Karl Ka U Ng is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Saint Mary’s University. Before joining SMU, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Stetson University in Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from McGill University in 2023, where he completed his degree in five years.. His research has appeared in leading journals such as Socius, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, International Migration, Journal of Marriage and Family, Population Research and Policy Review, Demographic Research, Canadian Review of Sociology, and Social Indicators Research.
Dr. Ng’s research develops new ways to understand how culture and values are transmitted and transformed within migrant and refugee families. By integrating insights from assimilation theory, intergenerational transmission, and demographic and family research, his work addresses two interrelated questions: (1) how pre-migration experiences and origin-country cultural norms shape parent–child socialization processes in migrant and refugee families, and (2) how second generations reconcile the contrasting influences of their foreign-born parents and the mainstream society in shaping gender roles and family values.
Publications in Peer-Reviewed Journals
Ng, Ka U. 2025. “Gendered Acculturation: Gender Difference in Ideal Family Size between Muslim and Non-Muslim Immigrants and Their Children.” Socius, 11.
Ng, Ka U., and Thomas Soehl. 2025. “Talking about Religion? Variation in Recently Arrived Refugees in Quebec and Other Provinces in Canada.” Canadian Review of Sociology, 62(1).
Ng, Ka U. 2024. “Inheriting the Homeland? The Influence of Parental Origin-Country Fertility Norms on Ideal Family Size and the Timing of Birth(s) among the Immigrants’ Children in France.” Population Research and Policy Review, 43(14).
Ng, Ka U. 2024. “Religion or Language? How Family Socialization Shapes the Influence of Parental Origin-Country Fertility Norms on the Ideal Family Size among the Children of Immigrants in France.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 50(16): 4089–4112.
Brauner-Otto, Sarah, Chih-Lan Winnie Yang, and Ka U Ng. 2023. “Women’s Employment Trajectories in Nepal: Stratification and Change.” Demographic Research, 49: 157–200.
Ng, Ka U. 2022. “Are Muslim Immigrants Assimilating? Cultural Assimilation Trajectories in Immigrants’ Attitudes toward Gender Roles in Europe.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(15): 3641–3667.
Ng, Ka U. 2022. “Which Social Contacts with Natives Matter? Attitudes toward Gender Roles of Muslim Immigrants and Their Children in Western Europe.” International Migration, 61(4): 221–239.
Wan, Kin Man, Ka U Ng, and Thung-Hong Lin. 2020. “The Political Economy of Football: Democracy, Income Inequality, and Men’s National Football Performance.” Social Indicators Research, 151: 981–1013. (Equal author contribution)
Ng, Ka U., and Chih-Jou Jay Chen. 2018. “Married Mothers’ Employment in East Asian Countries: A Comparison of China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan.” Comparative Sociology, 17(6): 738–758.
Chen, Chih-Jou Jay, and Ka U Ng. 2017. “Public Attitudes toward Marriage Migrants in Taiwan: The Ten-Year Change, 2004–2014.” Journal of Social Science and Philosophy, 29(3): 415–452. (In Chinese)