The Social Science Research Institute launched a new initiative on migration in the Fall of 2022 led by Jennifer Van Hook, Roy C. Buck Professor of Sociology and Demography in the College of the Liberal Arts. The primary mission of the new initiative is to broaden Penn State’s involvement in helping to build a more just and equitable response to the needs of immigrants and their families.

The initiative invests in high-impact research projects through a new working group and the recruitment of postdoctoral scholars. It also engages graduate and undergraduate students in social science research projects related to migration.

Displaced populations around the world share many common experiences, including exposure to conflict and violence, family separation, uncertainty, loss, resettlement in a foreign place, and the toll these experiences take on mental and physical health, according to researchers at Penn State who study the experiences of displaced populations.