My Reading List on Migration

A living collection of policy reports, ethnographies, and well-written articles that shape how I think about international migration and mobility. I revisit this list regularly; feel free to reach out if you would like to discuss any of these pieces.

Ethics

Cresswell, T. (2010). Towards a Politics of Mobility. Environment and Planning D: Society & Space, 28, 17–31. Link.
Ruhs, M. (2013). The Price of Rights: Regulating International Labor Migration. Princeton University Press.
Unnikrishnan, D. (2017). Temporary People. Restless Books. Link.
Bauböck, R., & Ruhs, M. (2022). The Elusive Triple Win: Addressing Temporary Labour Migration Dilemmas Through Fair Representation. Migration Studies. Link.
The Economist. (2025). How to Make Immigration Palatable in a Populist Age. The Economist. Link.

Research Paradigms

Wimmer, A., & Glick Schiller, N. (2003). Methodological Nationalism, the Social Sciences, and the Study of Migration: An Essay in Historical Epistemology. International Migration Review, 37(3), 576–610. Link.
Clemens, M. A. (2011). Economics and Emigration: Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 25(3), 83–106. Link.
Schewel, K. (2020). Understanding Immobility: Moving Beyond the Mobility Bias in Migration Studies. International Migration Review, 54(2), 328–355. Link.
Borjas, G. J. (2021). Introduction. In Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics. World Scientific Publishing.
Clemens, M. A. (2022). Migration on the Rise, a Paradigm in Decline: The Last Half-Century of Global Mobility. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 112, 257–261. Link.

Infrastructure

Larkin, B. (2013). The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure. Annual Review of Anthropology, 42(1), 327–343. Link.
Xiang, B., & Lindquist, J. (2014). Migration Infrastructure. International Migration Review, 48(s1), S122–S148. Link.
Surak, K. (2018). Migration Industries and the State: Guestwork Programs in East Asia. International Migration Review, 52(2), 487–523. Link.
Ghosh, A. (2021). The Great Uprooting: Migration and Displacement in an Age of Planetary Crisis. The Massachusetts Review, 62(4), 712–733. Link.

Recruitment

Autor, D. H. (2008). The Economics of Labor Market Intermediation: An Analytic Framework (Working Paper No. 14348). National Bureau of Economic Research. Link.
Paul, A. M. (2011). Stepwise International Migration: A Multistage Migration Pattern for the Aspiring Migrant. American Journal of Sociology, 116(6), 1842–1886. Link.
Gordon, J. (2015). Global Labour Recruitment in a Supply Chain Context. International Labour Organization. Link.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2015). The Role of Recruitment Fees and Abusive and Fraudulent Recruitment Practices of Recruitment Agencies in Trafficking in Persons. Link.
Martin, P. (2017). Merchants of Labor: Recruiters and International Labor Migration (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.

Policy

McKenzie, D., & Yang, D. (2015). Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration. The World Bank Research Observer, 30(2), 155–192. Link.
Hooper, K. (2019). Exploring New Legal Migration Pathways: Lessons from Pilot Projects. Migration Policy Institute. Link.
Dempster, H., Iniesta, I. G., Resstack, R., & Zimmer, C. (2022). Financing Legal Labor Migration Pathways (Policy Paper, p. 66). Center for Global Development. Link.
Dempster, H., & Tesfaye, B. (2022). Why and How Development Agencies Facilitate Labor Migration (p. 39). Center for Global Development. Link.
World Bank. (2023). World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies. World Bank. Link.
Dempster, H. (2024). Influencing Migration Policy and Public Debate Through Targeted Communications: Lessons for Researchers and Practitioners as to What, Who, How, and When to Engage. Center for Global Development. Link.
Dempster, H., Guerrero Ble, M., & López Villamil, S. (2024). Why and How Multilateral Development Banks Support Improved Outcomes for Economic Migrants and Refugees. Center for Global Development. Link.