Neeraj Kaushal Awarded Tenure at Columbia University School of Social Work

For Immediate Release

November 13, 2008

New York, NY — The Columbia University School of Social Work (CUSSW) is pleased to announce that Dr. Neeraj Kaushal, Associate Professor of Social Work, has been awarded tenure by Columbia University.

An economist by educational preparation and a journalist prior to joining the academy, Dr. Kaushal’s research has garnered accolades from senior academics specializing in labor and immigration policy.  Her work in the past five years has centered on two broad themes—first, the interaction between state welfare programs and the well-being of low-income families, and second, how various policies and events have affected the well-being of immigrants.  Dr. Kaushal has investigated effects of the 1996 welfare reform on several aspects of the lives of low-income families, including labor market outcomes, health insurance, health care use and health outcomes, with special emphasis on the circumstances of immigrants. Her influential work in this area has been referenced in Congressional hearings that examine the nation’s immigration and immigrant-related policies.

Dr. Kaushal is also one of a small number of scholars to examine the effect of amnesty on the economic well-being of undocumented immigrants and the effect of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the labor market outcomes of Arabs and Muslims living in the U.S.  Her current research focuses on issues that are critical to the on-going immigration debate in the country. Her research has investigated how in-state college tuition for undocumented persons affects their education and earnings. Other work relevant to U.S. immigration policy include: the effect of immigration of foreign-trained nurses on the wages of U.S.-trained nurses; the complexities of economic relationships between high-skilled immigrants and natives; trajectories of health care use and health outcomes of Mexican immigrants; and levels of educational attainment in the U.S. and abroad vis-à-vis immigrant assimilation and human capital portability.

Dr. Kaushal’s work has been published in highly respected journals, including the Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Health Economics, Health Services Research, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Journal of Urban Economics, and Journal of Population Economics.  She is the recipient, along with Columbia School of Social Work alumna Qin Gao and Professor Jane Waldfogel, of the 2008 Frank R. Breul Memorial Prize for the best research article published in the Social Services Review, the leading social welfare journal.

Her innovative studies have received funding from the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Russell Sage Foundation, and the Foundation for Childhood Development.  Dr. Kaushal’s significant contributions to health and immigration policies have made her a sought-after presenter at national and international initiatives and forums concerned with welfare and immigration issues.  In addition, she has been a consultant to the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., and has also played a consultative role to the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future. 

Dr. Kaushal is currently a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor, the largest consortium of labor economists in Europe. She is an affiliate of the Columbia Population Research Center, providing expertise in social welfare, labor, economic, health and nutrition, and immigration policies.  She also periodically writes for The Economic Times, India’s largest financial newspaper.

For more information, please contact Jeannie Hii at jy2223@columbia.edu or 212-851-2327.