The world moves
to survive,
to reproduce,
to access.
to survive,
to reproduce,
to access.
We map it · We measure it · We make it visible
Global Institute of Emerging Human Mobilities (GIEHM) is the world's first research institute uniting reproductive migration and climate displacement. Building the knowledge, data, and frameworks that emerging forms of human mobility demand.
Global Institute of Emerging Human Mobilities (GIEHM) is the world's first research institute uniting reproductive migration and climate displacement. Building the knowledge, data, and frameworks that emerging forms of human mobility demand.
Emerging Human Mobilities
The cross-border movement of individuals, couples, and communities to survive climate breakdown, access reproductive healthcare, fulfil surrogacy or donor arrangements, or escape legal restrictions on reproductive rights.
A new field.
A necessary one
A necessary one
ABOUT THE INSTITUTE
New forms of human mobility are reshaping the 21st century. Reproductive migration and climate displacement are accelerating simultaneously — yet no research institute has studied them together, built the data infrastructure to measure them, or constructed the legal frameworks to govern them.
GIEHM exists to do all three. We are building the science, the tools, and the network this field demands.
GIEHM exists to do all three. We are building the science, the tools, and the network this field demands.
What we do and why it matters.
An introduction to GIEHM and our research
An introduction to GIEHM and our research
4K Timelapse Video
Two research areas.
One unifying question.
Research Area I
Reproductive Migration
Reproductive Migration
Cross-border movement for fertility care, abortion access, surrogacy, and maternal health - a global phenomenon operating largely outside existing legal and policy frameworks.
Research Area II
Climate displacement
Climate displacement
New patterns of forced and voluntary movement driven by ecological breakdown - slow-onset displacement, environmental migration, and the demographic futures of a warming world.
Where the two fields meet.
THE NEXUS
The most important frontier sits at the intersection, where climate displacement directly shapes reproductive futures, and reproductive migration reveals who can access the conditions for life, and where.
- THE EVIDENCEClimate reshapes reproductive outcomes
Heat stress, pollution, and water insecurity directly affect pregnancy, fertility, and neonatal health - disproportionately across the Global South.
- THE INSIGHTPeople move to reproduce, not just to survive
Migration decisions increasingly encode reproductive intent, where to bear children, access care, and build generational futures in a warming world.
- THE GIEHM RESPONSEGIEHM makes the nexus visible
By connecting reproductive and climate mobility datasets, GIEHM reveals what no existing institution tracks and gives policymakers tools they urgently need.
Research supported by.
Team building the field.
Leadership team.
- Associate Professor Dr Olga OleinikovaFounder & Director
One of Australia's leading migration scholars, Dr Oleinikova is Associate Professor in Migration at the University of Technology Sydney. A migration sociologist specialising in new forms of cross-border mobility, forced displacement, and climate migration across Asia-Pacific, she has held research fellowships at Oxford University, the Max Planck Institute, and WZB Berlin. Listed among Forbes Top 40 Global Ukrainians, her work is supported by grants from DFAT, NED, Oxford, and UTS. She has advises DFAT and the UN Migration Agency. Author of 3 monographs, she pioneered the systematic study of life strategies of migrants from crisis regimes, and founded GIEHM to build the global evidence base the field of emerging mobilities demands. - Dr Polina Smiragina-IngelströmDeputy Director
One of Europe's leading experts on migrant rights, biolegality, human trafficking, and gender, Dr. Smiragina-Ingelström is a lecturer and senior research manager at DIS Stockholm and Executive Secretary of the Victimology Working Group within the European Society of Criminology. She has advised the UN Migration Agency, UNODC, and the OSCE, where she served as chief investigator on trafficking and gender, and has worked directly with survivors across Europe and beyond. Sitting on the advisory board of the Journal of Modern Slavery, her expertise in structural inequality, child protection, and reproductive exploitation places her at the centre of GIEHM's policy and research agenda.
Guided by global expertise.
GEIHM's Aadvisory Board.
- Reproductive Health
Professor Angela Dawson
University of Technology Sydney (UTS) · Sydney, Australia
Nationally and internationally recognised expert in maternal and reproductive health and Associate Dean of Research at UTS. She leads the reproductive health theme at INSIGHT, the UTS Research Institute she established in 2023, focusing on under-served populations including refugees and women in humanitarian emergencies - Reproductive Technologies
Professor Marcia C.Inhorn
Yale University · Connecticut, United States
One of the world's foremost medical anthropologists, holding the William K. Lanman Jr. Chair at Yale University. Author of seven books and editor of thirteen, her decades of ethnographic research on IVF, surrogacy, and cross-border reproductive travel place her among the founding scholars of GIEHM's field. - Computational Demography
Professor Emilio Zagheni
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) · Rostock, GermanyDirector of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and global pioneer in computational demography. He leads the Laboratory of Digital and Computational Demography and is best known for his foundational role in using web and social media data to study migration processes. - Climate Migration
Associate Professor Yvonne Su
York University · Toronto, Canada
Associate Professor at York University and Visiting Scientist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, specialising in forced migration, climate displacement, and queer migration. With over $12 million in secured research funding, her work has been cited in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. - Migration & Displacement
Professor AKM Ahsan Ullah
Universiti Brunei Darussalam · Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
One of Asia's foremost scholars of migration, displacement, and refugee studies, with positions at the American University in Cairo, the Asian Institute of Technology, and multiple Canadian universities. Author of over 20 books with Routledge and Palgrave, and consultant to the World Bank and UK International Development Department. - Migration & Law
Dr Natalia Ollus
European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI), UN affiliated · Helsinki, Finland
Director of HEUNI, the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control affiliated with the United Nations , and one of Europe's leading criminologists. Specialising in human trafficking, labour exploitation, and migrant worker rights, she has held positions at UNODC, the UN Permanent Mission of Finland, and the OSCE Vienna. - Reproductive Migration, BioLaw
Professor Sonja van Wichelen
University of Sydney · Sydney, Australia
One of Australia's leading scholars at the
intersection of law, life science, and globalisation. Selected from over 1,500 applicants for the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, her research spans legal anthropology, reproductive technologies, surrogacy, and global migration. She directs the Biopolitics of Science Research Network.
GIEHM in the public conversation.
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