Matthew Blanton
Biographic Data
| ID | 272950 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew Blanton |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew |
| FAMILY NAME | Blanton |
| SIGNATURE | BLANTON M |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Texas at Austin |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5221-2556 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Respondent‐Driven Sampling as a Tool for Studying Migrants in Need of International Protection
Threat evasion—the need to escape imminent threats to safety and survival—is a major driver of international migration. Demographic research on threat‐evasive migration, however, remains scant, owing to a longstanding dearth of systematic data on migrants in need of international protection (MNP). To that end, we leveraged respondent‐driven sampling (RDS), a methodology designed to access “hidden” populations in the absence of a reliable sampling…
Brief Report
Researchers have long relied on United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehension data as a proxy for undocumented migration, yet the last time their validity was assessed was in 1995. Significant changes in the composition of migrants and border crossings since then raise questions about their continued validity. In this study, I provide an updated analysis using two independent data sources: the 2018 Guatemalan Census and annual es…
Post-Migration Stressors and Mental and Physical Health among Refugees and Migrants in Need of Protection
Refugees and migrants in need of protection (MNP) experience high levels of psychological distress and somatic symptoms—physical symptoms linked to stress. While a large body of literature explores the relationship between pre-migration trauma and health, less is known about the role of post-migration stressors. Drawing on a novel 13-week intensive panel survey (N=247 individuals; 3,093 observations) and in-depth interviews (N=65) with MNP in Cos…
Institutional Decline and Resilient Belief
A large body of literature analyzes trends of religious decline across Western Europe and North America. Often rooted in secularization theory—the idea that modernization reduces religious beliefs and practice—this research lacks attention to global, comparative contexts. In this study, the author addresses that gap by examining religious trends spanning two decades across 17 Latin American countries to analyze changes in religious affiliation, c…
Family Separation Among Migrants in Need of International Protection
Much remains unknown about how threat evasion—migration undertaken to escape threats to survival—occurs at the family level. With the phenomenon of threat evasion as our principal focus, we collected and analyzed 65 in-depth interviews and four focus groups ( N = 44) among a highly diverse sample of Latin American asylum-seekers and other migrants in need of international protection (MNP) in Costa Rica. Across MNP from diverse backgrounds, family…
Column - Depicting migration
Journal Article Column - Depicting migration: what can art do that scholarship cannot? Get access Matthew Blanton Matthew Blanton Department of Sociology University of Texas at Austin Austin TX, USA E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Migration Studies, mnad038, https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnad038 Published: 09 February 2024
International Displacement and Family Stress in Latin America
Family stress theories posit that individual family members are positioned to adapt to external stressors differently and that these differences can strain family systems. Analyzing in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of migrant mothers in Costa Rica, we investigate how families adjust to the stressors of international displacement. Three stages of family stress adjustment emerged from our analysis: (1) parents' prioritization of safety, (2…
Value-Conditioned Interest
Although religion once played a central role in sociological inquiry, today it has fallen from prominence and now occupies a marginal space in the field. Sociologists of religion suggest that this neglect can be explained by the unusual irreligiosity of academia. However, some are hopeful that changes to graduate training and other institutional interventions can overcome this propensity and encourage more sociological engagement with religion, o…
Variability in mental health reporting among refugees and migrants in need of protection
Our findings highlight temporal variability in repeated self-reports of mental health among Latin American MNP and further highlight sociodemographic heterogeneity therein
Costa Rica as a Destination for Migrants in Need of International Protection
In this IMR Country Report, we draw attention to Costa Rica as a strategic location for expanding research and theory on migrants in need of protection (MNP), who have migrated abroad primarily to evade an imminent threat to their survival. MNP constitute an increasing share of all international migrants in Costa Rica and worldwide, yet research on these migrants and their migration dynamics remains comparatively underdeveloped relative to resear…
Value-Conditioned Interest
Although religion once played a central role in sociological inquiry, today it has fallen from prominence and now occupies a marginal space in the field. Sociologists of religion suggest that this neglect can be explained by the unusual irreligiosity of academia. However, some are hopeful that changes to graduate training and other institutional interventions can overcome this propensity and encourage more sociological engagement with religion, o…
Costa Rica as a Destination for Migrants in Need of International Protection
In this IMR Country Report, we draw attention to Costa Rica as a strategic location for expanding research and theory on migrants in need of protection (MNP), who have migrated abroad primarily to evade an imminent threat to their survival. MNP constitute an increasing share of all international migrants in Costa Rica and worldwide, yet research on these migrants and their migration dynamics remains comparatively underdeveloped relative to resear…
