Jessica H Darrow, PhD
Jessica Darrow's research portfolio is focused on organizational and policy level analyses of immigrant inclusion in the United States. Informed by her own family's history of immigration, Darrow seeks to understand how human rights intersect with policies of social inclusion and exclusion.
Darrow's early research focused on the institutional structures for refugee resettlement in the US and how these structures are impacted by the politics of social policy and the social construction of the refugee identity. Darrow's analysis grappled with the ways in which opportunities for a rights-based policy framework for refugees are constrained by organizational level pressures that refugee resettlement agencies face in an era of performance-based contracts for service delivery.
Darrow's more recent studies include a systematic analysis of the program for Unaccompanied Minors in the U.S. as well as an exploration of the service landscape for this population on the Mexico side of the U.S. border, both as part of a collaborative with colleagues from the Universities of South Carolina and Virginia.
Current projects include both conceptual and applied foci. Darrow has enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with a diverse community of organizational theorists who are collectively taking stock of their field in the form of the Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership, & Governance Journal's 50th Anniversary Special Issue. A separate, but equally timely, project is an analysis of the current context of social movements in the US. This study will culminate in the development of materials for use in social work curricula.
KIPHART CHALLENGE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING COURSE
In this team-based experiential learning course, students will be matched with community-based organizations (CBOs) that serve migrants in Chicago, with the collaborative...
A 2021 UN report estimated that 21.5 million people have been forced to move, each year, for over a decade, due to climate change. The report states: “weather-related...
At the end of 2017 there were over 68.5 million forcibly displaced people around the world, the highest number ever recorded (UNHCR, 2019). The number of newly displaced...
This course explores the organizational aspects of social agencies, including the students' field placement experiences. A major goal of the seminar is to help students...
This two-quarter course introduces students to the issues and problems associated with social welfare interventions at the community, agency, and policy levels. Students...
- Clark, D., Roth, B., Doering-White, J., Grace, B., Darrow, J.H. (2026). "All I know is that we failed”: The experiences of human service workers supporting the health of Unaccompanied Minors. Health & Social Work, 147–154. https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlag015
- Roth, B. J., Doering-White, J., Grace, B., Darrow, J. H., Herring, A., & Liew, S. (2025). Making ‘Best interest’ visible: the role of frontline staff in the care of unaccompanied children. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2025.2548319
- Fee, M., Darrow, J.H., Howsam Scholl, J., Cureton, A., & Gonzalez Benson, O. (2025). Refugee resettlement : A durable solution at a crossroads. Refugee Survey Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdae031
- Doering-White, J., Darrow, J.H., Grace, B., Roth, B., Herring, A. & Liew, S. (2025). Care under pressure: Policy contradictions of speedy release, safety, and placement suitability in ORR-contracted programs for unaccompanied migrant children.
Children and Youth Services Review, 169, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740924006650 - Howsam Scholl, J. & Darrow, J.H. (2024). Surviving and resisting retrenchment: US resettlement organizations’ responses to Trump-era anti-refugee policy. Refugee Survey Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdae015
- Guelespe, D., Bernstein, H., Darrow, J., Bose, S., Nayak, S. & Kwon, D. (2024). Examining Afghan Evacuees' Resettlement: Insights and Lessons for Future Humanitarian Populations. Washington D.C.: Urban Institute.
- Darrow, J.H., Doering-White, J., Grace, B. & Roth, B. (2024). Mapping Systems of Care for Unaccompanied Children. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina.
- Darrow, J.H. & Howsam Scholl, J. (2020). Chaos and confusion: Impacts of the Trump Administration Executive Orders on the US resettlement system. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership and Governance. https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/2VT4S4XVRBRUIWRUQWR2/full?target=10.1080/23303131.2020.1767745
- Darrow, J.H. (2018). Administrative indentureship and administrative inclusion: Structured limits and potential opportunities for refugee client inclusion in resettlement policy implementation. Social Service Review, 92(1).
- Darrow, J.H. (2018). Working it out in practice: Tensions embedded in the US refugee resettlement program resolved through implementation. In Adèle Garnier, Liliana Lyra Jubilut and Kristin Bergtora Sandvik (eds.) Refugee Resettlement: Power, Politics and Humanitarian Governance. Berghahn Books.
