Migration and Diaspora Studies

Key Resources

Publications from research institutes, government agencies and university centres working in the areas of public policy, health and medical research.

Columbia International Affairs Online

Full text of working papers, policy briefs, economic indicators, conference proceedings, books and journal abstracts in international affairs.

GEOBASE

Premier source for all geography topics. Provides citations & abstracts of journal articles, books, proceedings, etc.

HeinOnline: All Collections

Full text of government documents and law journal articles from US and Commonwealth. Includes special collections such as on slavery.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.

Migration and diaspora studies focus on the social, economic, cultural and political implications of the movement and transnational settlement of people. Use this guide to begin your research, and contact Julie Lavigne, the Legal Studies Librarian, for online or telephone consultations.

How to find an essay topic

Books, journal articles, data, and statistics

To find books or journal articles, you have several options:

1. Use the library's main search box

type in the keywords of your topic
this discovery tool searches most of the library's databases, simultaneously, for all types of material, ie: journal articles, book reviews, books/e-books, newspapers, magazines,videos, reports, etc.
each search can return many results (much like Google), so you must use the filters to refine your search results
use the Advanced Search and narrow by Subject terms (controlled vocabulary)
remember to login first if you are searching from 'off campus'

2. Search specialized databases

these databases are focused on various areas of historical research and contain citations or full text links to journal articles, books, conference proceedings, reports, and dissertations
databases for Canadian Studies have significant Canadian content
you will find more precise articles with fewer results to browse

Journal articles:

Data and statistics:

Canadian Census Analyser
Community Information Database (Canada)
Health Nutrition and Population Statistics (World Bank)
ODESI data portal
UN Data
UN Population and Vital Statistics Report (most recent data on national official population estimates for the last 15 years)
Statistics and open data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Statistics Canada: Immigration and ethnocultural diversity / Population and demography (including migration)
US Census Bureau Population Statistics (including migration/geographic mobility and foreign-born)
US Dep't of Homeland Security Immigration Data & Statistics (also includes research reports and fact sheets)
Migration Policy Institute's Migration Data Hub (US-based, includes publications and information on research initiatives)
UN International Organization for Migration: Global Migration Data Analysis Centre
UN Demographic Yearbook: international migration characteristics

Note: If the library does not have what you need, you can order books, journal articles, etc, from other libraries. If the document you want comes up in your search results but is marked as "Available from other libraries upon request", you can sign in to your library account on that page, and make a request for it to be sent to you either electronically or by mail. If you can't find it at all, use Interlibrary Loans to request it.

Key resources

GlobaLex - Immigration Law - a comparative approach (Australia, Canada, US)
Internal Migration in the Developed World: Are We Becoming Less Mobile? (book with case studies from US, UK, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Germany, and Italy)

Canada

The Library of Parliament produces many high-quality research publications on areas of interest to Members of Parliament, and these are often a good place to start your research. Some recent titles of interest:

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada also produces research reports on the impact of immigration on Canada.

United States:

American Immigration Council (includes fact sheets for each American state)
Cato Institute - Immigration (includes numerous research reports)
High skilled migration to the United States and its economic consequences (book focused on the US)
Center for Migration Studies (includes numerous research reports)
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (Dep't of Homeland Security): Laws and Policy
Congressional Budget Office - Immigration (reports on trends and policies in immigration, including budgetary effects)
US Dep't of Homeland Security Immigration Data & Statistics (also includes research reports and fact sheets)
Migration Policy Institute (includes publications and information on research initiatives)
National Conference of State Legislatures - Immigration
Pew Research Center: Immigration / Immigration Attitudes / Immigration Trends
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research - Immigration (Cornell University)

International:

Labour's Immigration Policy: The Making of the Migration State (book focused on the UK)
UN Regional Information Centre Library Backgrounder: Migration
UN International Organization for Migration, including the Migration Law Database
World Migration Report (International Organization for Migration, 2018)
OECD research and projects on migration, including international migration policies and data
International Migration Report (UN Secretariat, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2015)
UN General Assembly resolutions and resports on international migration
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Writing and Citing

Make sure you check with your professor which citation style they would like you to use when referencing your work in your assignments. The most commonly used citation style in the social sciences is APA. MacOdrum Library has a tip sheet to give you some guidance, or you can consult the APA section of the website for the Online Writing Lab of Purdue University, which is extremely helpful. For information on other citation styles, check out our How-To page on Citing Your Sources.

Avoiding plagiarism:

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, to plagiarize is "to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own [or] use (another's production) without crediting the source".

5 tips to avoid plagiarism:

TAKE NOTES: writing down page numbers and references throughout your research is a good way to save time when you need to quote and cite sources.
NEVER copy and paste material unless you cite it properly.
At the end of each paper/report you must CITE ALL SOURCES you have used, whether you quote them directly or paraphrase the ideas.
LEARN AND USE citation style guides and citation management tools.
When in doubt, ask for help!

A few other texts that you may find useful:

The craft of research / Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams [available online].
Legal research and writing / Ted Tjaden [available online]. He has also developed a useful legal research website in support of his book.
The Elements of Style / William Strunk.

Writing Services offers one-on-one consultations with students to help learn the mechanics of academic writing.

If you are interested in writing for publication, read more about it here and here, and also visit our pages on Open Access Support.