Carlos Vargas-Silva Professor in Migration Studies

+44 (0)1865 284975
carlos.vargas-silva@compas.ox.ac.uk

Carlos Vargas-Silva is Professor in Migration Studies and a Fellow of Kellogg College. He has a joint appointment between the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), based at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, and the Oxford Department for International Development.

Carlos was Director of COMPAS from October 2019 to September 2023 and was the (founding) Director of the DPhil in Migration Studies at Oxford from October 2018 to September 2023.

The overarching theme of his research is the interaction of migration with labour markets, public services, and health outcomes, with a key focus on the role of policy in affecting those interactions. An important contribution of his work has been the application of concepts from economics to conceptualise migration decisions and the impacts of migration on host communities in the forced migration context. Bringing additional insights from other social sciences, he has developed conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches to investigate the evidence in this context.

Carlos is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal Migration Studies, published by Oxford University Press.

Carlos teaches in the MSc in Migration Studies at Oxford. He also supervises doctoral students interested in migration (in intersection with labour markets, development, and/or public policy) and welcomes new potential DPhil students interested in these areas. He also works with a vibrant group of post-doctoral fellows and is available for collaboration with early career researchers who want to consolidate their research in these topics.

Recent features: Prof Carlos Vargas-Silva on the politics of box ticking and the many myths around migrationOxford Profiles

Topics

Asylum and RefugeesLabour Markets

News & Blogs

Spielberg’s Sharks

Carlos Vargas-Silva

Seasonal migrant workers feeding the nation

Bethany Robertson, Roxana Barbulescu, Carlos Vargas-Silva

Seasonal harvest workers during COVID-19

Roxana Barbulescu & Carlos Vargas-Silva

Immigration and the reallocation of work health risks

Osea Giuntella, Carlos Vargas-Silva & Catia Nicodemo

Tap LinkedIn for data gold dust

Carlos Vargas-Silva

Colombia: A Wandering Country?

Isabel Ruiz and Carlos Vargas-Silva

Migration in Scotland

Carlos Vargas-Silva

The 2011 Census project

Carlos Vargas-Silva

The economics of forced migration

Carlos Vargas-Silva

Migration and Economic Growth

Carlos Vargas-Silva

Projects

Immigration and the NHS

Carlos Vargas-Silva | 2015 - 2016

Measuring Irregular Migration and Related Policies

Carlos Vargas-Silva, Myriam Cherti, Denis Kierans and Lucy Leon | October 2022 – September 2025

Migration and Poverty in the UK

Carlos Vargas-Silva, Madeleine Sumption and COMPAS Communications | February – April 2015

Migration Services in Wales

Sarah Spencer, Carlos Vargas-Silva and COMPAS Communications | January 2015 – March 2017

Role of European Mobility and its Impacts in Narratives, Debates and EU Reforms (REMINDER)

Carlos Vargas-Silva, Madeleine Sumption, Rob McNeil and William Allen | January 2017 - December 2019

The Economic Integration of Refugees in the UK (ECONREF)

Carlos Vargas-Silva | February 2017 - January 2019

The Labour Market Impacts of Forced Migration (LAMFOR)

Carlos Vargas-Silva | June 2013 – December 2015

Understanding Attitudes and Policy Preferences in Response to South-South Migration

Carlos Vargas-Silva and William Allen | May 2020 - November 2021