Leir Migration Monitor
January 2023
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This month, we take a look back at some of our 2022 highlights and look forward to our 2023 plans, starting with our new program. Whether directly related to migration or not, our programs and research move us closer to a world where migration is a choice, and all are able to live free from fear and free from want. This year, we look forward to offering new tools that help policymakers and practitioners achieve this vision.
In this edition:
- Announcing our new program, Hopes, Fears, and Illusions
- Conversations with Recent Immigrants to the U.S. from Puebla, Mexico
- Faculty Spotlight: Leir Director Dr. Katrina Burgess, Leir Director
- Watch: Digital Portfolios of the Poor Launch Webinar
- Corruption in Fragile States Blog's Best of 2022
- Career Opportunities Spotlight: Mayors Migration Council
Let us know topics you would like future editions to explore.
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Introducing our new program: Hopes, Fears, & Illusions
We're pleased to announce our new program, Hopes, Fears, and Illusions: How Migrants Assess Risk and Process Information on their Journey to El Norte. Dr. Katrina Burgess and Senior Fellow Dr. Kim Howe serve as principal investigators.
The program seeks to gain a more systematic and rigorous understanding of what informs the hopes and fears of migrants regarding their prospects for entering the United States as they journey north through Central America and Mexico. The program will address two major gaps in our knowledge:
1. What information migrants get from where; and
2. How migrants interpret and then act on this information.
Through ethnographic research at migrant shelters in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico, we will gather data directly from migrants on the move while testing and refining methodologies for conducting trauma-informed research with vulnerable populations.
Our results will be a key first step toward developing a more empirically robust and humane foundation for U.S. asylum and border policies, which are currently failing at their stated objectives while causing unnecessary human suffering.
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Coyotes, Tandas, and a Quest for Closure: Conversations with Recent Immigrants to the U.S. from Puebla, Mexico
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 For the vast majority of Mexicans wishing to immigrate to the United States, being sponsored by a qualifying relative is not possible. Even for those who are eligible, waitlists to receive a visa can stretch for years if not decades. Facing this impediment, often in addition to other obstacles to legal immigration, many Mexican immigrants decide to immigrate instead by using the services of a smuggler, or coyote.
In his capstone thesis, alumnus Anargiros Z. Frangos (F22) explores the journey of 15 migrants from Puebla, Mexico to New Rochelle, New York, many of whom used coyotes. Frangos uncovers that:
- Participants are motivated to migrate because of wage differentials, endemic corruption, and violence in Mexico.
- Crossing the border with a coyote is highly organized and relatively low cost.
- Once settled, participants are working, paying taxes, and saving money with Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (tandas in Mexican communities) in the hope of obtaining amnesty.
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Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Katrina Burgess
 Dr. Katrina Burgess is an Associate Professor of Political Economy and has served as Director of the Leir Institute since 2020. The Fletcher School recently profiled her work underscoring the human cost of immigration policies, particularly in Latin America and the U.S.
“Politicians are responding to, but also churning up, certain responses to migration that enable less than humane immigration policies. A lot of the battle is to change the narrative about how people think about migrants and migration. It’s not about facts and figures,” she said. “Is there a way we can think about shifting migration narratives in different localities where there’s the potential to change minds, but the minds aren’t changed yet?”
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Watch: Digital Portfolios of the Poor Launch Webinar
Last month, the Leir Institute and partner Decodis held launch webinars for Digital Portfolios of the Poor. Dr. Daryl Collins, founder & CEO of Decodis, detailed the program's innovative methodology, which uses Interactive Voice Recording and Natural Language Processing to collect qualitative data at scale.
Partners in each of the four research countries discussed DPP's transformative potential to inform new digital financial services tools and close gendered access and usage gaps. The Global Launch, moderated by Journeys Project director Kim Wilson, featured:
- Sayonee Chatterjee, Director, Gender and Child Rights, Gram Vaani, India
- Tamara Cook, CEO, Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Kenya
- Mehr Shah, Director, Knowledge Management & Communications, Karandaaz Pakistan
- Isaiah Owolabi, CEO, Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA), Nigeria
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Corruption in Fragile States Blog's Best of 2022
Leir's CJL Program  Corruption in Fragile States Blog recaps the top posts of 2022, including:
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Career Opportunities Spotlight: Mayors Migration Council
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City Practice Associate
New York, NY | Full-Time
Apply by February 1
MMC's City Practice team seeks a proactive, detail oriented, and adaptive City Practice Associate to provide project management support and grant coordination for the Global Cities Fund; contribute to the development of research projects, internal reports, and external publications; coordinate logistics on behalf of the City Practice team including outreach, meeting planning and execution, travel, and invoicing; and support senior staff on the overall direction of City Practice programs.
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Business Development Lead
New York, NY | Full-Time
Apply by February 13
The Business Development Lead will report to the Executive Director and collaborate with senior leaders across the organization to strategize, optimize, and sustain the MMC’s organizational development and sustainability. They will design and execute annual fundraising strategies and multiannual business plans. They will manage the MMC’s operational functions, including legal affairs, finance, and human resources. They will also support the Executive Director’s engagement with the Board and relations with mayors, donors, and partners.
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