Publications

By: Tamara Bah, Marisol Hernandez, Heather Odell, Shane Sullivan, Rosemary Ventura, and Kim Wilson The International Rescue Committee reports that ...

By: Anargiros Z. Frangos, Jr. under the supervision of Kim Wilson For the vast majority of Mexicans wishing to immigrate to the ...

By: Kim Wilson et al. This collection of profiles from Ethiopia explores stories that highlight refugee and migrant journeys and their ...

By: Kim Wilson et al.  This collection of profiles from Tunisia explores stories that highlight refugee and migrant journeys and their ...

By: Kim Wilson et al. This collection of profiles from Mexico explores stories that highlight refugee and migrant journeys and their ...

By: Kim Wilson et al. This collection of profiles from Kenya explores stories that highlight refugee and migrant journeys and their ...

By: Kim Wilson et al.  This collection of profiles from Jordan explores stories that highlight refugee and migrant journeys and their ...

By: Kim Wilson et al.  This collection of profiles from Ecuador explores stories that highlight refugee and migrant journeys and their ...

By: Kim Wilson et al.  This collection of profiles from Uganda explores stories that highlight refugee and migrant journeys and ...

By: Anargiros Z. Frangos, Jr. under the supervision of Kim Wilson et al.  This collection of profiles from the United ...

A review by Lucy Mastellar under the supervision of Kim Wilson Many refugees remain “stuck” in protracted transit for decades. ...

By: Marisol Hernandez, Heather Odell, Shane Sullivan, and Rosemary Ventura under the supervision of Kim Wilson This collection of profiles ...

By Kim Wilson et. al. This new edition of profiles builds upon Volume II, Financial Biographies of People Coping with New ...

By: Marisol Hernandez, Heather Odell, Shane Sullivan, and Rosemary Ventura under the supervision of Kim Wilson In 2022, a team ...

By Marisol Hernandez, Heather Odell, Shane Sullivan, and Rosemary Ventura under the supervision of Kim Wilson ...

By Omar Shoukry Notable deficiencies in financial management skills over the last decade in the US have encouraged a growing ...

By Swati Mehta Dhawan The migrant and refugee journey in the search for safety and protection is fraught with worries ...

By Sophie Gitonga, Ray Mwihaki, Julie Zollmann, and Kim Wilson. Illustrated by Liyou Zewide. As of January 2021, more than ...

By Padmini Baruah Racism—the delineation of people as the “other,” as inferior on the basis of race or ethnic identity—is ...

By Kim Wilson et. al. This collection of profiles, Volume II, Financial Biographies of People Coping with New Surroundings, takes ...

By Swati Mehta Dhawan and Hans-Martin Zademach Abstract: This report is a compilation of the empirical findings from the in-depth interviews ...

By Joscha Albert, Swati Mehta Dhawan, Dr. Karen Jacobsen, Lisa Klinger, María Teresa Nagel, Radha Rajkotia, Barri Shorey, Anneleen Vos, Cate Wanjala, Kim Wilson, ...

“This is my hobby from Iraq,” stated Karam as a large Major Mitchell’s cockatoo sat perched on his arm. Bright, ...

By Kim Wilson (Tufts University) and Hans-Martin Zademach (KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) Managing finances is challenging for most people, but it is ...

By Aaron Steinberg During the winter of 2019–2020, I interviewed two first-generation Haitian immigrants, both men in their twenties. We ...

By Julie Zollmann and Catherine Wanjala Throughout the course of 2020, our team set out to understand the financial lives ...

By Kenza Ben Azouz, Jeremiah Gaitlin, Ingrid Magalhaes, Jayshree Venkatesan, and Kim Wilson Located between Libya and Algeria, the small ...

By Qiamuddin Amiry, under the supervision of Kim Wilson While researching migrants and refugees, my former professor from graduate school ...

Lewiston, Maine is like many of the old mill towns of New England. Abandoned mills sit at the center of ...

