3803

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Three essays on international trade and migration.

Yun Wang Follow

Document Type

Dissertation

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

First advisor's name.

Hakan Yilmazkuday

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee chair

Second Advisor's Name

Cem Karayalcin

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Third Advisor's Name

Mihaela Pintea

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Fourth advisor's name.

Sneh Gulati

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

International Trade, Migration

Date of Defense

My dissertation encompasses three different topics on empirical international trade and migration. The first chapter investigates the short run effects of regional trade agreements on trade costs. It is widely accepted that the reinforcement of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) aiming at trade costs reduction among trade partners requires time. This paper investigates the effects of RTAs on trade costs over time by using unique micro-price data. We confirm that having an RTA on average lowers trade costs significantly. Furthermore, data shows significant and negative effects of RTAs on trade costs over time. Specifically, besides the initial impact on trade costs, having an RTA continuously lower trade costs every year after the commencement of the RTA.

The second chapter decomposes the overall effects of gravity variables on trade through three gravity channels: duties/tariffs (DC), transportation-costs (TC), and dyadic-preferences (PC). Compared to the existing literature, additional channel of PC is introduced and shown to dominate the other two channels, with adjacency contributing about 45 percent, distance about 32 percent, colony about 14 percent, free trade agreements about 7 percent, and language about 2 percent. The results imply that gravity variables mainly capture the effects of demand shifters rather than supply shifters (as implied by the existing literature).

The third chapter utilizes an immigration inflow data set from OECD countries during the period of 1984 to 2015 to shed light on how institutional quality affects the immigration rate. With the analysis in the fixed-effects framework, we construct a set of country-time specific institutional quality indexes to examine their effects on the immigration rate. The paper shows that other than the network effects, GDP difference, and migration costs, institutional qualities in both destination and source countries matter when it comes to potential migration decisions. Specifically, better socioeconomic conditions in the destination countries, and worse foreign debt, budget balance, government stability, internal conflicts, and corruption conditions in the source countries increase the immigration inflow.

Recommended Citation

Wang, Yun, "Three Essays on International Trade and Migration" (2018). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations . 3803. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3803

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How to Choose a Dissertation Topic | 8 Steps to Follow

Published on November 11, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Tegan George. Revised on November 20, 2023.

Choosing your dissertation topic is the first step in making sure your research goes as smoothly as possible. When choosing a topic, it’s important to consider:

• Your institution and department’s requirements
• Your areas of knowledge and interest
• The scientific, social, or practical relevance
• The availability of data and resources
• The timeframe of your dissertation
• The relevance of your topic

You can follow these steps to begin narrowing down your ideas.

Table of contents

Step 1: check the requirements, step 2: choose a broad field of research, step 3: look for books and articles, step 4: find a niche, step 5: consider the type of research, step 6: determine the relevance, step 7: make sure it’s plausible, step 8: get your topic approved, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about dissertation topics.

The very first step is to check your program’s requirements. This determines the scope of what it is possible for you to research.

• Is there a minimum and maximum word count?
• When is the deadline?
• Should the research have an academic or a professional orientation?
• Are there any methodological conditions? Do you have to conduct fieldwork, or use specific types of sources?

Some programs have stricter requirements than others. You might be given nothing more than a word count and a deadline, or you might have a restricted list of topics and approaches to choose from. If in doubt about what is expected of you, always ask your supervisor or department coordinator.

Start by thinking about your areas of interest within the subject you’re studying. Examples of broad ideas include:

• Twentieth-century literature
• Economic history
• Health policy

To get a more specific sense of the current state of research on your potential topic, skim through a few recent issues of the top journals in your field. Be sure to check out their most-cited articles in particular. For inspiration, you can also search Google Scholar , subject-specific databases , and your university library’s resources.

As you read, note down any specific ideas that interest you and make a shortlist of possible topics. If you’ve written other papers, such as a 3rd-year paper or a conference paper, consider how those topics can be broadened into a dissertation.

