Tristan Ivory's research is principally concerned with sub-Saharan African geographic, social, and economic mobility. As a 2020–21 Global Public Voices fellow, he collaborated with Guilherme Kenjy Chihaya Da Silva (Umeå University, Sweden).

His first research project examined sub-Saharan African migrants in Japan. More recently, he has begun a multiyear, multi-sited longitudinal interview project that will track sub-Saharan middle-class high-school and college students as they begin professional careers in order to assess whether there is a substantial correlation between international migration and better economic and social outcomes. He is also engaged in a long-term collaborative research project with colleagues in Sweden and Japan that addresses issues of foreign-born women's labor force participation in Japan, Sweden, and the United States.

Ivory is currently working on two newer projects: one further examines the nature and scope of cross-nativity marriage on labor force outcomes of the foreign born partner, and the second project is a multi-sited longitudinal interview project with Ghanaian, Kenyan, and South African youth enrolled in secondary and tertiary educational programs.