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Mexican Migration Field Research And Training Program


The Mexican Migration Field Research Program (MMFRP) is a nationally and internationally renowned academic program housed at the University of California, San Diego. The program:

  • Trains the next generation of immigrant advocates, giving them substantive expertise on international migration and advanced skills in data collection and analysis
  • Expands our knowledge of the consequences of migration and forced displacement, using fieldwork-based, binational, team research
  • Disseminates its findings through publications, web-based reports and briefings for public officials and the mass media

During the year-long program, approximately 35 undergraduate and graduate students collaborate on an interdisciplinary, multinational research team. Through coursework and time in the field, students develop skills to collect and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data using established methods from the social sciences. The classroom component of MMFRP consists of a sequence of courses in which students learn about international migration, field research methods, and academic writing. Participants also spend a minimum of nine days in the field gathering data. 

Participation in MMFRP is by application only and Spanish fluency or proficiency is required. Applications open in late May or June for the coming year and are accepted on a rolling basis until September.

For more information and eligibility see https://mmfrp.org (and click "Apply" to apply). 

Apply for the 2023-24 Mexican Migration Field Research Program (MMFRP)! 

Deadline: September 10, 2023 (Apply early if interested in early admission!)

All students are welcome regardless of legal status. Fluent or proficient Spanish required. 

To participate, ENROLL for Fall 2023 in USP 162 (migration & the city) and USP 163 (community-based research and planning). Then apply via the link below.

The MMFRP is a year-long, community-action research practicum on migration and social justice, for a total 16 units across Fall-Winter-Spring quarters. Students learn about international migration, gain skills in community-based fieldwork, and work directly with NGO partners. The program satisfies international fieldwork, methods, and practicum requirements and makes up most of the Human Rights & International Migration minor. 

In 2022-23, we will work with asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border, hopefully in person.


MMFRP Public Scholars

The UCSD Public Scholars Award was launched in 2012 by the Center on Global Justice to enable well-respected leaders from community-based organizations in the San Diego-Tijuana region to engage in partnerships with faculty and students from UCSD. This program was designed to acknowledge the investments our partners and their clients make when working with UCSD students and faculty, as a matter of equity and respect. Universities benefit from the knowledge, social capital, physical spaces, and time of community partners, and we are ethically responsible for recognizing these contributions to campus research, teaching, and service efforts. In 2021, we began extending this award to partners of the Mexican Migration Field Research Program, to help us develop projects together and find innovative ways of exchanging experiences and knowledges. This “meeting of knowledges” enables the university to engage more ethically, elevating the public scholars as ambassadors for their communities inside the campus, helping to critically frame the challenges that need to be prioritized in the construction of new educational and research agendas.