Pei Palmgren

Pei Palmgren received his PhD in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles, specializing in international migration, development, and governance. His projects include multi-sited research on labor migration governance in Thailand, displacement and forced migration in Southeast Asia, and refugee resettlement in the United States. As a postdoc at the Immigration Policy Lab, Palmgren is involved in the Qualitative Research Initiative, working on a project investigating co-sponsorship arrangements in the US refugee resettlement system. 

King Center Supported Research

2022 - 2023 Academic Year | Global Development Research Funding

Investigating Infrastructures of Care Among Migrant Workers in the Myanmar-Thailand Migration Corridor

Care work, including essential activities of childcare, cleaning, and aiding the sick and elderly, undergirds much of society in all contexts. Amid worldwide care deficits, this project will investigate the social protection gaps and coping strategies of care workers in the Myanmar-Thailand migration corridor. Through qualitative interviews, it will provide a critical set of substantive findings to develop a long-term research agenda on the infrastructures of care and social reproduction among migrant workers in Southeast Asia and the global South, with potential implications for policies and programs to address the “global care crisis” and achieve sustainable development goals more broadly.