Professor Arenas studies migration and social stratification. She was trained as social demographer and social stratification researcher, with a strong focus on Latino migrant populations living in the United States. Her research agenda encompasses three main areas: (1) migration, (2) social stratification based on skin color, and (3) the effect of social programs on socio-economic and demographic outcomes.
Migration
Professor Arenas’ research has focused on investigating the complex association between health and migration. She is interested in understanding (i) how health affects the decision to migrate, (ii) what are the effects of migration on health outcomes for migrants on destination areas, (iii) what are the effects of migration on health outcomes of the family that stay behind, and (iv) what are the social and institutional factors affecting the decision to migrate. Currently she is examining how sending remittances may impact immigrants’ health outcomes.
The last ten years of her career, she has been actively participating in the collection of a unique dataset to study migrant populations: the Mexican Family Life Survey (http://www.ennvih-mxfls.org), which is a long term panel study that has successfully tracked and interviewed respondents across national borders. Currently, Prof. Arenas is co-PI and co-Director of the fourth wave of the MxFLS (MxFLS-4), which will be fielded in 2017 and 2018. Given that the panel will cover a period of fifteen years, she plans to use these data to investigate: (1) the mechanisms driving immigrant health deterioration/improvement in the United States, (2) the impact of documentation status on immigrant’s life chances, (3) the impact of migration on life chances outcomes for family members that stay in the sending region, and (4) the social determinants of domestic and international migration.
Social Stratification based on skin color
Professor Arenas is interested in examining how skin color affects life chances. She has studied how skin color shapes marriage markets using novel data she collected for the Mexican Marital Preference Pilot Project (MxMPP). For MxFLS-4, she will collect novel skin color data using several instruments (e.g. skin color palettes, and spectrophotometers) to investigate how skin color interacts with gender, indigenous background, age, class, and geographic location to determine educational, health, and labor market outcomes, and partner choice.
Social Programs and socio-demographic outcomes
Professor Arenas’ research includes the impact of public policies on socio-economic and demographic factors. She has examined the impact of Seguro Popular (a program intended to reduce health disparities in Mexico) on several health outcomes. She is involved in a project that investigates the impact of Prospera (before Oportunidades, a program aimed at reducing poverty via conditional cash transfers) on fertility and marriage behavior. Using data from MxFLS-4, she plans to examine how conditional cash transfer programs affect women bargaining power within their households.
Grants, Awards and Distinctions:
Academic Senate of UCSB. 2023. Travel Grant to present the paper of Color-Status Exchange: Evidence from Mexico Status Exchange at the International Sociological Association Conference, $1,500
UCSB Division of Social Sciences.2023. Peer Mentor Award, $500
UCSB Instructional Development. 2023. RISE Award, $1,000
Institute of Research for Equitable Development of Iberoamerican University (Instituto de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo con Equidad, Universidad Iberoamericana). 2022. Gender gap in mental health during COVID in Mexico (Co-PI), $7,800
UCSB Regents’ Humanities Faculty Fellowship Award.2022.
National Researcher Candidate Recognition by the Mexican National Researchers System, 2022-2024
UCSB Migration Initiative funding for the project “UndocuAging in Times of COVID-19. (Co PI. in conjunction with UCSB San Juanita Garcia Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies) $10,000
Russell Sage Foundation to conduct a pilot study. “Feasibility of Tracking And Re-Interviewing Immigrant Respondents Of A Population Based Longitudinal Survey After 10 Years” with the objective of testing the feasibility of conducting a follow-up survey of panel respondents of the Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS) living in the United States, and inquire about their legal status. (PI). $20,000.
CONACYT. 2016. Fourth Wave of the Mexican Family Fife Survey. (Co-PI). MXN 18,550,000 pesos, $927,500 .
W.K. Kellogg Foundation. 2017. Inclusion of the Black Population in Mexico's 2020 Census. (Co-PI). $372,000
UC MEXUS. 2017. The Role of Documentation Status on Mental Health