Throwback Thursday: Emily Ryo

Ryo, throwback style

Emily Ryo is not just an immprof; she’s also a professor of sociology at USC. Her paper Deciding to Cross: Norms and Economics of Unauthorized Migration, 78(4) American Sociological Review 574-603 (2013), is today’s pick for Throwback Thursday.

You’re excused if you haven’t read the paper before. The ASA, while the flagship journal of the American Sociological Association and the highest ranking journal in sociology, isn’t available in Westlaw. (Though, in fairness, Kevin did bring it to your attention in 2013.)

The paper makes use of survey data collected through the Mexican Migration Project. It’s used to assess the decision-making behind the choice to engage in unauthorized labor migration.

Ryo finds that the threat of arrest and punishment doesn’t deter unauthorized migration, though “perceptions of availability of Mexican jobs and the dangers of border crossing” matter significantly. “General legal attitudes” matter too as do perceptions of “procedural justice,” meaning whether immigration laws are legitimate and fairly applied. She concludes that the decision to migrate without authorization “cannot be fully understood without considering an individual’s underlying values and norms.”

If you don’t like reading double-columned papers (I feel you, they’re unnatural), you can listen to this podcast from Sage Publications.

Do also check out Ryo’s companion piece: Less Enforcement, More Compliance: Rethinking Unauthorized Migration, which immprof Juliet Stumpf covered on Jotwell.

-KitJ