International Displacement and Family Stress in Latin America
Family stress theories posit that individual family members are positioned to adapt to external stressors differently and that these differences can strain family systems. Analyzing in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of migrant mothers in Costa Rica, we investigate how families adjust to the stressors of international displacement. Three stages of family stress adjustment emerged from our analysis: (1) parents' prioritization of safety, (2…
Column - Depicting migration
Journal Article Column - Depicting migration: what can art do that scholarship cannot? Get access Matthew Blanton Matthew Blanton Department of Sociology University of Texas at Austin Austin TX, USA E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Migration Studies, mnad038, https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnad038 Published: 09 February 2024
Variability in mental health reporting among refugees and migrants in need of protection
Our findings highlight temporal variability in repeated self-reports of mental health among Latin American MNP and further highlight sociodemographic heterogeneity therein
Costa Rica as a Destination for Migrants in Need of International Protection
In this IMR Country Report, we draw attention to Costa Rica as a strategic location for expanding research and theory on migrants in need of protection (MNP), who have migrated abroad primarily to evade an imminent threat to their survival. MNP constitute an increasing share of all international migrants in Costa Rica and worldwide, yet research on these migrants and their migration dynamics remains comparatively underdeveloped relative to resear…
Column - Depicting migration
Journal Article Column - Depicting migration: what can art do that scholarship cannot? Get access Matthew Blanton Matthew Blanton Department of Sociology University of Texas at Austin Austin TX, USA E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Migration Studies, mnad038, https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnad038 Published: 09 February 2024
International Displacement and Family Stress in Latin America
Family stress theories posit that individual family members are positioned to adapt to external stressors differently and that these differences can strain family systems. Analyzing in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of migrant mothers in Costa Rica, we investigate how families adjust to the stressors of international displacement. Three stages of family stress adjustment emerged from our analysis: (1) parents' prioritization of safety, (2…
Value-Conditioned Interest
Although religion once played a central role in sociological inquiry, today it has fallen from prominence and now occupies a marginal space in the field. Sociologists of religion suggest that this neglect can be explained by the unusual irreligiosity of academia. However, some are hopeful that changes to graduate training and other institutional interventions can overcome this propensity and encourage more sociological engagement with religion, o…
Post-Migration Stressors and Mental and Physical Health among Refugees and Migrants in Need of Protection
Refugees and migrants in need of protection (MNP) experience high levels of psychological distress and somatic symptoms—physical symptoms linked to stress. While a large body of literature explores the relationship between pre-migration trauma and health, less is known about the role of post-migration stressors. Drawing on a novel 13-week intensive panel survey (N=247 individuals; 3,093 observations) and in-depth interviews (N=65) with MNP in Cos…
Institutional Decline and Resilient Belief
A large body of literature analyzes trends of religious decline across Western Europe and North America. Often rooted in secularization theory—the idea that modernization reduces religious beliefs and practice—this research lacks attention to global, comparative contexts. In this study, the author addresses that gap by examining religious trends spanning two decades across 17 Latin American countries to analyze changes in religious affiliation, c…
Family Separation Among Migrants in Need of International Protection
Much remains unknown about how threat evasion—migration undertaken to escape threats to survival—occurs at the family level. With the phenomenon of threat evasion as our principal focus, we collected and analyzed 65 in-depth interviews and four focus groups ( N = 44) among a highly diverse sample of Latin American asylum-seekers and other migrants in need of international protection (MNP) in Costa Rica. Across MNP from diverse backgrounds, family…
Respondent‐Driven Sampling as a Tool for Studying Migrants in Need of International Protection
Threat evasion—the need to escape imminent threats to safety and survival—is a major driver of international migration. Demographic research on threat‐evasive migration, however, remains scant, owing to a longstanding dearth of systematic data on migrants in need of international protection (MNP). To that end, we leveraged respondent‐driven sampling (RDS), a methodology designed to access “hidden” populations in the absence of a reliable sampling…
Brief Report
Researchers have long relied on United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehension data as a proxy for undocumented migration, yet the last time their validity was assessed was in 1995. Significant changes in the composition of migrants and border crossings since then raise questions about their continued validity. In this study, I provide an updated analysis using two independent data sources: the 2018 Guatemalan Census and annual es…
Migration, Health and Trauma (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (5 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Economics (3 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (3 works) · Immigration (3 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (3 works) · Population (3 works) · Psychology (3 works)