Biography: Dr. Weitzman is a sociologist and demographer whose research explores two interrelated questions: How do expectations, desires, and threats influence the timing and nature of important events in people’s lives, cumulatively shaping demographic patterns and population dynamics? And, reciprocally, how do shifting demographic circumstances influence aspirations, perceived threats, and behaviors in ways that determine individuals’ health outcomes and life trajectories? Her most recent work takes up these questions in the context of migration, considering how individuals and families navigate evolving threats and opportunities in both countries of origin and reception.

Abstract: Approximately 14 million refugees and other migrants in need of international protection (MNP) live in the Western hemisphere, approximately 83% of whom reside in Latin America or the Caribbean. Demographers know surprisingly little about this population or about threat evasive migration more generally, e.g. migration undertaken to escape threats to survival. Moreover, most research on MNP is concentrated among refugees and asylum-seekers, which has allowed states’ legal categorization of migrants to dictate whose experiences we understand. Drawing on six years of fieldwork with MNP in Costa Rica, I highlight the need to move away from conventional sampling approaches; discuss network-based sampling methods as an alternative; and illustrate how broadening the lens beyond asylum-seekers provides new insights into violence-related selection processes.