Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration

Overview

The Russell Sage Foundation’s program on Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration supports innovative investigator-initiated research that examines the roles of race, ethnicity, nativity, legal status —and their interactions with each other and other social categories—in the social, economic, and political outcomes for immigrants, U.S.-born racial and ethnic minorities, and native-born whites.

RSF encourages multi-disciplinary perspectives and methods that both strengthen the data, theory, and methods of social science research and improve our understanding of how to foster the ideals of a pluralist society. Proposals may focus on any one or more of the issues—race, and/or ethnicity, and/or immigration.

RSF prioritizes analyses that make use of newly available data or demonstrate novel uses of existing data. We support original data collection when a project is focused on important program priorities, projects that conduct survey or field experiments and qualitative studies. RSF encourages methodological variety and inter-disciplinary collaboration. Proposed projects must have well-developed conceptual frameworks and rigorous research designs. Analytical models must be well-specified and research methods must be appropriate.

RSF priorities do not include analyses of health or mental health outcomes or health behaviors as these are priorities for other funders. For the same reason, RSF seldom supports studies focused on educational processes or curricular issues but does prioritize analyses of inequalities in student achievement or educational attainment.

The kinds of questions that are of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Racial and Ethnic Diversity, Intergroup Relations, and Social Inclusion 
• Immigration Policy and Immigrant Integration Policies 
• The Role of Legal Status in Immigrant Outcomes
• Social Movements and Responses to Diversity 
• The Politics of Racial and Ethnic Competition and Coalition Building 
• Criminal and Civil Justice in Law Enforcement 
• History, Race, Immigration, and the Law

A letter of inquiry is required. Applications for research grants must be preceded by a brief letter of inquiry (4 pages max. excluding references) to determine whether our present interests and funds permit consideration of a proposal.

Funding can be used for research assistance, data acquisition, data analysis, and investigator time for conducting research and writing up results.  Trustee Grants are capped at $200,000, including 15% indirect costs, over a two-year period.  Presidential Awards are capped at $50,000 (no indirect costs) over a two-year period. However, when research projects have special needs for gathering data (e.g., qualitative research or survey experiments), gaining access to proprietary or restricted-use data, or when the proposal budget includes salary support for multiple assistant professor PIs, applicants may request up to $75,000 (no indirect costs).