What Matters: Katrina Burgess on Migrant Journeys in the Americas

Hear from our faculty, in the comfort of your own home or office, about what inspires them, and what they find most exciting in their research!

What information do migrants get, and from where, about their prospects for reaching their intended destination? Are they, in fact, deterred by an awareness of the obstacles, dangers, and risks? The answers to these questions have major implications for U.S. asylum and border policies, which are currently failing at their stated objectives while causing unnecessary human suffering. Working with a team of Fletcher students, Professor Katrina Burgess has launched a new project that will delve more deeply into how migrants in the Americas assess risk and process information on their journey north. After describing the project in greater detail, Katrina will share her own journey to this topic as well as exploring its relevance to hotly contested debates over migration in the United States.