UC Davis experts: Immigration

The UC Davis faculty has a broad expertise regarding immigration. Spanish-language media members, please note the fluent Spanish speakers: Guarnizo, Martin, Grieshop and Kyle.

Economics

Immigration, globalization and wages
Produce prices, farmworker wages
Impact on jobs and wages of native workers
Poverty and survival

Legal and policy issues

Social issues

Public health
Human smuggling
Anti-immigrant sentiment
Mexican immigration communities
Domestic workers

ECONOMICS

Immigration, globalization and wages

An estimated 9 to 12 percent of Arizona's 3 million workers are illegal immigrants. Robert Feenstra, the C. Bryan Cameron Distinguished Chair in International Economics at UC Davis, is an expert on globalization and the economic forces that promote immigration. He has written extensively on the impacts of international trade and foreign investment, including the effects of NAFTA. He is especially interested in the effects of trade and investments on wages earned by workers. Feenstra is editor of the Journal of International Economics, directs the Center for International Data at UC Davis, and is also the director of the International Trade and Investment program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, based in Cambridge, Mass. Contact: Robert Feenstra, Economics, (530) 752-7022, rcfeenstra@ucdavis.edu.

Produce prices, farmworker wages

Philip Martin, professor of agricultural and resource economics, has published extensively on labor, migration, economic development and immigration policy issues. He has testified before Congress and state and local agencies on these issues, particularly as they relate to agricultural labor. Martin recently co-authored a report urging California policymakers to develop strategies to encourage and hasten the integration of immigrants into the state's economy and society. He also can discuss labor and migration as they affect U.S. and Mexico relations. He maintains a Web publication, Migration News, with extensive information about world migration issues. Contact: Philip Martin, Agricultural and Resource Economics, (530) 752-1530, plmartin@ucdavis.edu.

Impact on jobs and wages of native workers

UC Davis growth economist Giovanni Peri has found that immigration labor is linked to robust city and state economies around the country. "Our work shows that cities with more immigrants in the workforce exhibit higher productivity and wages for the American-born employees," Peri says. "This is true even when we focus specifically on less educated native workers." Contact: Giovanni Peri, Economics, (530) 554-2304, gperi@ucdavis.edu.

Poverty and survival

Agricultural and resource economics professor Edward Taylor studies migration and its impacts on Pacific Rim countries, specifically Mexico, Central America and Ecuador. He can talk about the reasons behind a transfer of rural poverty from Mexico into the U.S. His recent research has explored the draw of Mexican immigrants into California, where they have created pockets of poverty throughout the Central Valley. Taylor is also an expert on salary remittances as economic multipliers, how immigration promotes survival in native villages and other economic issues triggered by immigration. He co-wrote, with UC Davis Professor Philip Martin and Urban Institute researcher Michael Fix, a new book, "The New Rural Poverty." Contact: Ed Taylor, Agricultural and Resource Economics, (530) 752-0213, taylor@primal.ucdavis.edu.

LEGAL AND POLICY ISSUES

Immigration policy and civil rights

Kevin Johnson, the Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law at UC Davis, can talk about the potential impacts of Arizona's law on the civil rights of citizens and immigrants alike. Johnson, a nationally and internationally recognized expert on immigration and civil rights, is also a professor of Chicana/o studies. His books include "Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink Its Borders and Immigration Laws" and "The 'Huddled Masses' Myth: Immigration and Civil Rights." He is co-editor of the Immigration Prof blog and a member of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's Immigration Policy Group. Contact: Kevin Johnson, School of Law, (530) 752-0243, krjohnson@ucdavis.edu.

Impact on business and race relations

Bill Ong Hing, professor of law, studies the impact of immigration laws and enforcement on businesses and immigrant communities. He has conducted extensive research on immigration law, policy, procedure and criminal justice. He also studies the changing demographics of Asian American communities, and the impact of these demographic shifts on race relations. Hing's latest book is titled "Deporting Our Souls -- Values, Morality and Immigration Policy." His other books include "Defining America Through Immigration Policy," "Making and Remaking Asian America Through Immigration Policy" and "To Be an American -- Cultural Pluralism and the Rhetoric of Assimilation." Contact: Bill Ong Hing, Law and Asian American Studies, (530) 754-9377, bhing@ucdavis.edu.

