Research Areas

  • Migration & Refugee Studies

  • Citizenship & Belonging

  • Legal Violence

  • Anthropology of Law

  • Language & Identity

  • Latin America / Ecuador

  • Qualitative & Ethnographic Methods

Current Research

Universal Citizenship: An Ethnology of Migration Policy in Ecuador

Ecuador is the first country to officially “advocate the principle of universal citizenship, [and] the free movement of all inhabitants of the planet,” (Constitution of Ecuador, Article 416). According to background interviews with refugee service providers in Ecuador, “the universal citizenship policy allows migrants to come and go as they please without papers,” (Anonymous 2024). However, in 2023, a Human Mobility Bill passed that requires migrants to register within 90 days of entering the country or they could face deportation. Drawing on ethnographic interviews with 50 stakeholders involved in Ecuador’s migration system, alongside a discursive analysis of the Constitution, field notes, and responses, this project examines migration in Ecuador and analyzes how migration policy shapes refugee integration.

Computational Infrastructure for AI-Assisted Social Digital Twins and Migration Resilience Simulations

Migration is a complex social process shaped by economic conditions, environmental change, public policy, social networks, and individual decision-making. This project develops an AI-driven digital twin of Quito, Ecuador, to simulate migration dynamics and evaluate the medium- and long-term impacts of alternative migration policies. The model integrates four interconnected layers: a spatial layer representing infrastructure, transit systems, climate risk zones, and public services; a population layer consisting of synthetic populations generated from demographic and migration data; a behavioral layer informed by ethnographic and socioeconomic research on migration decision-making; and a policy layer designed to test alternative governance scenarios.

A key innovation of this research is the incorporation of anthropological insights into agent-based modeling, allowing migrants to be represented as heterogeneous actors differentiated by country of origin, education, skills, income, family structure, migration motivations, and legal status pathways. The model will evaluate multiple policy scenarios, including current migration policy, liberalized visa systems, unrestricted entry frameworks, labor-targeted migration programs, climate migration corridors, and high-investment integration strategies. Outcomes will include projected migration flows, labor market effects, housing demand, fiscal impacts, infrastructure stress, healthcare and education capacity, remittance patterns, inequality, and social cohesion indicators. By combining artificial intelligence, digital twin technology, and ethnographic analysis, this project offers a novel framework for migration forecasting and policy evaluation at the intersection of AI and anthropology.