After doing some initial reading, it’s time to start narrowing down options for your potential topic. This can be a gradual process, and should get more and more specific as you go. For example, from the ideas above, you might narrow it down like this:

• Twentieth-century literature   Twentieth-century Irish literature   Post-war Irish poetry
• Economic history   European economic history   German labor union history
• Health policy   Reproductive health policy   Reproductive rights in South America

All of these topics are still broad enough that you’ll find a huge amount of books and articles about them. Try to find a specific niche where you can make your mark, such as: something not many people have researched yet, a question that’s still being debated, or a very current practical issue.

At this stage, make sure you have a few backup ideas — there’s still time to change your focus. If your topic doesn’t make it through the next few steps, you can try a different one. Later, you will narrow your focus down even more in your problem statement and research questions .

There are many different types of research , so at this stage, it’s a good idea to start thinking about what kind of approach you’ll take to your topic. Will you mainly focus on:

• Collecting original data (e.g., experimental or field research)?
• Analyzing existing data (e.g., national statistics, public records, or archives)?
• Interpreting cultural objects (e.g., novels, films, or paintings)?
• Comparing scholarly approaches (e.g., theories, methods, or interpretations)?

Many dissertations will combine more than one of these. Sometimes the type of research is obvious: if your topic is post-war Irish poetry, you will probably mainly be interpreting poems. But in other cases, there are several possible approaches. If your topic is reproductive rights in South America, you could analyze public policy documents and media coverage, or you could gather original data through interviews and surveys .

You don’t have to finalize your research design and methods yet, but the type of research will influence which aspects of the topic it’s possible to address, so it’s wise to consider this as you narrow down your ideas.

It’s important that your topic is interesting to you, but you’ll also have to make sure it’s academically, socially or practically relevant to your field.

• Academic relevance means that the research can fill a gap in knowledge or contribute to a scholarly debate in your field.
• Social relevance means that the research can advance our understanding of society and inform social change.
• Practical relevance means that the research can be applied to solve concrete problems or improve real-life processes.

The easiest way to make sure your research is relevant is to choose a topic that is clearly connected to current issues or debates, either in society at large or in your academic discipline. The relevance must be clearly stated when you define your research problem .

Before you make a final decision on your topic, consider again the length of your dissertation, the timeframe in which you have to complete it, and the practicalities of conducting the research.

Will you have enough time to read all the most important academic literature on this topic? If there’s too much information to tackle, consider narrowing your focus even more.

Will you be able to find enough sources or gather enough data to fulfil the requirements of the dissertation? If you think you might struggle to find information, consider broadening or shifting your focus.

Do you have to go to a specific location to gather data on the topic? Make sure that you have enough funding and practical access.

Last but not least, will the topic hold your interest for the length of the research process? To stay motivated, it’s important to choose something you’re enthusiastic about!

Most programmes will require you to submit a brief description of your topic, called a research prospectus or proposal .

Remember, if you discover that your topic is not as strong as you thought it was, it’s usually acceptable to change your mind and switch focus early in the dissertation process. Just make sure you have enough time to start on a new topic, and always check with your supervisor or department.

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

Formulating a main research question can be a difficult task. Overall, your question should contribute to solving the problem that you have defined in your problem statement .

However, it should also fulfill criteria in three main areas:

• Researchability
• Feasibility and specificity
• Relevance and originality

All research questions should be:

• Focused on a single problem or issue
• Researchable using primary and/or secondary sources
• Feasible to answer within the timeframe and practical constraints
• Specific enough to answer thoroughly
• Complex enough to develop the answer over the space of a paper or thesis
• Relevant to your field of study and/or society more broadly

You can assess information and arguments critically by asking certain questions about the source. You can use the CRAAP test , focusing on the currency , relevance , authority , accuracy , and purpose of a source of information.

Ask questions such as:

• Who is the author? Are they an expert?
• Why did the author publish it? What is their motivation?
• How do they make their argument? Is it backed up by evidence?

