Research Unit on Migration, Gender and Development

Director: Dr. Norma Fuentes-Mayorga

CIPS Migration, Gender and Development (MG&D) group provides a forum for comparative and collaborative research on international migration, gender, and development. Current research focuses on the increased US immigration of women from Latin America nations and the challenges women and their families face in low-wage, US service sector jobs. Another research focus of the MG&D Unit is on the integration of the children of immigrants in the US and Europe as well as the role of race on the history of nation formation and stratification of mixed-race groups in Latin America.

The MG&D group was established in 2009 following a series of workshops that brought together local community leaders and top international scholars from New York, Latin America and Europe. From its inception, the MG&D group has worked closely with local community agencies and research institutions in Latin America to increase the labor market as well as financial integration of immigrants in both the community of origin and that of reception. One example of this cooperation is an MOU arranged between Neighborhood Trust, a community-based credit union in Washington Heights, NYC, servicing mostly Dominican families. Banco ADOPEM, the first women's bank in the Dominican Republic that was launched with the support of Fundo Micro and the Women’s World Banking Association.

The NYC Immigrant Heritage Week’s Workshop on Migration and Social Organizations featuring Professor Maiztegui-Oñate from the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Professor Shahamak Rezaei from Roskilde University in Denmark and Jairo Guzman of the Mexican Coalition of New York City is another example of MG&D's collaborative approach to Immigration, gender and development research with European and Latin American scholars.

The MG&D group is led by Professor Norma Fuentes, visiting Scholar at Princeton’s Center for Migration and Development and a Teaching Fellow at the University of Deusto in Bilbao’s (Spain) MISOCO Master’s Program on International migration on Migration and Social Cohesion supported by the distinguished European Commission Erasmus Mundus.

Collaborators and Visiting Scholars:

• Maurizio Ambrosini, Professor of Sociology, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Social and Political Studies, University of Milan in Milan, Italy
• Silvia Carrasco, Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona
• Mercedes de Canalda, Founder, Banco Adopem, Dominican Republic
• Francesca Lagomarsino, Associate Professor, University of Genoa
• Concepción Maiztegui-Oñate, lecturer in the Department of Education and Director of the Department of Social Pedagogy and Diversity, University of Deusto Bilbao, Spain
• Ryan Newton, Savings Specialist at Women’s World Banking, New York
• Alicia Portada, NICE and Lower East Side People’s Credit Union, New York City

CIPS GMD Group Research Assistants

• Melissa Alvarenga, now at Columbia Law School
• Oriana Mayorga, FCRH, 2014
• Manuela D. Rodriguez, FCRH, 2014
• Rafaela Barrera, CIPS RA, 2009-2010 CV