In recent years, but especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide have increased policy support for digital financial services with the aims of making payments more efficient and making banking safer while formalizing large informal sectors. To this end, payment fees have been waived and financial service ...

By Jayshree Venkatesan and Jeremiah Gatlin During a year that most of the world has spent locked indoors, we should ...

By Amanda Borquaye, under the supervision of Kim Wilson “Our phones and power banks are more important for our journey ...

By Swati Mehta Dhawan and Hans-Martin Zademach The work in-hand provides a consolidated overview on the empirical findings from the ...

By Julie Zollman and Kim Wilson “We have many people with a broken heart because of their history. So, we ...

By Natalia Espinosa Tokuhama, under the supervision of Kim Wilson On a Wednesday afternoon near the Parque El Arbolito at ...

By Karen Jacobsen and Kim Wilson One of the biggest challenges facing refugees and migrants is navigating the livelihoods and ...

By Swati Mehta Dhawan, Hans-Martin Zademach, and Kim Wilson This essay brings together early insights from the research conducted under ...

By Dani Douglas, under the supervision of Kim Wilson A team of researchers from The Fletcher School of Law and ...

By Madison Chapman, under the supervision of Kim Wilson Practitioners, advocates and writers often underscore the link between migration and ...

By Tania Smith, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. By the time I received approval to research the integration strategies of Haitian migrants living in Tijuana, they had already been covered extensively by the media. As a Haitian–American who was raised in Haiti, I knew that I would be able ...

By Ella Duncan, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. New arrivals to America must navigate ongoing identification of what American norms are and make decisions about which norms to embrace, which to merge into previously held norms, and which to discard as a poor fit. Financial norms hold a special ...

By Dan Creamer, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. In the United States, the postal code of one’s birthplace predicts more about one’s future than nearly any other factor. While interviewing refugees in Kampala and Bidi Bidi Camp, I found a parallel observation in which specific details of a refugee’s origin ...

By Catherine Wanjala, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. During displacement, families are jolted into new realities. From navigating new foods and new educational opportunities to negotiating a maze of new customs, displaced households struggle to master their unfamiliar surroundings. Opportunities to earn a living also greatly differed from what refugees ...

By Devang Shah, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. An open-door policy, free primary education, health care, monthly rations and cash. Sounds like a perfect policy recipe for integration of refugees with their local communities. However, for more than twenty years since Kebri Beyah camp was established, refugees living there are ...

By Dan Creamer, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Formal employment opportunities are limited in Uganda’s economy, especially for migrants and refugees. Considering these barriers, “volunteer” jobs represent a crucial vehicle for migrants to gain new skills, build their networks, gain access to future opportunities, and even earn reasonable wages. This ...

By Maria Teresa Nagel, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. When it comes to migration, broad classifications are abundant. Refugees and migrants are often seen as a monolithic mass, which encourages policy makers to essentialize migration as they search for the single solution to this complex phenomenon. Nowhere is this truer ...

By Maria Teresa Nagel, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Starting in 2018, Central American migrants attempting to enter the United States have encountered a series of obstacles which have forced them to consider a longer stay in Tijuana, a circumstance which presents new and unanticipated challenges. This essay explores the ...

By Catherine Wanjala, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Uganda’s 1.4 million refugees have trekked into the country, fleeing violence and conflict in South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Somalia, and other regional neighbors. They came to Uganda sometimes intentionally, sometimes merely following the crowd, but all looking for peace. ...

By Sarah Carson, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Field research is a common and often powerful piece of post-graduate training in international affairs and development. But sending students to the field also comes with risks to both students and study participants. What happens when you send five students abroad to ...

By Jeffrey Ashe, Kim Wilson. The American Dream—being able to earn a good living, buy a home, send children to school, and build a life in the United States regardless of social stature or place of birth—is an aspiration for most who immigrate to the United States. While new immigrants ...