A dissertation prospectus or proposal describes what or who you plan to research for your dissertation. It delves into why, when, where, and how you will do your research, as well as helps you choose a type of research to pursue. You should also determine whether you plan to pursue qualitative or quantitative methods and what your research design will look like.

It should outline all of the decisions you have taken about your project, from your dissertation topic to your hypotheses and research objectives , ready to be approved by your supervisor or committee.

Note that some departments require a defense component, where you present your prospectus to your committee orally.

The best way to remember the difference between a research plan and a research proposal is that they have fundamentally different audiences. A research plan helps you, the researcher, organize your thoughts. On the other hand, a dissertation proposal or research proposal aims to convince others (e.g., a supervisor, a funding body, or a dissertation committee) that your research topic is relevant and worthy of being conducted.

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240 Immigration Essay Topics

Immigration is a permanent move to a foreign country. It takes place all over the globe, including the United States. It played an important role in history, and it continues to influence society today.

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This article offers a variety of immigration essay topics. They are suitable for college-level works, as well as middle and high school papers.

But first, take a look at our custom writing company . If your task seems overwhelming, we can write an immigration essay for you!

🔝 Top 10 Immigration Topics to Write About

• ✍️ How to Choose a Topic

❓ Top 10 Immigration Research Questions

• ✈️ Legal Immigration
• 🗺️ Illegal Immigration
• 🗽 Immigration in the U.S.
• 🌐 Worldwide Immigration
• 🧳 Personal Immigration
• 🌎 Environmental Migration
• 🎓 Job and Education
• ⚖️ Immigration Pros and Cons

🔍 References

• The harm of immigration policies
• Push and pull factors of immigration
• Immigration as an escape from poverty
• Reproductive health of women immigrants
• Racism in the American housing market
• Mexican economy and the immigration rate
• Immigration increase vs. welfare decrease
• Challenges of immigrant assimilation in the US
• The cause of discrimination towards immigrants
• Immigration detention effects on mental health

✍️ How to Choose an Immigration Topic

The subject of immigration is broad. You can explore it from many points of view. Focus on economics, sociology, or the legal system. Here are a few things to remember as you chose the essay title:

• Use verified up-to-date information. As simple as it seems, it’s essential.
• Do not judge. We cannot know the life story of every immigrant and what they went through.

You may try to approach the subject from the political viewpoint. Or, try to stand in the shoes of someone looking for a better life.

Below you will find many great questions and topics on immigration. Choose the one you like best, and get down to writing!

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• Do expats boost innovations?
• Is terrorism related to immigration?
• How does migration influence culture?
• What is seasonal labor immigration?
• Can immigration reduce global poverty?
• What is the economic effect of refugees?
• How does immigration affect social capital?
• How do immigration control measures vary?
• Is Third World immigration a threat to the US?
• Why do immigration laws differ among the states?

✈️ Legal Immigration Essay Topics

• Pros and cons of sanctuary cities 
• Modern immigration policy in the UK 
• ICE’s policy under Obama vs. Trump 
• The process of naturalization in the US 
• The importance of the DACA program 
• Should the TPS program be permanent? 
• Health concerns of illegal immigration  
• The effect of immigration on international students 
• The difference between an asylum and refugee status 
• The Second Industrial Revolution’s impact on immigration 
• The role of visas in the modern world.
• Does federal immigration law ensure safety for the U.S. citizens?
• Changes in immigration policies following 9/11 .
• What will happen if the U.S. declares open borders for all countries?
• How is multiculturalism a good thing?
• How much time does it take to complete immigration documents?
• What rights do immigrants have in the U.S.?
• Does congress limit the number of immigrant visas?
• What are the main functions of immigration?
• Why does the U.S. refuse to accept Syrian refugees?
• The majority of immigrants seek to receive the U.S. citizenship .
• Fake marriage for the sake of legal immigration .
• How can immigrants ensure a legal status for their children?
• Why do people applying for U.S. citizenship have to live in America for five years?
• What’s the difference between naturalization and citizenship ?
• Is it fair that children can have citizenship by being born in the U.S.
• What does the government look for in a person before granting them legal status?
• Ways to pass the test for naturalization for a person with disabilities.
• How can children become the U.S. citizens through their parents?
• What are the physical presence requirements for naturalization?
• Steps necessary to prepare for a naturalization test.
• How to reapply for citizenship.
• What is a naturalization ceremony?
• Can a person become a citizen through military service ?
• Do all visas allow legal immigration?

