Natasha Iskander

Natasha Iskander is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service. She conducts research on labor migration and its relationship to economic development, with an emphasis on processes of institutional innovation and organizational learning. Her recent award-wining book, entitled Creative State: Forty Years of Migration and Development Policy in Morocco and Mexico (Cornell University Press: 2010), examines how the governments of Mexico and Morocco elaborated policies to build a link between labor emigration and local economic development. Her current project investigates how international migration acts as a vehicle for human capital development, knowledge generation, and industry renewal. Empirically, she has focused on Mexican migrants in the US and Mexican construction industries. Additionally, Dr. Iskander examines the impact on rapid rural-to-urban migration on the provision of urban water and sanitation, and its relationship to climate change. She holds PhD in Management and a Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a BA in Cultural Studies from Stanford University.