Zahra Asghar is a second-year JD/MPP student at the Harvard Kennedy and Harvard Law Schools. She was accepted into the Growth Lab’s 2024 Summer Internship Program and contributed to the ongoing Migration project funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation – an initiative aimed at developing de facto measures of country-level openness to migration and understanding which countries are most effective at integrating migrants.
Why did you apply to the Growth Lab Summer Internship?
I have been working on the ground in refugee resettlement and migrant support in some capacity since I was fifteen. Over the last decade, I have seen migration advocates increasingly begin making economic arguments in favor of migration, as opposed to the moral or political arguments that were effective in the past. This project would allow me the opportunity to understand the research underlying these arguments in more detail – what impacts have already been proven in the research, what gaps remain, and how such research is communicated to drive impact. While getting this exposure, I would also get the opportunity to work with a team on the cutting edge of answering the most critical questions on the topic!
What did you work on?
There are two primary areas the team is focused on – developing a de facto measure of openness to migration (as opposed to a de jure measure, such as a consolidated database of visa restrictions) and understanding which countries were most effective at integrating migrants. By May, when I began my work with the project, the openness measures had already been developed, so I focused on identifying potential use cases for the research and presentation materials for validation discussions with NGOs and other researchers. In terms of the economic integration question, I focused on consolidating and validating the initial cross-country dataset that will be used for analysis in the fall. I also began an initial literature review on the ways in which immigration can drive economic complexity and exports, to prepare for potential future questions the team might ask.
In what ways were you challenged?
As someone not coming from an academic research background, I spent much of the first weeks of the research project reading through the relevant literature and working to understand the methodology of the work. Thankfully, the team was immensely patient and ensured I got up to speed relatively quickly. Later in my experience, when it came to developing the integration database, many of the research databases we were pulling from were in languages that I had little to no fluency in, testing my ability to work in a foreign data environment and my ingenuity with Google translate.
What about this research most excites you?
I think this research has the potential to help a number of different types of stakeholders – countries, non-profit organizations, multilaterals, and academics – better understand the ‘softer’ levers that can influence immigration beyond visa restrictions or economic incentives. For countries with aging populations, increasing immigration is one lever they can use to stabilize their economies and drive growth, and understanding these types of factors can help inform best practices for attracting new immigrant populations and ensuring they are effectively integrated into their new communities.
What advice would you give to future interns?
Take advantage of your time at the Growth Lab! The teams are really invested in student growth, and the Lab is a fantastic place to learn. If you have a research question you are particularly interested in related to the project you are working on, you should share it with your team and carve out time to work on it while you have access to all the expertise they – and the broader Growth Lab Team – offer!
What’s next for you?
I have three years remaining of my joint policy and law degree. Over the next few years, I hope to work in public interest spaces around civil rights, including migrant rights and international human rights. This research experience has given me an important fluency in statistical research and migration literature that will greatly inform those experiences and make me more effective in driving impact.
