Anu Abraham is an economist with specialization in development economics, receiving her PhD in Economics from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 2021. Her PhD research focused on the interaction between migration and development, within a source region perspective.

Her primary research area is development economics with a focus on migration, remittances, labour and human capital, and she has also worked on inequality, gender and economic and social mobility.

Published works include 'International Migration, Return Migration and Occupational Mobility: Evidence from Kerala, India' (The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 2020) and 'Determinants of International Remittance: Evidence from Kerala, India' (in India's Low-Skilled Migration to the Middle East, 2019). She has also contributed to the India Migration Report (2020) on 'Labour migration from Kerala Decision to migrate and choice of destination'.

In 2021 she conducted research on the impacts of the pandemic on Indian migrants in the Gulf, in particular female migrants, which she has shared as a comment piece in the much-read the Hindu newspaper: 'COVID-19 as a tale of job hardship and marginalisation'. She has also published in India's widely read Economic and Political Weekly (2020) 'No 'Room' for Social Distancing: A Look at India's Housing and Sanitation Conditions' about the impact of pandemic on the poor.

Prior to joining PRIO, she was an Assistant Professor in India, teaching courses in Development Economics, Public Policy and Research Methodology, and undertook various research projects related to migration.

Within the MigrationRhythms project team, Anu will be focusing on the project's survey research component, including working together with project leader Marta B. Erdal, and taking a lead in coordinating the survey data collection process in Hanoi, Manila, Mumbai and Karachi.