Michael Haan, in depth

Associate Professor

Biographical Information

Education

  • PhD, Sociology, University of Toronto 2006
  • MA, Sociology, University of Windsor 2000
  • Honours BA, Sociology, Dordt College 1996

Career Highlights

Dr. Michael Haan has been Associate Professor in Sociology at Western since 2015. From 2015 to July 2020, he was Canada Research Chair in Migration and Ethnic Relations. In his former appointment as Associate Professor in the departments of Sociology and Economics at the University of New Brunswick, he was Canada Research Chair in Population and Social Policy. 

During his career, Dr. Haan has led the Canadian Population Society, as Vice-President (2014-16) and as President (2016-19). He now leads the Federation of Canadian Demographers as President. His commitment to make research serve public policy has led him to preparing many research reports for government, and serving in positions advising government. For example, he serves as a Member of the Social Statistics Advisory Board of Statistics Canada, and in working groups for the Government of New Brunswick. He brings his research to academia, public policy, and to the public. You will find Michael Haan in television and radio interviews, and online presentations about population change and immigration.

Research

Michael Haan has been investigator or co-investigator on over $10 million dollars of funded research. In his research, Dr. Haan uses ‘big data’ to understand how people move around the globe, integrate into the labour market, and respond to changes in industry. Answers developed from his research inform debates on a wide range of topics, including employment insurance, labour market development, and immigration policy. Dr. Haan also researches as a member of several research partnerships, enabling researchers across these groups to tackle massive datasets and interdisciplinary questions.

Current Projects/Grants

  • Universities and Municipalities, a New Research Partnership
    Principal Investigator; $197,258 SSHRC Insight Grant (2017-2022); Robert Andersen | Daniel Henstra | Anders Holm | David Zarifa
  • New Brunswick's Population Dynamics
  • The Migratory Implications of Industrial Change
    Principal Investigator; $75,000 SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2016-2017)
  • Irregular Migrant Flows and Population Change
    Principal Investigator; $25,000 SSHRC President's Innovation Fund (2016-2017)
  • Joint Program Initiative of the European Union on Migration and Demographic Change
    Principal Investigator; $25,000 SSHRC President’s Innovation Fund (2016-2017)
  • Syrian Refugees Arrival, Settlement, and Arrival
    Co-investigator; $25,000 SSHRC Targeted Research Grant (2016-2017)
  • What Can Administrative Data Tell us Abou Aboriginal Mobility?
    Principal Investigator; $169,000 SSHRC Insight Grant (2015-2020)
  • Municipalities and Universities: Developing Infrastructure for Collaborative Research with Administrative Data
    Principal Investigator; $197,258
  • Evaluating the Economic Outcomes and Retention of Immigrants to Atlantic Canada
    Co-investigator; $221,850

For past research, see pdf full cv

Academic Knowledge Dissemination

  • Consequences of parental benefits policies for family dynamics
    May 2018; Canadian Population Society Annual General Meeting; Margolis, Hou | Haan | Holm
  • Exploring the Gendered Dimensions of Extreme Commuting
    May 2018; Families, Work and Mobility Conference, Charlottetown, PEI; Haan | Rippey
  • Immigration to the United States and Canada's Spatial Mismatch and Policy Impact
    Apr. 2018; Population Association of America Annual Meeting 2018, Denver, CO; Haan | Yu
  • Are People Still Moving for Money?: Insights from Canadian Administrative Data
    Feb. 2018; Department of Sociology, Western University, London, ON
  • The Recruitment and Retention of International Students in Canada
    Dec. 2017; Centre for Research on Migration and Ethnic Relations, Western University, London, ON
  • Are people still moving for money? Changes in the mover's premium over time
    Nov. 2017; Canadian Research Data Centre Network 2017 National Conference, Montreal
  • Policy change and social change: Families' use of parental benefits in Canada 1998-2012
    June 2017; Annual Meeting of the Canadian Population Society; Margolis | Hou | Haan
  • The Promise of Administrative Data for Criminology
    June 2017; Annual General Meeting of the Law and Society Association, Mexico City; Michael Haan | Dale Ballucci
  • An investigation of PROs: New Brunswick’s Prolific Offender Database
    Feb. 2017; Annual General Meeting of the Western Criminological Association
  • Trends in Immigrant Recruitment
    Dec. 2016; University of Waterloo Sociology Department Speaker Series
  • Demographic Pressures on Labour Markets
    January 2016; University of Calgary Economics Working Group, Ottawa

For more, see pdf full cv

Research Groups

Publications

  • 1 book (3 editions)
  • 5 book chapters
  • 40 refereed articles
  • 36 reports
  • 3 magazine articles
  • 3 op-eds
  • 9 book reviews

Books

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Refereed Articles

For more, see pdf full cv 

Book Chapters

  • (forthcoming) "Data options for studying migration in an unprecedented era of information" (with Howard Ramos) in Steffen Pötzschke and Sebastian Rinken, eds., Quantitative Migration Research in a Digitized World: Using Innovative Technology to tackle Methodological Challenges, Imiscoe