The immigration process should be legal. There is an “Immigration Law” in the U.S. that provides legitimate ways to become an American citizen. In this section, you will find ideas for your research paper or informative essay on legal immigration.

🗺️ Illegal Immigration Essay Topics

According to Washington State Department of Social and Health Services , the main difference between legal and illegal immigration lies in documentation. That’s why illegal immigrants are also called undocumented. The following list can provide an idea for a topic sentence or a thesis statement in a persuasive essay.

• Can there be any valid excuse for immigrating illegally?
• Do undocumented aliens harm the U.S.?
• The overstaying legal migration period is common for illegal immigration.
• What is more valuable for the government: paperwork or people?
• Which countries do most undocumented immigrants come from?
• Human trafficking is a tragedy that feeds illegal immigration.
• Settled undocumented immigrants should still get punished.
• The presence of undocumented immigrants indicates corruption.
• Do illegal immigrants affect the local economy of southern states?
• Does illegal immigration bring American society out of balance?
• The presence of undocumented aliens affects crime rates.
• The issues associated with illegal immigration in America.
• What organizations support illegal immigration ?
• Children of immigrants bear the consequences of their parents’ actions.
• Should undocumented immigrants be provided legal help?
• The term “illegal immigrant” must be rejected as offensive.
• Does the problem of illegal immigration feed the issue of racism?
• Undocumented immigrants deserve to be treated with respect.
• The term “ illegal immigrant ” stirs up racial fear in the U.S.
• Does the phrase “No human is illegal” have any truth to it?
• Is illegal immigration a threat to hosts and immigrants?
• Are undocumented aliens treated with hostility by the government?
• Can illegal immigration for personal reasons be justified?
• Should we consider the absence of proper documentation an offense?
• Do the lives of illegal immigrants matter in America?
• Can an undocumented immigrant be considered an American?
• Does the “Drop the I-word” campaign provide valid arguments?
• Is there anything good about illegal immigration ?
• Immigration detention brings more harm than good.
• Should the “catch and release” policy function in the U.S.?
• Should a person take a chance to obtain a legal status by entering the country illegally?
• Will the construction of a wall resolve the issue of illegal immigration?
• If America is the land of opportunities , why doesn’t it accept undocumented aliens?
• Does illegal immigration promote terrorism ?
• Should the U.S. government introduce specific policies for elderly immigrants ?

🗽 Immigration in the U.S. Topics

Millions of people worldwide want to get a taste of the American Dream. After many decades, America is shaped by the immigrant presence. Think about the cultural components and history of immigration in the U.S. This list may provide you with ideas for thesis topics.

• Should immigrants be allowed to vote?
• Can aliens who received U.S. citizenship be called Americans?
• Should Americans be concerned about the “green card lottery?”
• Mexican immigration as a political controversy.
• Difference between citizenship and a green card.
• The immigrants are fulfilling the labor market demand in the U.S.
• Professional psychologists must cooperate with immigrants.
• Children born to undocumented aliens should receive U.S. citizenship.
• Should there be a mandatory English language test for all immigrants?
• Should resident aliens use international driver licenses in the U.S.?
• Does the U.S. immigration policy need reform?
• From a historical perspective, could the U.S. survive as a country without immigrants?
• Immigration is at the core of American history.
• What were the reasons for the migration wave in the 1960s?
• Homeland security and immigration policy in the U.S.
• How did the 18th-century Chinese emigration influence America?
• The U.S. language policy regarding immigration.
• The 9/11 tragedy changed the way Americans view foreigners.
• Should children of illegal aliens be denied U.S. citizenship?
• How does immigration change life in bigger cities in the U.S.?
• Benefits of the DREAM act.
• Do legal aliens affect the American education system?
• Can a child raised by immigrants in the U.S. be called an American?
• Do Americans move to other countries?
• Immigrants come to the U.S. for religious purposes.

