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Dr. Margaret Walton-Roberts is a human geographer trained in the UK and Canada who focuses on international migration. She is a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA), Waterloo Canada. Her research interests are in gender and migration, transnational networks, and immigrant settlement. Her current research focuses on gender and the international migration of health care professionals, and international student migration.
She has been awarded several external grants for her research, and has published over 43 book chapters, and more than 50 journal articles. Her latest edited book, Global Migration, Gender and Health Professional Credentials: Transnational Value Transfers and Losses (2022) is published with University of Toronto Press.
My current research focuses on the global migration of nurses. This began with a Shastri faculty training grant to explore gender and skilled migration from Kerala. This was followed with a three-year standard research grant from SSHRC on India's role in the Global Nurse Care Chain. This project involved coordination and collaboration between myself and colleagues in north and south India and the bringing together of multidisciplinary research methods in a cross-cultural context. The project found that overseas migration opportunities are mediated by important transnational and diaspora-led investments in the health and education sector in India and in the migration recruitment intermediary sector. I continued this research in Canada to examine how these transnational sectors interact within diverse regulatory landscapes and contribute to mobilizing labour, capital and ideas across internationalized nursing labour markets. Based on this I received a SSHRC knowledge Synthesis grant to explore the intersection of nursing regulatory and immigration systems in Canada. Based on this work the research team I led released two short films on internationally educated nurses produced with the knowledge synthesis grant (watch the first video; watch the second video). Current research continues with an international research team funded through a SSHRC insight grant to examine global nurse migration pathways between India-Canada, Philippines-Singapore, and Vietnam-Germany.
- Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (2017).
- Presidents’ Award to International Migration Research Centre (2017).
- WLU Merit award 2019, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2006
- Recipient of the WLU Alumni Association’s Faculty Mentoring Award 2014
- International Guest Lectureship Program, Bielefeld University Germany (June 2013)
- Honorary Associate, Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Macquarie University (2009)
- Visiting scholar, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, Kerala, India. (2008)
Through my research I have funded and directed 15 research assistants and graduate students over the last eight years. I have also worked with international research teams of graduate students in India, and mentored international graduate students. In 2014 I was awarded the Laurier Faculty Mentorship award for my work with graduate students. Wherever possible I encourage students to publish their own work or offer them opportunities to co-author with me. I am willing to supervise graduate students in the areas of immigration and immigrant settlement transnationalism, diaspora, gender, migration and skilled worker migration.
Hamilton, L., Veronis, L., and Walton-Roberts, M. (eds) (2020) A National Project: Canada’s Syrian Refugee Resettlement Experience. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.
Walton-Roberts, M. (2020) "Intermediaries and transnational regimes of skill: nursing skills and competencies in the context of international migration", Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1731988
Cullen, B., and Walton-Roberts, M., (2019) "The Role of Local Immigration Partnerships in Syrian Refugee Resettlement in Waterloo Region Ontario" Canadian Geographer. 63,3: 374–390. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12558
Chikanda, A., Crush, J., and Walton-Roberts, M. (eds) (2016). Diasporas, Development and Governance. Springer Global Migration Series. (6,000 downloads by 2019) http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319221649
Howard Hassmann, R., and Walton-Roberts, M. (eds) (2015) The Human Right to Citizenship: A Slippery Concept (University of Pennsylvania Press). http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15363.html
Ennis, C., and Walton-Roberts, M. (2018) “Labour market regulation as global social policy: the case of nursing labour markets in Oman.” Global Social Policy 18,2: 169-188 https://doi.org/10.1177/1468018117737990
Moniruzzaman, M., and Walton-Roberts, M. (2017) “Migration, Debt and Resource Backwash: How Sustainable is Bangladesh-Gulf Cooperation Council Circular Migration?” Migration and Development, 7,1: 85-103. https://doi.org/10.1080/21632324.2017.1358799
Walton-Roberts, M., Bhutani, S., Kaur, A. (2017) “Care and Global Migration in the Nursing Profession: A North Indian Perspective.” Australian Geographer 48,1: 59-77 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00049182.2016.1266633
To see more of my publications please visit my researchgate.net profile.
- Video: Geographer Margaret Walton-Roberts featured interview at Canadian Science Policy Conference
- Laurier researchers shed light on ways to improve the international student experience
- Laurier-led study explores the role of ‘Local Immigration Partnerships’ in the Syrian refugee resettlement process
Contact Info:
Office location: Arts 3E7
Office hours:
By arrangement.
Languages spoken: English