The main goal of the project is to investigate how men’s labor migration from rural areas affects their non-migrant wives’ social capital and reproductive outcomes in Armenia. The data for the project were collected in the fall of 2005 in two marzes (provinces) of the Republic of Armenia: Tavush and Ararat. The projected was co-directed by Victor Agadjanian (PI, Arizona State University), Cecilia Menjívar (co-PI, Arizona State University), and Gohar Shahnazaryan (co-PI, Yerevan State University). YSU Sociology master’s students participated in the project at all stages. The data collection and processing were funded by a Catalyst grant to Victor Agadjanian from the ASU Institute for Social Science Research and additional support from the ASU Department of Family and Human Development.

The fieldwork included an individual women’s survey, a community survey, and qualitative interviews. The individual survey sample consisted of 1040 married women aged 18-45. The fieldwork took place in 26 villages in each marz (52 villages in total). In each village 20 women were interviewed. In each village, a brief community survey was conducted with a village official. Finally, in three villages a total of 27 qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with women whose husbands were current labor migrants in the Russian Federation.