Bio
David Scott FitzGerald is Theodore E. Gildred Chair in U.S.-Mexican Relations, Professor of Sociology, and honorary Sergio Vieira de Mello Chair in refugee studies at the University of California San Diego. His research analyzes policies regulating migration and asylum in countries of origin, transit, and destination.
FitzGerald’s award-winning books include The Refugee System: A Sociological Approach (Polity 2023); Refuge beyond Reach: How Rich Democracies Repel Asylum Seekers (Oxford University Press, 2019); Culling the Masses: The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policy in the Americas (Harvard University Press, 2014); A Nation of Emigrants: How Mexico Manages its Migration (University of California Press, 2009); and seven edited volumes on Mexico-U.S. migration and Immigrant California.
FitzGerald’s work has been published in the American Journal of Sociology, Law and Society Review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Comparative Studies in Society and History, International Migration Review, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Qualitative Sociology, Connecticut Journal of International Law, and New York University Law Review. His major current project analyzes the politics, production, and methodological challenges of forced displacement statistics.
Publications
- “Norm-busting: rightist challenges in US and Australian immigration and refugee policies,” (with Asher Hirsch), Third World Quarterly, 2022
- “The Sociology of International Migration,” in Migration Theory: Talking Across Disciplines, (Routledge 2022).
- “Remote Control of Migration: Theorizing Territoriality, Shared Coercion, and Deterrence,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2020.
- "The Sociology of Refugee Migration", (with Rawan Arar), Annual Review of Sociology, 2018
- “How Their Laws Affect Our Laws: Mechanisms of Immigration Policy Diffusion in the Americas, 1790‒2010” (with David Cook-Martín), Law and Society Review, 2019.