My research is focused on two major areas: (a) global migration and development, and (b) rapid urbanization and food security in the Global South.

My current research projects include: the Hungry Cities Partnership (which I direct at Laurier, with Edgar Pieterse at the University of Cape Town's African Centre for Cities); the African Food Security Urban Network; the Consuming Urban Poverty project, and SAMP's Growing Informal Cities Project. I also have close links with the International Migration Research Centre and Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at the Balsillie School and am a member of the 2030+ Group at BSIA, investigating relationships between health, poverty, climate change and development in the Global South.

You can follow African migration and food security issues on Facebook at Moving on Empty.

Over my career, I have been awarded over $20 million in research funding from a variety of international and Canadian external funders and held research chairs at Queen’s and the Balsillie School. I was awarded the Joel Gregory Prize of the Canadian Association of African Studies for my first book on Swaziland and was recently named the top Canadian researcher in Development Studies in a Globe and Mail poll. I also hold an Honorary Professorship at the University of Cape Town.

I have particular interest and expertise in mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, in the areas of migration, food security, urbanization and poverty in the global South.

• 2016. A. Chikanda, J. Crush and M. Walton-Roberts, eds, Diasporas, Development and Governance (New York: Springer).
• 2015. J. Crush, A. Chikanda and C. Skinner, eds, Mean Streets: Migration, Xenophobia and Informality in South Africa (Ottawa: IDRC).
• 2015. J. Crush and A. Chikanda, "South-South Medical Tourism and the Quest for Health in Southern Africa," Social Science & Medicine 124: 313-332.
• 2014. R. Anich, J. Crush, S. Melde and J. Oucho, eds, A New Perspective on Human Mobility in the South (New York: Springer).
• 2014. J. Crush, ”Southern Hub: The Globalization of Migration to South Africa,” In R. Lucas, ed., International Handbook on Migration and Economic Development (London: Edward Elgar), pp. 211-240.
• 2014. J. Crush and G. Tawodzera, “Exclusion and Discrimination: Zimbabwean Migrant Children and South African Schools,” Journal of International Migration and Integration 15: 677-693.
• 2014. J. Battersby and J. Crush, “Africa’s Urban Food Deserts,” Urban Forum 25: 143-151.
• 2014. B. Frayne, J. Crush and M. McLachlan, “Urbanization, Nutrition and Development in Southern African Cities," Food Security 6: 101-112.
• 2013. J. Crush, “Linking Migration, Development and Urban Food Security,” International Migration 51(5): 61-75.
• 2012. J. Crush, B. Frayne and W. Pendleton, “The Crisis of Food Insecurity in African Cities,” Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition 7(2/3): 271-92.