He was invited as visiting researcher at the Centre D’Etudes Sociologiques in Paris (1967) and as Fellow in residence at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), Stanford, USA in 1970–1971.
[citation needed] In mid 1974, Cernea emigrated to the United States, where he has since lived, taught and practiced for the longest part of his professional sociological and anthropological career.
Professor Cernea has also served as Senior Social Adviser to international organizations such as the UN, OECD, UNDP, ADB, CGIAR, FAO, BP, Chevron, etc.
He was elected as officer in various capacities for international and national professional social science organizations, including as Vice-President of The Gusti Foundation (Romania) after 1990.
He authored, or contributed to defining and writing, some of the Bank's main social policies, particularly its policies on involuntary population resettlement, on indigenous populations, protection of “chance finds” cultural artifacts, cooperation with NGOs, the World Bank strategy for cultural heritage preservation and management, water and irrigation, reforestation, agricultural extension, and others.
[citation needed] In the field, Cernea has carried out social research on policy and operational development issues in hydropower, agriculture, irrigation, forestry, mining, and other sectors, as well as direct project design and evaluation work in many countries.
among which: India, Nepal, China, Papua-Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, the Philippines, Pakistan, Moldova, Kenya, Tanzania, Morocco, Yemen, Mexico, Turkey, Togo, Ukraine, and others.
Among his other books are: Putting People First: Sociological Variables in Development (several editions, also translated in Japan, Mexico, China, Indonesia, and France), Research-Extension-Farmer: A Two-Way Continuum (1985); Anthropological Approaches to Resettlement: Policy, Practice, Theory (ed.