🌐 Worldwide Immigration Topics

History proves that people have always been moving around. Sometimes they immigrate because “the grass is greener on the other side.” But some have to flee their countries as refugees. The U.S and the European Union are receiving large numbers of immigrants. Here are some topic ideas for a paper on immigration worldwide.

• Was border control possible before the invention of visas?
• Syrian children refugees in Canada and ethics of care.
• What benefits does a country receive by granting someone asylum status?
• Can asylees feel safe in their host country?
• What is the difference between the words “immigrant” and “ refugee ?”
• Refugees need psychological assistance to overcome stress.
• Most refugees hope to come back to their home countries.
• What attitude locals usually have towards emigrants?
• There is a substantial prejudice against immigrants and refugees.
• Should the government invest in education for displaced people ?
• The refugee crisis is a growing global issue.
• Assimilation policy as a form of aborigenal control in Australia.
• Wars have been one of the primary reasons for migration throughout history.
• How did 9/11 affect international traveling and global immigration?
• What happens to people who are rejected by the border control service?
• The impact of globalization on immigration control.
• Does Europe benefit or suffer from immigrants?
• The effects high numbers of refugees have on the European economy.
• Does the tourism industry in Europe suffer from the refugee presence?
• Effect of immigration on European history.
• Influence of globalization citizenship in the EU.
• What are the benefits of the asylum status in Europe?
• The effect of the Cold War on global immigration.
• Do most of the refugees in Europe want to receive EU citizenship ?
• Does immigration rate vary amongst men and women?

🧳 Personal Immigration Topics

There is a person behind each number on immigration statistics. You may be wondering why somebody would want to leave home. Immigration is a serious step that forever changes one’s life. If you would like to look at the heart of immigration, this section is for you.

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• Should immigration be perceived as an act of courage?
• Can the elderly have a better retirement in other countries?
• Religious persecution as a reason for moving.
• People often immigrate to provide a better life for their children.
• Racial persecution is a valid reason for moving abroad.
• The decision to relocate should have a solid reason behind it.
• Refugee families suffer enormous emotional pressure.
• Health problems are a sufficient reason for immigration.
• Immigration as a way to provide for one’s family is a noble act.
• Parent’s love for their children can motivate them to move abroad.
• Immigrant children and the governmental responsibility.
• People shouldn’t judge the financial instability of refugees.
• Disagreement with the country’s politics can push citizens to move.
• Are certain personality types more likely to immigrate?
• The lack of a sustainable education system in a home country pushes young people to move abroad.
• For some, the only hope for a good life is in immigration.
• Relocation for romantic reasons is common in the modern world.
• Experiences of Lithuanian and Chinese immigrants in America.
• Can relational complications drive people out of their native countries?
• An urge to be free from oppression leads to immigration.
• Loss of a family member can force a person to move abroad.
• Some choose immigration as a way to escape financial responsibility.
• Because of the internet, some people identify with foreign cultures.
• Immigration is a way to change one’s life.
• Athletes choose to relocate to have better conditions for training.

🌎 Environmental Migration Topics

You can define migration as the movement from one place to another. It can happen within or outside country borders. Migration isn’t always permanent. Nature is full of surprises, and sometimes natural disasters occur. Some people don’t have other options but to migrate. This section includes a variety of topics on environmental migration.