International immigration policy

An expert on comparative immigration policy, Jeannette Money can talk about contemporary policies in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. She can also provide historical context for international immigration policy. A political scientist, Money is the author of "Fences and Neighbors: The Political Geography of Immigration Control." Contact: Jeannette Money, Political Science, (530) 752-9095, jnmoney@ucdavis.edu. Note: Money is available for only print interviews.

SOCIAL ISSUES

Public health

Jobs and access to health care remain closely linked in this country. Adela de la Torre, professor of Chicana/o studies and director of the Center for Public Policy, Race, Ethnicity and Gender at UC Davis, studies health care access and finance issues that affect the Latino community. She is also an expert on border health issues, from tuberculosis to AIDS. From 1996 to 2002, de la Torre was director of the Mexican American Studies and Research Center at the University of Arizona, where she developed and directed the Border Academy, a summer institute that explored issues unique to the U.S.-Mexico border. An economist, de la Torre is the author of "Sana, Sana: Mexican Americans and Health," and "Moving From the Margins: A Chicana's View of Public Policy." Contact: Adela de la Torre, Chicana/o Studies, (530) 752-3904, adelatorre@ucdavis.edu.

Human smuggling

UC Davis sociologist David Kyle, can talk about the impacts of contemporary slavery and human trafficking across the world and how these practices are related to immigration. Kyle says more people are enslaved today than ever before, although the practice is outlawed in every nation. He wrote "Transnational Peasants: Migrations, Networks and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador" (2000) and co-edited a "Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives" in 2001. His first book, "Global Human Smuggling" was the first scholarly book to examine the practice in various forms in multiple regions of the world, including Mexico-U.S. smuggling. Contact: David Kyle, Sociology, (fluent in Spanish) (530) 752-1582 (work), (530) 750-2882 (home), djkyle@ucdavis.edu.

Anti-immigrant sentiments

Luis Guarnizo, an expert on global migration, can talk about the universal issues of citizenship and human rights raised by undocumented workers around the world. He can also discuss the tensions generated when increasing demand for immigrant labor clashes with growing anti-immigrant initiatives in the Northern Hemisphere. Guarnizo has investigated the web of social networks and power structures that transcend territorial jurisdictions. He recently completed a study about Latin American immigration in four European countries -- Italy, Spain, England and Denmark. Guarnizo is co-editor of "Transnationalism From Below" and of a special issue on transnational communities of the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies. Contact: Luis Guarnizo, Human and Community Development, (fluent in Spanish) (530) 752-9805, leguarnizo@ucdavis.edu.

Mexican immigrant communities

James Grieshop, specialist and lecturer in human and community development emeritus, has extensive applied research and educational experience with Mexican immigrant communities in California. In the past 10 years he has completed a number of collaborative projects with the Mixtec immigrant community in the Central Valley of California and in Mixtec areas of Mexico. A primary focus of his work has been on the incorporation of Mixtec into local communities and schools as well as their ongoing cross-border connections to home communities in Oaxaca. He has used print and film media to document and communicate the stories of Mixtec immigrant families in California. Contact: James Grieshop, Human and Community Development, (fluent in Spanish) (530) 752-3008, jigrieshop@ucdavis.edu.

Domestic workers

Rhacel Parreñas, professor of Asian American studies, studies domestic workers, a group composed of mostly undocumented migrants, temporary labor migrants and "out of status" migrants -- those whose status is in transition from undocumented to documented. She can talk about the quest by women and men from the Philippines, Mexico, Sri Lanka, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Peru and Indonesia to leave poverty behind. She can also talk about the economic and social effects of their emigration on their families. Parrenas is the author of three books, "The Force of Domesticity: Migrant Women and Globalization," "Children of Global Migration" and "Servants of Globalization." The latter was made into the documentary "The Chain of Love." She is at work now on a book about human trafficking of women into the sex industry. Contact: Rhacel Parreñas, Asian American Studies, (530) 752-1104, rparrenas@ucdavis.edu.

Media contact:

Claudia Morain at the UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu

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Last updated June 27, 2008