Lauren Duquette-Rury

In a book length project, I study the conditions under which organized migrant groups located in destination countries participate in the provision of social welfare in their places of origin and how this transnational participation affects local democracy. In related projects, I show 1) how migrant family and collective remittances improve social welfare in Mexico (Studies in Comparative International Development, 2014); 2) how and when the Mexican 3x1 Program is more likely to be politically manipulated by local governments (Latin American Research Review, 2016); 3) the origin, structure, and dynamics of Mexican migrant hometown clubs in the U.S. (Migraciones Internacionales, 2013 with Xochitl Bada); 4) how migrant transnational participation in hometown development orgnizationally varies to produce political consequences for local democracy in Mexico (American Sociological Review, 2016); 5) how remittances shape government welfare spending across the developing world (with Jesse Acevedo); and 6) how migration affects political participation and electoral competition (with Zeke Chen).

While the primary focus of my research agenda investigates the impact of migration on sending countries, I am equally interested in the other side of the migratory circuit: destination countries. To this end, I explore the following in additional working and published papers: 1) how homeland ties and citizenship shape the political attitudes and national identity of Latino/a immigrants (RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 2016, with Roger Waldinger); and 2) in a book length project, how the type and intensification of sociopolitical threat affects the rate at which the foreign-born become US citizens through naturalization.

I received my Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and my B.A. in International Studies (with honors) from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. I also worked as an economic analyst for the Economic Research Service at the USDA and Nathan Associates, an economic consulting firm in Washington, D.C.. Most recently, I was a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow. My research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the National Academies, the Tinker Foundation, the University of Chicago, and at UCLA the Center for the Study of International Migration, the Hellman Fellows Program, and the Center for American Politics and Public Policy.