• Climate change is a significant reason for migration.
• Should environmental migrants receive a refugee status?
• Countries with significant environmental problems should encourage immigration.
• How many people choose to migrate due to ecological issues?
• Should the border control require documentation from environmental refugees?
• For how long environmental migrants are allowed to stay in the host country?
• Do climate refugees receive support from their host countries?
• Describe the Haitian migration following the 2010 earthquake.
• Migration after the tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 .
• Chinese citizens migrate due to floods .
• Do Americans move to different states because of ecological issues?
• Documented cases of mass environmental migration throughout history.
• The role of sea-level rise in climate migration .
• How polluted oceans affect human population movement.
• What are the main factors of environmental migration?
• Does the global warming influence migration levels?
• Is the number of climate refugees likely to increase in the future?
• How often do environmental migrants become legal immigrants?
• How can those who have lost their possessions afford to move abroad?
• Which countries receive the most climate migrants?
• Is the status of “environmental refugee” legitimate?
• Do environmental migrants consider going back to their home countries?
• Which organizations provide help to climate migrants worldwide?
• From which countries do people flee the most due to ecological reasons?
• People migrate due to the lack of clean water .

🎓 Immigration Essay Topics: Job and Education

Not all countries have a reliable education system. Sometimes there are not enough resources to provide jobs for everyone. Immigration gives people a chance to pursue a better career path. The following list can inspire your immigration thesis topic.

• Should international students be encouraged to return after graduation?
• Can online job opportunities decrease immigration rates?
• High-quality education in the U.S. attracts immigrants.
• What steps must one take to receive a work visa?
• Religious missionaries should receive governmental support.
• How often do people move to a different country for educational reasons?
• Immigrants in Toronto: social and economic challenges.
• How do institutions check the language abilities of international students ?
• Do all U.S. institutions receive international students?
• What does it take to receive a student visa?
• Cross-cultural management and work abroad.
• Can immigrants find jobs without knowing the local language?
• What are the primary countries people immigrating to for occupational purposes?
• Which countries people are most likely to leave to receive a better education ?
• Is America the land of opportunities for immigrants?
• Is it economically sufficient for the U.S. to receive workers from other countries?
• Why are international students willing to pay a high price for education in the U.S. ?
• The industrial revolution caused a wave of immigration.
• Some people move to less developed countries to help with their development.
• Poverty often pushes people to move abroad.
• Immigrants from developing countries aren’t picky when it comes to jobs.
• Do immigrants regret moving to the U.S. if they’re faced with discrimination ?
• What’s the average age of international students that are coming to the U.S.?
• Health of expatriates often worsens due to the nature of their jobs.
• Examples from history of people seeking education abroad .

⚖️ Pros and Cons of Immigration: Essay Ideas

There are two sides to the immigration: positive and negative. Think about the economy, food, art, sociology, and politics. Decide what are the benefits and downsides of immigration. The following list of topic ideas on migration will help you with this task.

• International employees fill the gaps in the workforce.
• Foreigners bring a unique perspective that can benefit the host country .
• Some expatriates possess rare skills that can be useful.
• Cuisine of immigrants often becomes popular in the host country.
• International students add numbers to struggling institutions.
• Talented immigrants find themselves useful in a host country.
• Foreigners improve international trade and business.
• International employees are often enthusiastic about their job position.
• Foreigners have an unusual view on life.
• Immigration brings cultural diversity to the host country.
• Foreign presence pushes host countries towards ethnic inclusiveness.
• Immigrants are more willing to take less prestigious jobs.
• People from abroad bring their mentality everywhere they go.
• Children of immigrants can have better opportunities in life.
• The money earned by foreigners in the host country is spent in their home countries.
• Immigration is a channel for the drug industry.
• Immigration gives hope for a brighter future.
• In some cases, aliens take job opportunities from the locals.
• Immigrants tend to increase the crime rate of the hosting country.
• Home countries of immigrants suffer from “ brain drain .”
• Foreigners are subject to racial intolerance.
• Immigration causes overcrowding .
• The language barrier creates social complications.
• Immigration takes away the attention of the government.
• Resident aliens might suffer from strained relationships with locals.

