Karsten Paerregaard

For the last 25 years my research has focused on issues of development and migration. Regionally, I specialize in Peru and the Andean region where I have lived and worked for more than 8 years. For a number of years I conducted research on rural-urban migration in Peru and its implications for the development process both in the sending communities in the Andean highlands and on the national level in Peru. I also studied how the political conflict in Peru caused forced migration and, once stability again is established, instigated return migration. In the past 12 years international migration has been the main focus of my research. Since 1997 I have followed Peruvian migrants in such countries as the United States, Spain, Italy, Japan, Argentina and Chile mapping out their movements and efforts to form transnational communities and create diasporic identities. A critical question in this research has been the economic and social causes that trigger Peruvian migration and their global dispersal to such a variety of countries. In a similar vein, I have scrutinized similarities and differences in the way that Peruvians are incorporated into the labor market and adapt to the receiving societies with the aim to compare immigration policies in North America, Europe, Japan and South America. Another important aspect of my research is how migrants' remittances contribute to their home communities and how the institutions and associations they form influence the political process both at a local and national level in Peru. I have also examined the problem of illegality that often is associated with migration. In particular I have explored how migrants who travel without the required ID papers, on the one hand, create strategies to overcome their legal problems and how these problems, on the other hand, limit and restrict their mobility and agency.My project for the Wilson Center is concentrated on the co-development of migration; that is, how the migration process can contribute to growth and development in both the receiving and sending countries. In particular, I am interested in Peruvian migrant networks and their contribution to the development of Peru. Empirically, my project explores three rural-based and three urban-based migrant networks with the aim to compare the different ways that rural and urban migrants support their families in Peru and influence the development process in their home communities. Simultaneously, I study the social and political dimensions of Peruvians' attempt to form migrant communities in the United States, Spain, Japan and Chile and the recent efforts of the Peruvian government to organize Peruvian migrants and persuade them to invest economic and human capital in their country of origin. Moreover, I compare the different immigration and development policies that such receiving countries as the U.S., Spain and Italy pursue to support the flow of migrant remittances. It is my hope that my research can make a critical contribution to the current attempt by the Peruvian government to formulate a consistent policy on the country's emigrant population as well as the attempts of the U.S., Spanish and Italian governments to support migrants' effort to improve the living conditions of their fellow-countrymen in regions where they come from.
 

Education

B.A. (1973), M.A. (1980) and Ph.D. (1990) in Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Honorary Doctor (2005), Universidad del Centro, Peru; Danish Doctoral Degree (2009) in Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
 

Experience

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, 1998-present
Senior Researcher, Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen, 1996-1998
Visiting Professor, University of Florida, 1994-1995
Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, 1992-1994
Research Fellow, Pontificia Universidad La Católica del Perú, Peru, 1989-1991

Expertise

Peruvian culture and history, Andean studies, transnational activities, migration and development