VILLEGAS RIVERA, FERNANDO ENRIQUE

Fernando Villegas is a professor at UTESC (Mexico), a member of the Mexican National System of Researchers (SNII, by its acronym in Spanish), and a research collaborator in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. In July 2025, he completed a two-year stay at Cornell University, where he served as a research scholar and visiting assistant professor in the Department of Government and the Latina/o Studies Program.

Fernando's research agenda examines multi-scalar, structural, historical and sociopolitical processes and their impact on the adoption and implementation of migration public policies at the state and local level. His book manuscript focuses on state citizenship projects in the United States and Mexico, where he investigates the passage and implementation of pro-migrant laws, policies and practices in Mexico City and California. He has a rigorous interdisciplinary training, extensive teaching experience in the social sciences and humanities, and over a decade of mixed methods research on migration public policies, migrant collective action, human rights and social movements, remittances and development, transit migration, and Latinx/e communities in the U.S. with a focus on faith-based organizations and latin@ politics.

Dr. Villegas has received funding and support to conduct research from prestigious U.S., Canadian, and Mexican institutions such as UC MEXUS-CONACYT, the Latin American Institute (UCLA), the Center for Latin American Research (University of Calgary), the Center for the Study of International Migration (UCLA), the Institute for American Cultures, the International Institute (UCLA), among others.