We hope this article helped you to choose the topic for your essay. In conclusion, we want to wish you good luck with your assignment!

You might also be interested in:

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• Immigration: Encyclopedia Britannica
• Population Reference Bureau: Trends in Migration to the U.S.
• Myths and Facts about Immigrants and Immigration: Anti Defamation League
• Resident Alien Definition: Investopedia
• Nonresident Aliens: Internal Revenue Service
• Immigration: Cornell Law School
• Citizenship Through Naturalization: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
• A Dozen Facts about Immigration: Brookings.edu
• Environmental Displacement and Migration: Environmental Law Institute
• Immigration: ProCon.org
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ABSTRACT This study investigated the impact of the Ghanaian investment law on the operations of Chinese trading activities, especially in the wake of protest by the Ghanaian traders leading to the amendment of the law, which now makes engagement in trading in the central business district by foreigners more stringent. Despite the amendment of the law, some of the local traders are still having issues with the presence of the Chinese traders in the market. The study sought to examine the impa...

Migration And Changing Food Habit Among Ghanaian Migrant In London

ABSTRACT Migration and food habits are two areas with commanding interest and analysis in contemporary society. There are often many new experiences to deal with when arriving in a new country. In addition to coming to terms with a different monetary system, social stratification, language and also changing in food habits. Emigrants tend to miss their country, specific food and dishes and their taste for their traditional food following migration and together with many other aspects, the foo...

Experiences Of Left- Behind Children: The Case Of Foreign Service Officers’ Children In Ghana

ABSTRACT Transnational migration has become a reality and is on the increase globally. Most of the parents travel to provide economic and other support for their children and families. As a result of this, millions of children are growing up with single or no parent staying with them. However, children’s wellbeing is very dependent on parental care. The roles of parents are delegated to caregivers when they migrate. These have necessitated the concern about the effect of migration on left-b...

To Move Or Not To Move: Students’ Perceptions About Embassies, Travel Constraints And Migration Information Channels On University Of Ghana, Legon Campus

ABSTRACT Migration takes so many forms and all these have their own challenges, constraints and motivation. In view of this, it is important to identify some of these travel constraints and also further identify the information channels used by some of the migrants and their perceptions about embassies. Against this backdrop, this study examined students‘ perception about how embassies influence destination choice, travel constraints and migration information channels on University of Ghana...

Effects Of Rural-Urban Migration On Socioeconomic Status In The Accra Metropolitan District

ABSTRACT Rural urban migration has been a phenomenon that has gained world attention due to its associated challenges. This study sought to find out the effects of rural urban migration on the sociodemographic characteristics of migrants living in Abossey Okai Zongo. Using a mixed method approach, both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied in the administration of 100 semi-structured questionnaires. The questionnaires were administered using a multi-staged approach. Respondents ge...

Reducing Rural-Urban Migration Through Local Economic Development: A Case Study Of Sankpala Community In The Central Gonja District Of The Northern Region.

ABSTRACT The pre- colonial development gap between the North and the South still persists even though there havebeen several attempts by governmental and non-governmental interventions to bridge the gap. This has created a net migration of Northern youth to the South for menial jobs. The movement of people to urban centres poses some challenges to the development of rural areas in that in most rural areas, the impact of rural-urban migration is the rapid deterioration of the rural economy whi...

Migration And Health Among Female Porters (Kayayei) In Accra, Ghana

ABSTRACT The thesis aimed at contributing to the emerging body of knowledge about migration and health linkages, with a focus on migrant female porters (Kayayei) in Accra, Ghana. Several studies that have so far given attention to female porters have focused mainly on their livelihoods, with only cursory remarks made on the health of these migrants. Also, some existing studies have largely examined the health of migrants without reference to the entire migration process. Employing both quanti...

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