Work in progress

"When the Voice Exits: How Domestic Migration Transforms Electoral Politics in Rich Democracies" (book project)

For a summary of my book project, please see this paper.

My book project identifies domestic migration as an important cause of inequality in political participation and democratic representation. I argue that the movement of voters within a country reshapes democratic politics because migrants differ systematically from non-migrants: they are more invested in national politics than non-migrants but lack the local attachments and political knowledge to participate in local politics. 

Because of these differences between migrant and non-migrant voters, domestic migration leads to compositional changes in local electorates. The electorate becomes nationally-minded in in-migration areas, where voters are active in national politics but participate little in local politics. By contrast, the electorate in out-migration areas becomes locally-minded: voters here are less active at the national level but more invested in local politics.

This sorting of voters has fundamental consequences for government responsiveness. Migrants' strong national political participation draws the attention of national political parties to in-migration areas, resulting in the systematic under-representation of out-migration areas in national politics. This political under-representation, in turn, raises democratic discontent and support for populist and illiberal parties in out-migration areas, which exacerbates political polarization and undermines democratic governance.

The book combines an in-depth case study of the political impact of domestic migration in Germany with a comparative analysis of other European countries and the United States. The focus on Germany allows me to exploit rich data and multiple distinct migration waves to test numerous facets of my argument. The comparison with other rich democracies, in turn, allows me to explore the effect of migration on political participation and representation in countries with different electoral systems and levels of decentralization.

"Boundaries and Barriers: Social Institutions and Domestic Migration in Southern Africa " (book project with Ellen Lust and Erica Metheney)

This book project asks how domestic migration shapes inequality in political participation in sub-Saharan Africa. Utilizing original household and elite surveys in Malawi and Zambia, we relate internal migrants' degree of social and political integration to the social institutions structuring entrance into and life within their host communities.

The book contributes to extant scholarship by explicitly considering political instead of economic outcomes, focusing on various forms of migration including return and rural-rural migration, and distinguishing between migration and urbanization. 

"Patterns and Consequences of Domestic Migration in the former GDR"

This project analyzes a unique dataset of internal migration in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) to study how domestic migration in a socialist regime impacts autocratic stability. To create this dataset, I rely on numerous formerly classified government reports that I digitized in an effort to assemble the most detailed dataset of internal migration in a socialist regime to date. I use the data to answer three questions. First, what can the data tell us about patterns and intensity of internal migration? Past work on socialist regimes finds that citizens move very infrequently in these autocracies. However, preliminary evidence is inconsistent with this idea. Second, how did the GDR regime try to control and shape migration flows? Third, how does internal migration affect regime stability? Specifically, are the effects of migration on the distribution of political voice the same or different from those in democracies (as described in my book project)?

"Internal Migration among Immigrants in the United States: Evidence from a Survey Experiment"

This project builds on my other work that documents that state immigration policies can have modest effects on the decision of likely unauthorized immigrants to move to or leave a particular U.S. state. Yet, it remains unclear how these effect sizes compare to other factors shaping unauthorized immigrants' domestic migration decisions. To answer this question, this paper conducts and analyzes an original survey with two embedded experiments. The first experiment exposes respondents to a hypothetical change in their current place of residence in order to measure the effect of different "push factors" in shaping migration decisions. The second experiment is a conjoint experiment that allows me to directly study the relative importance of different "pull factors," such as location, economic opportunities, social networks, and immigration policy environment.

"Remittances and the Supply of Public Goods in Mexico."

How do remittances influence the supply of or access to public goods and services? Much research studies the economic impact of remittances, often finding that they improve the livelihoods of recipients. Yet, given that only a minority of citizens usually receives remittances, it is possible that this effect furthers economic inequality between households with and without migrant connections. This paper researches the relationship between remittances and public goods provision to examine whether even non-recipients can benefit from others' remittance income. Empirically, the project leverages Mexican census data to measure public goods provision, and novel data Mexican Consular ID cards to create a plausibly exogenous measure of municipal remittance income.