Projects
Selected research projects in migration, legal status, and racial inequality.
A Comparative Analysis of Hate Crimes Against Asians in the USA, 1996–2022
2026Published in the Journal of International Migration and Integration
This project examines long-term patterns in anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States, focusing on how broader political and social contexts shape violence, racialization, and public responses across time.
Intergenerational Support and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Planning for Retirement
2025PAA 2025 Poster Session
This project examines how patterns of intergenerational support are associated with retirement planning across racial and ethnic groups, with attention to inequality, family structure, and later-life security.
Preferred Profiles of New Immigrants to NYC during the Migrant Influx of the 2020s: A Conjoint Experiment Revealing the Role of Legal Status in Public Opinion
OngoingConjoint experiment on migrant preferences, PAA 2026 Oral Session (Laam is the presenter)
A collaborative project examining public attitudes toward new migrants in New York City. The study focuses on how legal status, skill level, family status, and perceived deservingness shape evaluations of migrants in a sanctuary-city context.
Reframing (Il)legality, Not Values: New Yorkers’ Perceptions of Migrants and Preferences for Asylum Seekers
OngoingPAA 2026 Poster Session
This project examines how informational cues about migrants’ legal status shape public perceptions and policy attitudes in New York City. Using an embedded experiment in a city-representative survey of 1,250 residents conducted in 2024, the study tests whether clarifying that many recent arrivals are legally present asylum seekers alters perceptions of “illegality” and support for asylum policies. Preliminary findings show that legality clarifications significantly reduce perceived illegality but have no detectable effect on preferences for asylum generosity, suggesting that factual beliefs are more malleable than underlying value-based policy preferences.