Summer 2026 FT Research Fellowship: "Cross-Border Migration and Health: Mapping Migration, Labor Conditions, and Emergent Health Needs Among Migrant Farmworker Families"

The King Center on Global Development's Summer Undergraduate Full-Time Research Assistant Program offers opportunities for fieldwork and research experience to matriculated, Stanford, undergraduates interested in global poverty and development across all academic disciplines.

When Stanford University travel policies allow, selected students spend up to 12 weeks in a low- or middle-income country conducting full-time research for a King Center faculty affiliate. Each research assistant receives a stipend of approximately $8,500 that covers most associated costs including travel, lodging, and incidental expenses.  Financial aid of up to $1,500 is also awarded to students who qualify.

Students are welcome to apply to multiple opportunities but must apply to each faculty research project separately.  Students may only accept one project if they are offered multiple opportunities.

If you have problems submitting your application, please report issues through the SOLO platform with a screenshot that includes the URL and the full page.  Please email kingcenter_programs@stanford.edu to also let us know of your issue(s). 

RESEARCH PROJECT SUMMARY:

Migrant agricultural worker families traveling from Mexico to California experience intersecting vulnerabilities related to labor practices, legal status, environmental exposures, and healthcare access. Migrant workers may be exposed to hazardous labor conditions, labor exploitation, climate-related illness, unmet health needs and uncertain healthcare access. Further, children in these families may experience disrupted schooling, child labor, and unique environmental health risks based on their developmental stage. This study will characterizing labor exploitation dynamics, emergency healthcare needs, and the health impacts of agricultural labor among migrant worker families originating in Mexico to work in California's agricultural sector.

This project employs a mixed-methods, community-engaged research design. We will first use structured literature reviews to synthesize evidence on migration pathways, and map migration pathways between Mexico and workers in Central Northern California. We will also create geospatial resource maps of agricultural labor sites, community-based support organizations, and emergency healthcare services in Mexico, California’s Central Valley, and Northern California. We will pursue secondary analysis of the National Agricultural Workers Survey to assess labor violations, child presence in agricultural work, and health indicators. We will then create community partnerships with organizations working to support migrant worker families in Mexico, Central Valley and Northern California. With these organizations, we will co-design multilingual WhatsApp-based surveys to capture real-time information on child labor, schooling, emergency health needs, and environmental and climate-related health impacts. Findings will be reviewed with community partners to ensure contextual accuracy and relevance, with the goal of informing future interventions, policy, and healthcare delivery strategies for migrant agricultural worker families.

Research mentor: Assistant Professor Preeti Panda

Dates: A minimum of ten weeks during summer quarter 2026.

WHAT YOU WILL DO: 

The research assistant will work closely together and in collaboration with the research team to:

• Literature reviews
• Resource mapping
• Assist in creating international, regional, and local partnerships with grassroots organizations in Mexico, Central valley, and Bay area.
• Participate in secondary dataset analysis
• Students will have the opportunity to continue working with the team during the school year to participate in Whatsapp survey co-design with community partners, survey deployment, analysis, and dissemination of results.