For more, see pdf full cv 

Reports

  • Immigrant Recruitment and Retention in Hamilton
    Michael Haan | Federico Eichelmann
  • Immigrant Recruitment and Retention in Peel Region
    Michael Haan | Federico Eichelmann
  • Immigrant Recruitment and Retention in York Region
    Michael Haan | Federico Eichelmann
  • Immigrant Recruitment and Retention in Halton Region
    Michael Haan | Federico Eichelmann
  • Immigrant Recruitment and Retention in the City of Moncton
    Michael Haan | Federico Eichelman
  • Estimating Parental Leave in Canada with Administrative Data
    2017; Statistics Canada. Analytical Studies and Reference Materials; Feng Hou | Rachel Margolis | Michael Haan
  • Immigration Trends in Canada
    2017; “More Years, Better Lives”, a Joint Program Initiative of the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation; Michael Haan | Natalie Iciaszczyk
  • Attitudes to immigration and the Ageing of Societies
    2017; “More Years, Better Lives”, a Joint Program Initiative of the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation; Peter Huber | Fanny Delinger | Michael Haan | Natalie Iciaszczyk
  • Municipal Population Projections, 2011-2026
    2015; New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government; John Calhoun | Michael Haan

For more, see pdf full cv 

Teaching

  • Immigration Policy and Program Evaluation
  • Public Policy Research
  • Population Studies
  • Population and Society
  • Introduction to Population Studies
  • An Introduction to Social Statistics
  • Social Research Methods
  • Social Policy
  • Social Structure and Public Policy

Teaching Philosophy

"Although I lecture comfortably in big classes, my personal preference is the ‘oxbridge’ pedagogical style, which is a much more tutorial-based style of teaching and learning. I believe that students need to be able to ask questions as they arise, and that in the era of mega-classroom lectures this has become somewhat of a luxury. I understand the role that big lectures play in the modern university, but I believe that this format is usefully accompanied by some smaller sessions, which I try to include in all my classes, where students can interact with their professor, teaching assistants, and fellow students in a more intimate and personal manner.

Closely related to this, whenever possible I try to employ a ‘knowledge through discovery’ approach in my teaching. Typically, this translates into spending a considerable amount of time working with students on projects and homework assignments. I regularly work one-on-one with students, often in the Statistics Canada Research Data Centre (RDC), to conceive an original project, learn the necessary analytical techniques to conduct the research, analyze the appropriate data, and write a publishable paper. Students seem to find the experience to be incredibly rewarding, and now they have the skills to be able to work on similar projects, independently, or as research assistants for other faculty members. In the coming years, I’m optimistic that these will be the students that leave a mark in their respective fields."

Currently Teaching

  • 4478F - 001 Advanced Program and Policy Evaluation

Graduate and Undergraduate Supervision

Sociology

  • 9 Post-Doctoral Fellows completed
  • 1 PhD completed, 7 PhD in progress
  • 14 MA completed, 3 MA in progress
  • 1 Honours BA completed

Economics

  • 4 PhD completed
  • 4 MA completed

Surgery

  • 1 MA in progress
  • authors on refereed publications: 9 post‑docs, 5 PhD students, 3 MA students
  • presented at external conferences: 9 post‑docs, 3 PhD students, 2 MA students
  • external grant funding: 1 post‑doc

Public Sociology

Dr. Haan is widely consulted by provincial and federal governments for policy advice in the areas of immigration, settlement services, the Canadian labour market, and population aging. He also makes time to speak to non-government organizations and the press, making his work accessible to the public.

Public Policy and Community Engagement

  • Municipal Immigration Strategies
    March 2019; Metropolis Halifax
  • The Recruitment and Retention of International Students in Canada
    April 2018; Pathways to Prosperity and ICA Victoria Workshop
  • on local labour supply
    June 2017; London Workforce Development Board
  • The Demographic Drivers of Economic Inequality
    March 2017; Statistics Canada Speaker Series, Ottawa; Michael Haan | Miguel Cardoso
  • The Demographic Drivers of Immigrant Reception
    Dec. 2016; Joint Program Initiative, More Years, Better Lives, Berlin
  • Data Gaps for International Comparisons in Studying Immigration
    Oct. 2016; International Metropolis Conference, Nagoya
  • Data as Infrastructure
    May 2016; Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Ottawa
  • Immigration to Canada
    April 2016; Joint Program Initiative, More Years, Better Lives, Berlin
  • Immigration to Sault Ste. Marie: Challenges and Opportunities
    April 2016; Local Immigration Partnership Annual Meeting, Sault Ste. Marie, ON
  • The Secondary Migration Patterns of Canadian Immigrants
    March 2016; 18th National Metropolis Conference, Toronto; Haan | Prokopenko
  • Immigrant Recruitment and Retention with Administrative Data
    March 2016; Metropolis National Conference, Toronto
  • Presentation on Measuring Immigrant Recruitment and Retention
    Nov. 2015; Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, Ottawa
  • Administrative Data and Program Evaluation
    Nov. 2015; Pathways to Prosperity National Conference
  • Using Tax Filing Data to Illustrate Secondary Migration Tendencies
    Nov. 2015; Pathways to Prosperity National Conference

For more, see pdf full cv 

In the Media

  • 50 television interviews
  • 75 radio interviews
  • 76 print media interviews