About

I am Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the Department of Government, University of Essex, and a scholar of international relations and governance in the Global South. Originally from Latin America, my research examines how states, international organisations, and bilateral agreements govern migration — and through what mechanisms these instruments shape the decisions of migrants, refugees, and the communities that host them.

My work has appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the British Journal of Political Science, and International Studies Quarterly, among other journals. I study these questions using field and survey experiments and quasi-experimental designs, with empirical work spanning Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.

My research has been supported by the International Organisation for Migration (funded by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office), the Economic and Social Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the University of Essex. I am currently Principal Investigator on the NAMAD evaluation — an IOM and FCDO-funded assessment of livelihood interventions in Egypt and Algeria.

I was born in Argentina and grew up across Mexico, the United States, Germany, and Denmark before moving to the UK in 2010 to pursue graduate studies. My interest in migration is partly rooted in this experience — moving between countries and navigating different institutional contexts shapes how I think about the conditions under which people decide to stay or go.

Research

CV

Selected Publications

“Refugee Resettlement and Preferences.” Political Studies (2025). With Mollie Gerver and Faten Ghosn. [link]

“Can Foreign Aid Reduce the Desire to Emigrate? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial.” American Journal of Political Science (2024). With Cassilde Schwartz and David Hudson. [link]

“How Governance Under The Grand Compromise Affects Refugee Preferences for Relocation: Evidence from Syrian Refugees in Lebanon.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2024). With Alex Braithwaite, Michael Frith and Faten Ghosn. [link]

“Using Aid to Control Migration.” Political Studies (2023). With James Christensen. [link]

“Covid-19 Insecurities and Migration Aspirations.” International Interactions (2022). With Cassilde Schwartz and David Hudson. [link]

“The Journey Home: Violence, Anchoring, and Refugee Decisions to Return.” American Political Science Review (2021). With Faten Ghosn, Tiffany Chu, Alex Braithwaite, Michael Frith and Joanna Jandali. [link]

“Law Breaking and Law Bending: How International Migrants Negotiate with State Borders.” International Studies Quarterly (2020). With Cassilde Schwartz, David Hudson and Shane D. Johnson. [link]

“A Populist Paradox? How Brexit Softened Anti-Immigrant Attitudes.” British Journal of Political Science (2020). With Cassilde Schwartz, David Hudson and Jennifer Van-Heerde Hudson. [link]

“Path Dependency and Adaptation: The Effects of Policy on Migration Systems.” Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (2019). [link]

“A data-driven computational model on the effects of immigration policies.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (2018). With Cassilde Schwartz, David Hudson and Shane D. Johnson. [link]

“Inter-rater reliability in systematic review methodology: exploring variation in coder decision-making.” Sociological Methods and Research (2018). With Jyoti Belur, Lisa Tompson and Amy Thornton. [link]

Working Papers

“Returnee Acceptance: Experimental Evidence from South Central Somalia.” Under review at British Journal of Political Science. With Prabin Khadka.

“What Drives Attitudes Toward Deportation in Transit Countries?” Under review at International Studies Quarterly. With Sergio Ascencio.

“Foreign Aid and Motivational Crowding Out in Refugee Hosting.” Under review at American Journal of Political Science. With Mollie Gerver, Dominik Duell and Patrick Lown.

“Limiting Discretion in Border Enforcement: A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of How a ‘Use of Force’ Policy Affected Migrant Treatment and Re-Migration Intentions.”

Media

“A data-driven computational model on the effects of immigration policies” was covered by The Guardian, The Independent and La Presse.

“A Populist Paradox? How Brexit Softened Anti-Immigrant Attitudes” was covered by Forbes and Al Jazeera.