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Center for Comparative Immigration Studies CCIS
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Research Programs

CCIS conducts and supports comparative research in the following areas:

  • The causes, dynamics, and consequences (economic, political, and sociocultural) of international migration (including low-skilled and high-skilled migrant workers and refugees)
  • The determinants and outcomes of laws and policies to regulate immigration and refugee flows and immigrant labor markets
  • Transnational relationships (economic, political, cultural, ethnic) between immigrant sending and receiving countries
  • The impact of international migration on citizenship, national identity, and ethnic relations
  • Immigrant rights, access to social services (especially health care), and immigrants’ civic participation
  • The socioeconomic, political, and cultural interactions of immigrants and refugees with native-born residents of receiving countries and their long-term settlement and social integration

Since opening its doors in January 2000, CCIS has housed eleven multi-year, interdisciplinary research projects.  They include:

  • Who Leaves and Who Arrives? Mapping the Connections between Universities and the Science and Engineering Workforce (PI: John D. Skrentny and Kevin Lewis; funding from the National Science Foundation; in progress)
  • Falling Behind, Moving Up or Moving Out? Worker Training in Science and Engineering(PI: John D. Skrentny and Kevin Lewis; funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; in progress)
  • Impacts of Border Enforcement on Return Migration from the U.S. to Mexico (PI: W. Cornelius; funding from the BBVA Foundation–Spain; in progress)
  • Binational Political Incorporation among Mexican Immigrants (P.I.s: W. Cornelius, J. McCann, D. Leal; funding from the Carnegie Corp., in progress)
  • Race, Immigration, and Citizenship in the Americas: A Comparative Study of the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, and Cuba (PI: D. FitzGerald; funding from the National Science Foundation, American Sociological Association Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline, UC Labor & Employment Research Fund, American Sociological Association, UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation; in progress)
  • Becoming a Citizen: An Ethnographic and Archival Study of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain (PI: D. FitzGerald; in progress)
  • Center of Expertise on Migration and Health (PIs: S. Strathdee, W. Cornelius; in progress)
  • Is Immigration Necessary? Work, Growth and the Future in the U.S. and Japan (PI:  John D. Skrentny; funding from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership; completed 2012)
  • Explaining Outcomes of Immigration Control Policies: A Comparative Study of the U.S. and Spain (PIs: W. Cornelius, Antonio Izquierdo; funding from the Tinker Foundation, Foundation for Population, Migration & Environment, and Spain’s Ministry of Education; completed 2009)
  • Diasporic Homecomings: Ethnic Return Migration in Comparative Perspective (PI: T.  Tsuda; funding from the Japan Foundation; completed 2009).
  • International Migration of Women for Domestic Service (PI: K. Maher; funding from the Japan Foundation; completed 2005)
  • Local Citizenship in Recent Countries of Immigration: Japan in Comparative Perspective(PI: T. Tsuda; funding from the Japan Foundation, UC Pacific Rim Res. Program; completed 2005)
  • Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective (PI: W. Cornelius; funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, and UC Pacific Rim Research Program; completed 2004)
  • The International Migration of the Highly Skilled: Supply, Demand, and Development Consequences in Sending and Receiving Countries (PIs: W. Cornelius, T. Espenshade; funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the UCSD Division of Social Sciences; completed 2001)