CMS at the 2024 Social Science History Association’s Annual Meeting



PhD student Dhrihti Mehta, presenting at the SSHA annual meeting.

On November 2, 2024, CMS scholars participated in the 2024 annual Social Science History Association (SSHA) meeting in Toronto, themed Trust and Distrust of Historical Sources in the Digital Age.

CMS Co-Director Professor Irene Bloemraad and Dhriti Mehta, a PhD student in Political Science and in the Graduate Certificate in Migration Studies, participated in the panel “Canadian and American Immigration Policies.” Chaired by Silvia Pedraza, Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan, the panel addressed pressing issues surrounding North American immigration policy, contributing fresh insights on the often-contrasting approaches taken by Canada and the United States.

Professor Bloemraad presented her research titled “The US and Canada: People’s Contrasting Views on Undocumented Migration.” She compared and contrasted the pathways into undocumented status in the two countries and shared data on the public’s views about the civil and social rights of citizens relative to those who over-stay visas and fall out of status. Learn more

Dhriti Mehta, presenting research co-authored with CMS co-director Professor Antje Ellermann, shared insights from their paper “Institutions and the Divergent Politics of Immigration in Canada and the US.” Their research explores how shifting economic conditions and public opinion in Canada and the U.S. since the mid-2010s have impacted immigration policies, questioning whether past institutional explanations still hold.

This participation in the SSHA annual meeting highlights CMS’s commitment to advancing critical, interdisciplinary migration research. The conference provided a valuable platform for CMS scholars to share their research with an international audience and to foster collaborative discussions among junior and senior researchers.