Position Title
Professor
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 legal status, deportation, family and child migration, and migrant health. 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.
Publications
Books
Coming in March 2025!
Robert A. Hummer and Erin R. Hamilton. 2019. Population Health in America. Oakland, CA: UC Press.
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.
Articles
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.
Claudia Masferrer León, Erin R. Hamilton, and Nicole Denier. 2019. “Immigrants in their Parental Homeland: Half a Million U.S.-born Minors Settle throughout Mexico.” Demography 56(4): 1453-1461.
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 international migration (SOC 4), demography (SOC 170), and population health (SOC 163), as well as the graduate introduction to research methods (SOC 201) and seminars on migration and demography. She also leads the Sociology Department's Undergraduate Honors Program, which you can read more about here!
Awards
2020 ASA Population Section Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship in Population Award
2019 UC Davis Chancellor's Fellowship
2018-2019 U.S. Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholar
- Ph.D., Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin, 2009
- B.A., Policy Studies, Rice University, 2001