Which school for immigration policy?

[Fruit]

Hi everyone! I'm interested in studying immigration policy and am having a hard time narrowing down schools or programs. Some advice has pointed me towards law school with strong immigration law training (not what I'm looking to do the moment), other suggestions have pointed me towards going for Oxford's Migration Studies (not confident I want to go abroad) or pursuing a PhD (definitely not!)

Is there a public policy school that is known for having strong U.S. immigration policy offerings, either in research centers, faculty research focus, or connections with external groups (think tanks, advocacy groups, even local government?) The closest I've found is USC's CSII, but I'm not sure this is connected to the Price School.

Would love any recommendations or suggestions on which schools to really look into; happy to elaborate more on my motivations, skill set, or further interest in a public policy school over other programs. Thanks so much!

[GradSchoolGrad]

On 5/18/2020 at 7:48 PM, Twiste said:

Hi everyone! I'm interested in studying immigration policy and am having a hard time narrowing down schools or programs. Some advice has pointed me towards law school with strong immigration law training (not what I'm looking to do the moment), other suggestions have pointed me towards going for Oxford's Migration Studies (not confident I want to go abroad) or pursuing a PhD (definitely not!)

Is there a public policy school that is known for having strong U.S. immigration policy offerings, either in research centers, faculty research focus, or connections with external groups (think tanks, advocacy groups, even local government?) The closest I've found is USC's CSII, but I'm not sure this is connected to the Price School.

Would love any recommendations or suggestions on which schools to really look into; happy to elaborate more on my motivations, skill set, or further interest in a public policy school over other programs. Thanks so much!

I always appreciate people who are interested in immigration policy because I don't hear about people interested it in it that much. I think you are asking too broad of a question for anyone to coherently answer. Immigration policy is insanely huge in terms of coverage, probably equal to if not in greater scope as security policy (granted security always gets a lot of attention and money).

I recommend you narrow down your focus first in these 3 ways.

1. Area focus? Are you talking about US, somewhere outside of the US --> If so where? You have to start somewhere and can't say everything.

2. What aspects about immigration do you care most about? Healthcare? Law enforcement? Labor? Legalities? Politics and Policy making? Economics and finance? 

3. What type of job do you want to have with immigration policy? Corporate government affairs? Non-Profit? Federal government? Local and state government? Researcher? 

Once you narrow down your interests, people can be better able to help you because depending on your answer, it can yield many different recommendations.

Edited June 5, 2020 by GradSchoolGrad

[Fruit]

On 6/5/2020 at 5:52 AM, GradSchoolGrad said:

I always appreciate people who are interested in immigration policy because I don't hear about people interested it in it that much. I think you are asking too broad of a question for anyone to coherently answer. Immigration policy is insanely huge in terms of coverage, probably equal to if not in greater scope as security policy (granted security always gets a lot of attention and money).

I recommend you narrow down your focus first in these 3 ways.

1. Area focus? Are you talking about US, somewhere outside of the US --> If so where? You have to start somewhere and can't say everything.

2. What aspects about immigration do you care most about? Healthcare? Law enforcement? Labor? Legalities? Politics and Policy making? Economics and finance? 

3. What type of job do you want to have with immigration policy? Corporate government affairs? Non-Profit? Federal government? Local and state government? Researcher? 

Once you narrow down your interests, people can be better able to help you because depending on your answer, it can yield many different recommendations.

These are great clarification questions! For some odd reason, I always think that people can read my mind and answer these broad questions. ?

1) Definitely U.S., with a preference for coastal immigrant populations/major immigrant enclaves along the west coast. This is mostly due to personal upbringing and my affinity for the communities I currently work with.

2) I haven't been able to narrow this down yet, but my two main interests related to immigration policy are somewhat different. The first is deconstructing the immigration/refugee deportation pipeline or fighting criminalization of immigration. The second is analyzing and developing labor, housing, and language access protections. In my mind, the latter falls more into general immigrant welfare, so I haven't been able to bucket this well.

3) Non-profit or local/state government, although I currently work in immigrant affairs at a local level and see the major downsides of government work/public administration. I'm also currently exploring what it means to be a researcher-practitioner, which doesn't seem to align too much with my hopes of being fully immersed in community work. My ideal role at the moment would be to work as a legal/policy advocate for an organization such as the California Immigrant Policy Center or the Asian Law Caucus.

Thanks so much!

[GradSchoolGrad]

2 hours ago, Twiste said:

These are great clarification questions! For some odd reason, I always think that people can read my mind and answer these broad questions. ?

1) Definitely U.S., with a preference for coastal immigrant populations/major immigrant enclaves along the west coast. This is mostly due to personal upbringing and my affinity for the communities I currently work with.

2) I haven't been able to narrow this down yet, but my two main interests related to immigration policy are somewhat different. The first is deconstructing the immigration/refugee deportation pipeline or fighting criminalization of immigration. The second is analyzing and developing labor, housing, and language access protections. In my mind, the latter falls more into general immigrant welfare, so I haven't been able to bucket this well.

3) Non-profit or local/state government, although I currently work in immigrant affairs at a local level and see the major downsides of government work/public administration. I'm also currently exploring what it means to be a researcher-practitioner, which doesn't seem to align too much with my hopes of being fully immersed in community work. My ideal role at the moment would be to work as a legal/policy advocate for an organization such as the California Immigrant Policy Center or the Asian Law Caucus.

Thanks so much!

Bottom line, you should go to a California policy school based on your job interest.

1. The best two fits for you are:

a. Berkeley Goldman

b. USC Price 

2. In regarding to your interests. The deconstruction part is more History / Sociology/Journalism. Don't get me wrong, it. plays a part into Public Policy, but for all intents in purposes it ties to story telling and not necessarily policy in it of itself. The second part seems to be social policy as it ties to immigration support. 

For your purposes, I think you focus on these 3 areas as it applies to public policy. 

a. State vs. Federal powers (because the type of social support you are talking about really comes from the state)

b. Social policy

c. Analytics as it ties to social impact