Two areas.
One unifying question.
One unifying question.
GIEHM studies the new forms of human mobility that are reshaping the 21st century and building the data infrastructure, frameworks, and policy tools the field demands.
Our two main research areas.
Research Area 1
Reproductive Migration
Reproductive Migration
Reproductive migration — the cross-border movement of individuals and couples to access fertility care, abortion services, surrogacy arrangements, and maternal healthcare - is one of the fastest-growing and least-studied forms of human mobility. People move across borders because the conditions for reproduction are unevenly distributed: by law, by geography, by wealth.
GIEHM is building the first systematic, global evidence base for reproductive migration - mapping the flows, measuring the inequalities, and constructing the legal and policy frameworks this field urgently needs.
What we study
Why it matters
Reproductive migration operates largely beyond the reach of existing legal frameworks, immigration categories, and health policy. The people who move are often among the most vulnerable — and the least counted. GIEHM makes them visible.
GIEHM is building the first systematic, global evidence base for reproductive migration - mapping the flows, measuring the inequalities, and constructing the legal and policy frameworks this field urgently needs.
What we study
- Cross-border fertility treatment and assisted reproduction flows
- Abortion migration driven by legal restrictions
- Surrogacy corridors and the mobility of reproductive labour
- Maternal health migration and cross-border birth
- The legal grey zones governing reproductive migrants
Why it matters
Reproductive migration operates largely beyond the reach of existing legal frameworks, immigration categories, and health policy. The people who move are often among the most vulnerable — and the least counted. GIEHM makes them visible.
Research Area 2
Climate Displacement
Climate Displacement
Climate displacement — the forced and voluntary movement of people driven by ecological breakdown — is accelerating. Slow-onset events such as sea-level rise, desertification, and chronic heat stress are reshaping where people can live, work, and build futures. Acute events compound existing vulnerabilities and trigger mass population movements.
GIEHM tracks these emerging corridors, documents reproductive and demographic outcomes for displaced populations, and constructs the legal and policy frameworks that don't yet exist to govern them.
What we study
Why it matters
Existing refugee and migration frameworks were not designed for climate displacement. The people who move — or who cannot move — often have no legal status, no protection, and no representation in the data. GIEHM is building the evidence base that changes that.
GIEHM tracks these emerging corridors, documents reproductive and demographic outcomes for displaced populations, and constructs the legal and policy frameworks that don't yet exist to govern them.
What we study
- Slow-onset climate displacement corridors
- Anticipatory migration — moving before the crisis arrives
- Reproductive outcomes for climate-displaced populations
- Climate immobility — those who cannot leave
- Demographic futures of a warming world
- Legal frameworks for climate migrants and displaced peoples
Why it matters
Existing refugee and migration frameworks were not designed for climate displacement. The people who move — or who cannot move — often have no legal status, no protection, and no representation in the data. GIEHM is building the evidence base that changes that.
Where the two fields meet.
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.
Current and forthcoming research projects.
Project 01
Climate migration
Contrasting Futures and Australia's Regional Role: Climate Migration in Resource-Rich Brunei and Emerging Vietnam
Climate migration
Contrasting Futures and Australia's Regional Role: Climate Migration in Resource-Rich Brunei and Emerging Vietnam
This project examines climate migration across two contrasting Indo-Pacific contexts — resource-rich Brunei and rapidly developing Vietnam — to understand how environmental pressures are reshaping human mobility in the region. Funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the research explores how differing economic and governance conditions shape climate migration trajectories, and what role Australia can play in building regional resilience and policy leadership on climate mobility.
Project Team:
The project is led by Dr Olga Oleinikova (University of Technology Sydney), with co-researchers Professor AKM Ahsan Ullah (Universiti Brunei Darussalam) and Associate Professor Hong Quan Nguyen (Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City).
Funding:
Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) · Indo-Pacific Strategic Environmental Grant
Duration:
2026–2027
Project Team:
The project is led by Dr Olga Oleinikova (University of Technology Sydney), with co-researchers Professor AKM Ahsan Ullah (Universiti Brunei Darussalam) and Associate Professor Hong Quan Nguyen (Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City).
Funding:
Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) · Indo-Pacific Strategic Environmental Grant
Duration:
2026–2027
This pilot research project examines the rapidly expanding surrogacy industry in Georgia and the role of Ukrainian women within it. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, displacement produced a new and economically vulnerable workforce — women who cross borders to provide reproductive labour in response to war, economic crisis, and shifting surrogacy laws. The research team conducted in-depth interviews with Ukrainian surrogates to understand their motivations, lived experiences, and the social, legal, and economic factors shaping their decision-making and wellbeing. The project introduces the concept of "mobile surrogates" — women who move across borders to perform reproductive labour — and examines the regulatory gaps, ethical challenges, and oversight failures within Georgia's surrogacy sector.
Project Team:
This project is led by Dr Olga Oleinikova, University of Technology Sydney , Dr Polina Vlasenko, University of Oxford and Dr Medea Badashvili, Ilia State University, Tbilisi.
Duration:
2026-2027
Project Team:
This project is led by Dr Olga Oleinikova, University of Technology Sydney , Dr Polina Vlasenko, University of Oxford and Dr Medea Badashvili, Ilia State University, Tbilisi.
Duration:
2026-2027
Two flagship tools that build the science.
Creating new open-access data infrastructure making emerging forms of human mobility visible, measurable, and impossible to ignore.
Our first flagship project is currently being scoped. It will produce world-first open-access data infrastructure for emerging forms of human mobility.
In development
In development
Our second flagship project will establish GIEHM as the definitive benchmarking body for human mobility research globally.
In development
In development
