The Center for Migration and Development (CMD) promotes scholarship, original research, and intellectual exchange among faculty and students with an interest in international migration and national development. Of particular interest to CMD research is the relationship between immigrant communities in the developed world and the growth and development prospects of the sending nations.

Established in 1998 with a founding grant from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the Center is part of the Department of Sociology at Princeton University from which it promotes sociological and interdisciplinary research and exchange in its topical areas.

The Center for Migration and Development:
 

	Provides a venue for regular scholarly dialogue about migration and development
	Serves as a catalyst for collaborative research on these topics
	Promotes connections with other Princeton University programs, as well as with other neighboring institutions where scholars are conducting research in these fields
	Hosts workshops and lectures focusing on the many aspects of international migration and national development
	Sponsors awards for international travel and research
	Provides fellowship opportunities at Princeton for scholars with interests in these areas
	Enhances course offerings during regular terms for interested graduate and undergraduate students
	Maintains and makes available a data archive of unique studies on the field of migration
	Disseminates the findings of recent research through its Working Paper Series

 
For this period, the Center for Migration and Development has designated six topical priorities for the research of its faculty and its program of activities:
 

	Immigration Policy in the United States. A line of inquiry focused on exploring best ways to resolve the current political impasse on immigration policy, finding ways that best fit the economic needs of the nation while promoting the human and civil rights of the immigrant population.
	Immigration and the Health System. A line of research focused on the interface between a growing immigrant population with distinct health needs, language limitations, and low economic resources and the health system of the United States. Ways in which this largely for-profit system copes with the health needs of the foreign-born and ways to improve this cultural and economic encounter are priorities of this investigation.
	Immigrant Organizations and Political Incorporation. In response to recent well-publicized concerns about the resistance to cultural and political assimilation by Latino migrants, CMD has launched a new study of the ways in which organizations created by these migrants orient themselves toward issues of U.S. citizenship acquisition, electoral participation, and general political integration. The project is based on an updated inventory of all organizations created by Mexicans and other Latin American migrants and interviews with leaders of the most important and representative of these groups.
	The Second Generation in Spain: A Comparative Perspective. After completing the Children of Immigrant Longitudinal Study (CILS), the largest project of its kind in the United States, CMD has launched a new line of research seeking to replicate and extend the findings and theoretical models developed by the study in a European context. Spain has been selected for this replication because of its surging new second generation population, its particular mix of nationalities, and the good disposition of its authorities and academics to host this large-scale comparative project.
	Success out of Disadvantage in the Second Generation. As a sequel to CILS, CMD initiated an investigation of factors that can lead second generation youths growing up in poverty and disadvantage to overcome these obstacles in order to achieve an advanced education. The study takes advantage of the longitudinal character of CILS to identify a sample of such exceptional cases during early adulthood. It is based on interviews with fifty of these respondents and their families seeking to identify causes of their extraordinary careers and achievement.
	Institutions and Development. This is a theoretical and empirical inquiry on the role that institutions play in processes of national development. The project is based on a tightly-defined, measurable definition of institutions and a comparative design featuring detailed studies of five really-existing institutions in five Latin American countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.

Representative courses taught by program faculty:

	Urbanization and Development
	Immigration, Ethnicity, and Public Policy
	Liberalism in Latin America
	Social Change: Modernization and Revolution
	Modern Mexican Society
	Social Organizaton of Cities