Dr. Emily Frazier, an assistant professor of geography at Northwest Missouri State University, is the recipient of a $30,000 grant from the Russell Sage Foundation to further her research of refugee integration in the Midwest following Trump-era admission cuts and policy changes to the refugee resettlement system.

Her research project, titled “Integration of Resettled Refugees in the U.S. Midwest,” will compare resettlement centers in Des Moines, Iowa, and Lincoln, Nebraska.

“A lot of people don’t recognize refugees or how they are different from other forms of migrants,” Frazier said. “I want them to see that immigration isn’t something happening far away. It’s happening in their hometowns. It’s in their cities, and it’s something that they can participate in at their local refugee resettlement agency.”

Frazier is one of 21 emerging scholars, whose work represents a range of innovative research on economic mobility and access to opportunity, to receive the grant award from the Russell Sage Foundation, in partnership with the Economic Mobility and Opportunity program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant initiative supports early- and mid-career tenure-track scholars who are underrepresented in the social sciences to promote racial, ethnic, gender, disciplinary, institutional, and geographic diversity.

Frazier joined the Northwest faculty in 2020 and teaches courses related to human geography and geographic research methods. Her academic interests include immigration and refugee resettlement, humanitarian responses to displacement and qualitative research methodologies. She holds a doctoral degree in geography from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a bachelor’s degree in international studies and cultural affairs from Arkansas Tech University.