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Jacqueline Maria Hagan

Fellow

    Term

    September 6, 2011 — May 25, 2012

    Professional affiliation

    Professor, Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

    Wilson Center Projects

    “Skills on the Move: Re-Examining the Relationship between Human Capital and Social Mobility in Reference to Migration between Mexico and the United States.”

    Full Biography

    Born in Chile to parents of different nationalities, and as the daughter of a career diplomat, I developed early on a personal and intellectual interest in the topic of international migration. After receiving my Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990, I moved to the University of Houston, where I co-directed the Center for Immigration Research from 1995-2005.  In 2005, I joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Most of my research focuses on the social, economic and political implications of migration from Latin America to the United States. I have conducted fieldwork in established migrant receiving communities in Texas and new destination communities in North Carolina and their sending counterparts in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.



    My first book, Deciding to be Legal (Temple University Press, 1994) investigated the settlement and development of a Maya community in Houston and its response to immigration reform, namely the Immigration, Reform and Control act of 1986.  My second book, Migration Miracle (Harvard University Press, 2008) traced the institutional and personal role of religion and spirituality in the migration journey from Central America to the United States. I am ongoing collaborator (with Nestor Rodriguez and Karl Eschbach) on the study of deaths of undocumented migrants during their journey to the United States. I have written extensively on the effects of recent U.S. immigration reform initiatives on the rights and opportunities of immigrants and their families in the United States and co-directed a project on treatment and detention of persons deported from the United States.  My most recent research, which will be the basis of my book project at the Wilson Center, examines the ways in which migrants with low levels of education acquire and transfer on-the-job technical and cultural skills across borders to navigate pathways to economic mobility.  I am also in the early stages of drafting a comparative research proposal that would expand my research on religion and migration to the Africa-EU migratory system. The proposed research project will examine and compare the ways in which inter-religious and religious-secular communities mediate migrant and refugee flows from Africa to the European Union and from Latin America to the United States.

    Education

    B.A., Sociology, George Washington University; M.A., Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin; Ph.D., Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin 

    Major Publications

    • “Skills on the Move: Rethinking the Relationship between Human Capital and Immigrant Labor Market Incorporation.” (with Nichola Lowe and Christian Quingla) Work and Occupations 38 (2): 149-178.
    • Migration Miracle: Faith, Hope, and Meaning on the Undocumented Journey. (Harvard University Press 2008).
    • “U. S. Deportation Policy, Family Separation, and Circular Migration,” (with Karl Eschbach and Nestor Rodriguez.” International Migration Review 42(2): 64-88 (2010).
    • “Social Networks, Gender and Immigrant Settlement: Resource and Constraint.” American Sociological Review. 63 (1): 55-67. (1998).
    • Deciding to be Legal: A Maya Community in Houston. (Temple University Press. 1994).