My research focuses on the correlation between immigration and foreign policy; more specifically, I explore the use of US immigration policy as a tool to promote foreign policy interests in the Cold War period with special regard to the strategic significance of refugee programs. Through the boomerang effect theory put forward in my doctoral dissertation and through the case studies from American immigration history, I map the regularities and motivating factors of mass migration. My emphasis lies on intraregional migration in the Americas, whose most important promoter has been the immigration policy of the receiving country. Consequently, in my assessment, migration is a restrictable and controllable phenomenon, and I maintain that the primary responsibility for the realization of mass migration flows lies with the receiving country.

My interest in diplomatic history centers on inter-American relations with special emphasis on US–Cuban, US–Caribbean, US–Mexican, and US–Latin American relations. I mainly explore issues related to expansionism, interventionism, the impact of Cold War confrontation, and border security in bilateral relations from the era of the Spanish–American War to the present. In addition, I also explore the fields of cultural diplomacy, and the recent history of US strategic interests in Central Europe.

Within the field of ethnic studies research, I study the history and the ethnic, national, and cultural identity formation of Latino and American Indian communities by exploring issues related to integration, assimilation, multiracial relations, internal migration, transnationalism, diaspora policy, and the impact of international borders on bisected ethnic groups. My additional specialty is mapping the US American diaspora in Central Europe.