- Darrow, J.H. (2015). Getting refugees to work: A street-level perspective of refugee resettlement policy. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 34(2).
- Darrow, J.H. (2015). The (re)construction of the US Department of State's Reception and Placement program by refugee resettlement agencies. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 6(1).
- Darrow, J.H. (2015). The Politics and Implementation and of US Refugee Resettlement Policy: A Street-Level Analysis. PhD Dissertation. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest.
SELECT PRESENTATIONS
- Darrow, J.H., Liew, S., Roth, B., Doering-White, J., Grace, B. & Herring, A. (January 2025). How Workers Manage the Impact of Isomorphic Pressures in the Care of Unaccompanied Minors. Paper accepted for presentation at the meeting of the Society for Social Work Research (SSWR), Seattle, WA.
- Darrow, J.H. (July 2020). Organizational policy resistance amidst the demise of the US refugee resettlement sector. Paper accepted for presentation at the meeting of the International Association for the Society of Forced Migration (IASFM), Accra, Ghana
- Darrow, J. H. & Howsam, J. (January 2019). Acts of resistance: Organizational survival in an era of resettlement chaos and austerity. Paper accepted for presentation at the meeting of the Society for Social Work Research (SSWR), San Francisco, CA
- Darrow, J.H. & Howsam, J. (August 2018). Resettlement on hold: The impact of President Trump’s Executive Orders on the U.S. refugee program. Paper presentation at the meeting of the International Association for the Society of Forced Migration (IASFM), Thessaloniki, Greece
- Darrow, J.H. (January 2016). US Refugee resettlement policies in practice: Structuring voice. Paper presentation at the meeting of the Society for Social Work Research (SSWR), Washington, DC
- Darrow, J.H. (January 2016). Recruiting and engaging hard-to-reach populations in qualitative social work research. Roundtable presentation at the meeting of the Society for Social Work Research (SSWR), Washington, DC
- Darrow, J.H. (November 2015). US refugee resettlement policies in practice: Structuring voice. Paper presentation at the Association for Research on Non Profit Organizations and Voluntary Action Annual Conference (ARNOVA), Chicago, IL
- Darrow, J.H. (2014) You Get What You Ask For: How Contracts and Performance Measures Shape Refugee Resettlement Policy. Paper presentation to the Network for Social Work Managers Annual Management Institute at Simmons College, Boston, MA
- Darrow, J.H. (2014) Rewarding the “Compliant” Client: The Case of Refugee Resettlement. Paper presentation at the meeting of the Society for Social Work Research, San Antonio, TX
- Darrow, J.H. (2014) What a Difference the Office Makes: The Impact of Organizational Setting on the Allocation of Housing Resources by Refugee Resettlement Workers. Paper presentation at the meeting of the Society for Social Work Research, San Antonio, TX
- Darrow, J.H. (2013) Worker Responses to the Challenges of Human Services Work: The Case of U.S. Refugee Resettlement. Paper presentation at the ‘Global Health and Well-Being: The Social Work Response’ Conference at the NYU Silver School of Social Work, New York, NY
- Darrow, J.H. (2013) Refugee Resettlement Policy in Practice: Workers’ Challenges in Managing Scarce Resources and High Demand. Paper presentation to the Network for Social Work Managers Annual Management Institute at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
- Darrow, J.H. (2013) Street Level Theory and Social Policy: Workers’ Practice of Stereotyping Clients in Refugee Resettlement. Paper presentation at the meeting of the Society for Social Work Research, San Diego, CA
- Darrow, J.H. (2012) Federal Guidelines & the Organizational Realities of Resettlement. Invited presentation at the Center on Forced Migration Summer Institute at Northwestern University, Evanston IL
Jessica Darrow is an Associate Instructional Professor at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.
Dr. Darrow teaches across the curriculum: in the core and in elective courses within the Global Social Development Pathway. In 2023 students nominated Dr. Darrow for the William Pollak Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Darrow received her award at the Crown Family School Hooding at Rockefeller Chapel.
Dr. Darrow received her A.B. from the University of Chicago, and her A.M. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Her practice experience includes five years as Executive Director of a small education-based non-profit organization operating in East and Southern Africa, and over two decades of service with the Wieboldt Foundation engaged in supporting local grassroots multi-issue community organizing groups in the Chicago area.