UNDER PRESSURE
International Organizations in the Age of Migration
with MERIH ANGIN and ALBANA SHEHAJ
Why do international organizations (IOs) favor some countries over others? Previous research has primarily focused on the strategic and special interests of donor states to explain why some countries receive better deals from international organizations. In this project, we highlight migration pressure from the developing world as an important factor that enters into the decision-making calculus of major IO shareholders. Focusing on the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the European Union, we show that countries and subnational jurisdictions posing substantial migration pressures on major donor states of these organizations receive preferential treatment, including larger financial packages and less stringent loan conditions. In addition, we compare and contrast the organizations' strategies in governing international migration. Using in-depth case studies and novel datasets on loans, conditionality, and fiscal transfers, we demonstrate the important role of international migration in shaping some of the most critical decisions made by the world's most powerful international organizations.
PUBLICATIONS
Merih Angin, Albana Shehaj, and Adrian J. Shin. 2021. "Inside Job: Migration and Distributive Politics in the European Union." Economics and Politics, 33(2):264–288.
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Merih Angin, Albana Shehaj, and Adrian J. Shin. 2023. "IMF: International Migration Fund." International Interactions, 49(1):86–113
FUELED DIVERGENCE
Natural Resources and Migration in the World Economy
How does natural resource wealth affect immigration policies? Drawing from the resource curse literature and the Dutch Disease model, the book, based on an award-winning dissertation, unpacks how different types of natural resources alter the preferences of domestic groups and their relative power in immigration policymaking. Focusing on the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and Scandinavian democracies, the book manuscript shows that political institutions condition how natural resource wealth shape immigration policy outcomes. Funded by three distinct grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and financial support from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the book manuscript features a global analysis of immigration policy, a subnational analysis on Senate and House voting on immigration bills, and an in-depth case study of Norway and its Nordic neighbors. 
PUBLICATIONS
Shin, Adrian J. 2019. "Primary Resources, Secondary Labor: Natural Resources and Immigration Policy." International Studies Quarterly, 63(4):805–818.
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Shin, Adrian J. 2017. "Tyrants and Migrants: Authoritarian Immigration Policy." Comparative Political Studies, 50(1):14–40.
PROJECT FUNDING INFORMATION
National Science Foundation Research Improvement Grants (NSF DDRIG) ($18,879), 2016
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (NSF GROW), 2015-16
​National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP), 2012-15