Human Trafficking Research Lab @Millikin

Saturday, March 23rd the human trafficking research lab attended the Set Free Forum at a church I had never heard of before by the Decatur Airport. I used GPS to find the church but still missed some important turns that made Jasmine and I arrive later than expected. Sadly, I was also on call for the Growing Strong Sexual Assault Center 24-hour hotline so I had to make sure I had cellular reception at all times. This meant that I was not able to attend most of the important speakers and instead stayed in the lobby at the research lab table answering the few questions asked. I was underwhelmed by the number of attendees but really enjoyed the event. I enjoy being able to network with other community members who are aware of the importance of combatting human trafficking not only in the Decatur community but worldwide. I also was able to learn more about local religious organizations. I especially appreciated the petition Dr. Dean made up to fight against the construction of an ICE deten

As I have begun the process of completing an annotated bibliography and have compiled the pre-existing literature, it is evident that work on this detail on the lives of migrants is still developing. The literature I have come across pertains to countries in the eastern hemisphere, detailing their migration into Europe. Although, comparing this literature may prove to be beneficial by allowing us to discern the ways in which the migration process of Mexicans relates or differs. Additionally, if the research on how migrants utilize social networks is sparse, then our work could be used to expand the literature.             A particularly interesting article authored by Rianne Dekker and Godfried Engbersen entitled “How Social Media Transform Migrant Networks and Facilitate Migration” offers insight to the significance of social media within the migration process. Dekker and Engbersen elaborate on how migrants utilize social media through the establishment of migrant

One of the many skills I have been able to gain and strengthen through my position on the Millkin Research Lab is my spreadsheet creation and maintenance on programs such as Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. I have grown fond of creating spreadsheets and am using the skills at my current job at a sexual assault center to make sheets of client info to make keeping up with past clients easier. At work, I have an actual computer with an efficiently sized monitor when working on those sheets. Sadly, my outdated laptop makes the task force spreadsheet upkeep much more time consuming and difficult because I am only able to see one collum at a time which makes the aggregate analysis of data a dragged out process. This week I worked on identifying how task forces were established whether that be through the state legislature, as ordinances, or grants. One of the most surprising thing I noticed during that task was that a good amount of task forces have been formed through a club named the Zon