Dissertation Research: Before the Country Ceases to Exist: Mobilizing Against Migration in El Salvador

研究生Joseph L. Wiltberger将在Arturo Escobar博士的指导下，对高移民率国家的新兴趋势进行研究。这一趋势是，尽管国家主导了促进移民、汇款和其他形式发展的战略，但集体努力构建可行的替代移民和替代发展形式的团体正在崛起。Wiltberger将考察萨尔瓦多的情况作为一个测试案例。他的实地调查将是多地点的。研究将在萨尔瓦多和美国进行。数据收集将集中在萨尔瓦多北部一个移民率高的地区，以及该地区在华盛顿特区的大量移民人口。将采用定性研究方法的混合，包括档案研究，对移民和社区组织者的半结构化访谈，社区历史访谈，生活轨迹访谈，以及试图提供移民替代方案的组织中的参与者观察。Wiltberger将利用以前在萨尔瓦多北部实地工作的联系和经验，与萨尔瓦多的组织和萨尔瓦多人领导的美国组织合作，处理移民问题。这项研究很重要，因为它将提供对当代移民情况的关键见解，从而将对移民和发展研究领域以及改善移民政策和法规作出贡献。这项研究将为移民的实践和政治提供一个独特的跨国和原籍地视角。这项研究也将有助于社会科学家的教育。

Graduate student Joseph L. Wiltberger, under the supervision of Dr. Arturo Escobar, will undertake research on an emerging trend in countries with high rates of out migration. This trend is the rise of groups that collectively work toward constructing viable alternatives to migration and alternative forms of development, despite state-led strategies to facilitate migration, remittances, and other forms of development.Wiltberger will examine the situation in El Salvador as a test case. His field research will be multi-sited. Research will be conducted in both El Salvador and the United States. Data collection will focus on a region in northern El Salvador with a high rate of emigration and on the region's substantial migrant population in the Washington, D. C., area. A mix of qualitative research methods will be employed, including archival research, semi-structured interviews with migrants and community organizers, community history interviews, life trajectory intereviews, and participant observation in organizations trying to provide alternatives to migration. Wiltberger will collaborate with organizations in El Salvador and Salvadoran-led organizations in the United States that are responding to the question of immigration, drawing on contacts and experience from prior fieldwork in northern El Salvador. This research is important because it will provide critical insight into the contemporary immigration situation and thus will make a contribution to the fields of migration and development studies, as well as to improving immigration policy and regulation. The research will give a unique transnational and place-of-origin perspective on the practice and politics of migration. The research also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.