By Subin Mulmi, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Transatlantic migration from South Asia is a long, arduous, and expensive journey but each year many South Asians risk their lives to reach the supposed dreamland of the United States. A large majority of the South Asians that I met during ...

By Heather Kunin, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Social networks have long been recognized as playing a pivotal role within migration, with multiple studies examining, among other phenomena, the role of social networks in predicting the decision to migrate and choice of destination, as well as in impacting migrants' ...

By Madison Chapman, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. What does it mean to have dignity and personal agency as a migrant? Men and women told their stories to me in very distinct ways, through body language and in their retelling of traumatic ...

By Kim Wilson et al. This collection of financial biographies traces the ways in which extra-continental refugees and migrants finance their journeys and manage money along the way. It also highlights the importance of friendships, both old and new, in making a journey possible. Additionally, communication tools like mobile phones, ...

By Padmini Baruah, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Transnational migration has been one of the most talked-about phenomena of the past decade. With prolonged armed conflict, economic crises, and climate change affecting different parts of the world adversely, it is not a surprise that an estimated 258 million ...

By Subin Mulmi, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. The 2015 earthquake in Nepal resulted in the deaths of 8,970 people with 22,302 injured. Several reports have estimated that more than one million houses were destroyed, affecting the lives of six million people. Only a handful of families have ...

By Kim Wilson et al. ...

By Maria Teresa Nagel, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. There is limited research describing the smuggling industry and its actors, particularly in Central America. Our study hopes to address this knowledge gap by disclosing how human smugglers lodge their clients and the role hotels play in the smuggling ecosystem. ...

By Lea Abi Zeid Daou and Nidhisha Philip, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Writings on why religion is of significance to individual migrants have explored themes of religion as a reason for migration, religion as a means of sustenance in difficult circumstances, religion as an identity marker in new ...

By Conor Sanchez, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Popular notions of migrants as unskilled or uneducated laborers, while sometimes true, are often false. Their jobs back home may not have always ensured adequate income, a factor that could have played a role in their decision to migrate, but they ...

By Charlie Bentley, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. I connected to most migrants I interviewed using the same first casual topic: “I’m struggling to get around without Spanish. What about you?” Despite having the help of two Spanish-speaking colleagues, I still found that traveling through Colombia without Spanish ...

By Aastha Dua and Subin Mulmi, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. The authors observed the South Asian identity play out in interesting and diverse ways among the migrants interviewed. The dynamic between the general populations of these countries—oscillating between brotherly love, jealousy, and rivalry—was reflected in full, ...

By Julie Zollmann. Nine voluntary agencies have the official responsibility for resettling refugees into communities throughout the United States. They find their clients new housing, schools, and jobs. They help them get social security numbers and open bank accounts. They play an indispensable role in helping refugees settle into their ...

By Julie Zollmann, Airokhsh Faiz-Qaisary, Kenza Ben-Azouz, Kim Wilson, and Radha Rajkotia. Refugees resettled in the United States are typically supported quite closely early in their transition as support agencies help them settle into new homes, open bank accounts, get their first jobs, and register their children in school. Agencies ...

By Allyson Hawkins, Kim Wilson ...

An article by Roxanne Krystalli, Allyson Hawkins, and Kim Wilson, published in "Disasters." What would a gender analysis of refugee crises reveal if one expanded the focus beyond female refugees, and acts of physical violence? This paper draws on qualitative research conducted in Denmark, Greece, Jordan, and Turkey in July ...

A full report, executive summary, and a compendium of field notes, by Kim Wilson and Roxanne Krystalli. The Financial Journeys of Refugees investigates what money and financial transactions can reveal about the journeys and experiences of forced migration. We examine money as a key node of the displacement experience: fueling ...

An essay by Kim Wilson and Roxanne Krystalli. Financial inclusion as a term and topic has become popular in humanitarian settings. A mounting global refugee crisis has brought financial access into the focus of donors and practitioners. In this paper, we ask questions that concern both donors and practitioners: Is ...