Dr. Margaret Walton-Roberts is a human geographer trained in the UK and Canada who focuses on international migration. She is currently a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo Canada. Her research interests are in gender and migration, transnational networks, and immigrant settlement. 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.

She has been awarded several external grants for her research, and has published over 34 book chapters, and more than 46 journal articles. Her latest co-edited book A National Project: Canada’s Syrian Refugee Resettlement Experience will be published with McGill-Queens University Press in summer 2020. Her most recent research grant examine Global Nurse Migration Pathways.

Academic / Professional Awards

Presidents’ Award to International Migration Research Centre, 2017
WLU Merit award 2019, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2006
Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Sept-Dec 2017
Recipient of the WLU Alumni Association’s Faculty Mentoring Award, 2014
International Guest Lectureship Program, Bielefeld University Germany, June 2013
Affiliation, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, Kerala, India, July 2008-2009
Honorary Associate, Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Macquarie University, Sydney Australia
Director, International Migration Research Centre, WLU, 2008-2011
Cross appointment to the Laurier Balsillie School of Graduate Programs, 2008
Adjunct professor Department of Geography Waterloo University, 2008

Select Publications

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. DOI 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.
Walton-Roberts, M. 2019. “Asymmetrical therapeutic mobilities: Masculine advantage in nurse migration from India.” Mobilities 14:1.
Kaspar, H., Bouchaton, A., and Walton-Roberts, M. 2019. “Therapeutic Mobilities.” Introduction to the Special issue Mobilities 14: 1.
Thompson, M., and Walton-Roberts, M. 2018. “International nurse migration from India and the Philippines: the challenge of meeting the sustainable development goals in training, orderly migration, and healthcare worker retention.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Mainwaring, C., and Walton-Roberts, M. 2018. “Governing Migration from the Margin.” (Introduction to the special issue) Social and Legal Studies 27 (2): 131-141.
Mainwaring, C., and Walton-Roberts, M. 2018. “Borders, (Dis)Order, And Exclusion: Mapping Migration Governance From the Margins.” (Introduction to the special issue) International Journal of Border and Migration Studies 4: 1-2.
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.
Moniruzzaman, M., and Walton-Roberts, M. 2017. “Migration, Debt and Resource Backwash: How Sustainable is Bangladesh-Gulf Cooperation Council Circular Migration?” Migration and Development.
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.
Gill, H., and Walton-Roberts, M. 2017. “Placing the transnational migrant.” In Urbanization in a Global Context, edited by Alison Bain and Linda Peake, 245-260. Oxford University Press.
Walton-Roberts, M. 2017. “Immigration policy change and the transnational shaping of place.” In Rethinking International Skilled Migration, edited by Micheline van Riemsdijk and Qingfang Wang, 228-248. Routledge: New York and London.
Dordi, H., and Walton-Roberts, M. 2017. “Softening India Abroad: Representations of India and its diaspora in the Canadian Press.” Routledge Handbook of the Indian Diaspora, edited by R.S. Hedge and A. Sahoo, 252-266. Routledge.
Chikanda, Abel, Crush, Jonathan, Walton-Roberts, Margaret (Eds.). 2016. Diasporas, Development and Governance. Springer International Publishing.
Connell, J., and Walton-Roberts, M. 2016. “What about the Workforce? The Missing Geographies of Health Care”. Progress in Human Geography 40(2): 158–176.
Howard Hassmann, R., and Walton-Roberts, M. 2015. The Human Right to Citizenship A Slippery Concept. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Walton-Roberts, M. 2015. “The international migration of health professionals and the marketization and privatization of health education in India: From push-pull to global political economy”. Social Science and Medicine 124: 374-382.