Patrick R. Ireland

  • Professor of Political Science

Trained in comparative politics, modern languages, and public health, Patrick Ireland arrived at Illinois Tech in Fall 2007 from the American University of Beirut. He has also taught at the University of Denver and Georgia Tech, as well as for shorter stints in Germany and Ghana and as a senior Fulbright Scholar in Rabat, Morocco. His teaching repertoire includes courses on comparative politics (survey, Europe, Africa), comparative public policy (health, social, urban), ethnic relations, global health, and global migration.

Ireland has written extensively on urban-level migrant integration in developed and developing countries, employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. His publications include several single-authored books—The Policy Challenge of Ethnic Diversity (Harvard, 1994), Becoming Europe: Immigration, Integration, and the Welfare State (Pittsburgh, 2004), and Migrant Integration in Times of Economic Crisis: Comparing Policy Responses from European and North American Global Cities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)—and many peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. His work has been based on extensive field work undertaken in North and West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Europe and has been supported by the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies, American Political Science Association, Chateaubriand Fellowship Program, Council of American Overseas Research Centers, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, European Commission, Fulbright Scholar Program, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Krupp Foundation, Gouvernement du Québec, Rockefeller Foundation, and Social Science Research Council.

Ireland has served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Education; as a manuscript reviewer for a number of academic journals and university presses; as a Senior Research Associate with the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California-San Diego; as an advisory board member of the Centre for European Political Communications at the University of Leeds in England, the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs in Lebanon, and the EU-funded Multicultural Democracy and Immigrants’ Social Capital in Europe (MULTIDEM) Project; and as a participant in the Securitization of Migrant Mobilization (SOMI) project financed by the Université Paris Sorbonne Cité through the Agence Nationale de la Recherche in France.

Ireland is currently working on research that deals with how West African migrants negotiate urban spaces in African and Southern European cities and how migration-driven diversity has been affecting European and North American health systems.

Education

Ph.D., Harvard University, Political Science 
M.A., Harvard University, Political Science 
M.P.H., University of Texas, Public Health 
B.A., University of Notre Dame, Modern Languages and Political Science (summa cum laude)

Research Interests

The future of cities

Migrants and cities in Europe, North America, Africa, and Australasia

Migration and health

Female migrant domestic workers

Tourism and cultural policy

Publications

Most Recent Publications

“Migration, Diversity, and the Welfare State: Moving Beyond Attitudes,” forthcoming in Markus M. L. Crepaz, ed., Handbook on Migration and Welfare (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2021)

“Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa,” in Robert A. Denemark, ed., International Studies Encyclopedia, Vol. 3 (Oxford: Oxford University Press & International Studies Association, February 2021).

“A Mixed-Method Study Comparing Migrant Integration Outcomes in Five Global Cities,” SAGE Research Methods Cases: Politics and International Relations (London: SAGE Publications, 2019).

“The Limits of Sending-State Power: The Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Female Migrant Domestic Workers,” International Political Science Review, Vol. 39, No. 3 (2018), pp. 322-337 – reprinted in Yoshikazu Shiobara et al., ed., Migration Policies in Asia (New Delhi: SAGE Publications, 2019).

Migrant Integration in Times of Economic Crisis: Comparing Policy Responses from European and North American Global Cities (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

Patrick Ireland

Contact Information

312.567.5211 312.567.6821 Siegel Hall, Room 116A MW, 9 a.m. - 10 a.m. + by appointment