Erin R. Hamilton

Education

• Ph.D., Sociology, University of Texas, Austin, 2009
• M.A., Sociology, University of Texas, Austin, 2005
• B.A., Policy Studies, Rice University, 2001

About

Erin Hamilton is professor of sociology and an affiliate of the UC Davis Center for Poverty and Inequality Research, the UC Davis Global Migration Center, and the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas. She is an Associate Editor at Demographic Research and a Deputy Editor at Demography.

Research Focus

Erin Hamilton studies when, why, and how people migrate, and with what consequences for migrants, their families, and the communities they leave and enter. She is currently working on research projects on return migration, child and family migration, and the binational population of children of immigrants in Mexico and the United States. She was a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholar at El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City in spring 2019. Erin is the co-author, with Robert Hummer, of Population Health in America, and with Claudia Masferrer and Nicole Denier, of The Returned: Former U.S. Migrants' Lives in Mexico City. 

Publications

Books

Las autoras conversan sobre el libro en "Destino México"

Erin talks about the book on Capital Public Radio's Insight with Vicki Gonzalez

 

Policy Briefs

De Facto Deported Children in Mexico Face Socioeconomic Disadvantage

DACA Associated with Improved Birth Outcomes Among Mexican-Immigrant Mothers

DACA Enables Mobility, but its Uncertain Future Undermines Benefits for Recipients

DACA Uncertainty May Undermine its Positive Impact on Wellbeing

Deported Fathers Will Risk Harsh Penalties to Return to Families in the U.S.

Recent articles

Erin R. Hamilton, Paola Langer, and Claudia Masferrer. 2025. Parent-Child Separation and Plans for Family Reunification after Deportation to Mexico from the United States. Migraciones Internacionales 16: enero-deciembre.

Erin R. Hamilton, Claudia Masferrer, and Paola Langer. 2023. “U.S. Citizen Children De Facto Deported to Mexico.” Population and Development Review 49(1): 175-203.

Erin R. Hamilton, Paola Langer*, and Caitlin C. Patler. 2021. “DACA's Association with Birth Outcomes among Mexican-origin Mothers in the United States.” Demography 58 (3): 975–985.

Erin R. Hamilton, Jo Mhairi Hale, and Robin Savinar. 2019. “Immigrant Legal Status and Health: Legal Status Disparities in Chronic Conditions and Musculoskeletal Pain among Mexican-Born Farm Workers in the U.S.” Demography 56(1): 1-24.

Teaching

Professor Hamilton teaches undergraduate courses in demography (SOC 170) and population health (SOC 163), as well as occasional graduate seminars on migration and demography. She also leads the Sociology Department's Undergraduate Honors Program, which you can read more about here!