Dr. María E. Cervantes-Macías
University of British Columbia
Centre for Migration Studies / Department of Geography
Academic Experience
2025 Affiliate Member, Geography Department University of British Columbia
2025 Postdoctoral Research Fellow University of British Columbia
2024 Doctor of Philosophy in Geography University of British Columbia
2023 Fox International Fellow Yale University
2020 Master of Arts in Geography University of British Columbia
2017 Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs Tecnológico de Monterrey
Research Interests
Global Middle Classes, Social Reproduction, Social Class, Education, International Mobility, Professional Migrants, Migration Policy, North America, United States, Canada, Mexico, Qualitative Methods, Ethnography, Mixed-methods, Migration data
Dissertation
Title: Credentialized Aspirations: The mobility journeys of Mexican professionals in North America
Committee: Dr. Merje Kuus, Dr. Elvin Wyly, Dr. Daniel Hiebert
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Cervantes-Macías, M (2025). Producing the highly skilled migrant: the mobility journeys of Mexican professionals in North America. Population, Space and Place. doi: 10.1002/psp.70142
Cervantes-Macías, M (2025). Producing the highly skilled migrant: The mobility journeys of Mexican professionals in North America (Working Paper No. 2025/13). Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement.
Brunner, L., & Cervantes-Macías, M. E. (2025). Reflections on Canada’s first international student cap. Critical Internationalization Studies Review, 4(1), 2.
Marcucci, S., Verhulst, S., & Cervantes, M. E. (2025). When forecasting and foresight meet data and innovation: toward a taxonomy of anticipatory methods for migration policy. Data & Policy, 7, e24.
Cervantes-Macías, M. & Delaise, A.C. (2024). Temporal Trajectories: A Comparative Analysis of Mexican and Vietnamese Students’ Strategies in the Canadian Edugration System. Comparative and International Education.
Cervantes-Macías, M. (2022). Migration Data Collection and Management in a Changing Latin American Landscape. Data & Policy, 4, E40. doi:10.1017/dap.2022.34
Works in Progress
Under Review / Revise and Resubmit
- Cervantes-Macías, M (Revise and resubmit) Uneven development in the platform economy: Stratified immigration policies and uneven access to transnational social protections in North America. Digital Geography and Society
- Cervantes-Macías, M (Under Review) Credentialized Aspirations in the Platform Assemblage: Migration, Labour, and Urban Conjunctures in Canada. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
Manuscripts in progress
- Cervantes-Macías, M (In Progress) Building a Transnational Institutional Field: Highly Skilled Mexican Migration under North American Integration. Target journal: Global Networks
- Cervantes-Macías, M (In Progress) From Temporary to Permanent: Highly Skilled Mexican Migration through Canada’s Merit-Based System. Target journal: The Canadian Geographer.
- Cervantes-Macías, M (In Progress) The Cultural Production of Mobility: Elite Schooling and the Making of ‘Global’ Subjects in Mexico. Target journal: Space and Culture
- Cervantes, M. & Huot, S. (In Progress) Immigrants’ experiences of digitally mediated employment: Critically examining the spatial transformations of work. Target journal: Journal of International Migration and Integration (JIMI).
- Cervantes, M, Stockall, L., & Huot, S. (In Progress) Credentialized mobility in the GenAI era: Migrant workers and entry-level jobs in the U.S. and Canada. Target journal: Technology in Society.
Book Chapters
Myers, H; Cervantes-Macias, M; Huot, S & Shan, H, S. “Greener Grass?” In Ellermann, Antje, Frederik Køhlert, Sarah Leavitt, and Mireille Paquet (eds.) (2025). Crossing Lines: Comics about Human Migration. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Fumega, S. & Cervantes-Macías, M. (2023). Standardization of Data on Femicide/Feminicide in Latin America: ILDA’s work on the field. Dawson, Myrna Mobayed, Saide. The Routledge International Handbook of Femicide and Feminicide.
Book Reviews
Cervantes-Macías, M., & Middeldorp, N. (2019). Verónica Gago (ed.) 2017: Neoliberalism from Below: Popular Pragmatics and Baroque Economies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 43(2), 396-398.
Thesis
Cervantes-Macías, M. (2020) Between worlds: online transnationalism of highly skilled Mexicans in Vancouver. (2020). University of British Columbia. Master’s Thesis.
Selected Policy Reports
Cervantes-Macías, M. (2021). Guide for the collection of migration data. Latin American Open Data Initiative.
Cervantes-Macías, M. & Scrollini, F. (2022) Co-producing AI: A guide for making AI work for the public good. Latin American Open Data Initiative.
Cervantes-Macías, M. (2021). Guide for the collection of migration data. Latin American Open Data Initiative.
Cervantes-Macías, M. (2021). Migration Data in the Northern Triangle of Central America, Mexico and Costa Rica. Latin American Open Data Initiative.
Scrollini, F. & Cervantes-Macías, M. (2020) Data for Development: The Road Ahead. 46. Latin American Open Data Initiative.
Fellowships and Affiliations
| 2025 / 05 – 2026-05 | Visiting Fellow, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies (USMEX) (Offered) | University of California, San Diego |
| 2024/1 – | Affiliate, Latin American Studies | University of British Columbia |
| 2018/8 – | Affiliate, Centre for Migration Studies | University of British Columbia |
| 2023/9 – 2024/5 | Centre for Migration Studies Fellowship | University of British Columbia |
| 2022/8 – 2023/5 | Fox International Fellowship | Yale University |
| 2023/6– 2023/8 | Visiting Research Fellow | Tecnológico de Monterrey, México |
| 2020/4 – 2020/12 | Next Generation Research Fellowship | Latin American Open Data Initiative |
| 2017/5 – 2017/8 | Mitacs Visiting Research Assistant | University of Alberta |
Awards and Grants
| 2025/ 03 | Best Dissertation Award – Economic Geography Specialty Group | American Association of Geographers |
| 2024/9 – 2020/8 | Graduate Support Initiative Award , UBC | 2,500 CAD |
| 2022/12 -2022/12 | Centre for Migration Studies Travel Grant, UBC | 1,800 CAD |
| 2022/12 -2022/12 | UBC Graduate Student Travel Grant, UBC | 800 CAD |
| 2022/12-2022/12 | Geography Graduate Student Travel Grant, UBC | 700 CAD |
| 2022/8 – 2023/8 | Yale Fox International Fellowship, Yale | 42,800 USD |
| 2021/4 – 2022/5 | Larry Bell Urban Research Award , UBC | 8,500 CAD |
| 2020/10 – 2021/4 | Vanier Canada Graduate National Competition | National Nomination |
| 2020/9 – 2024/12 | Four Year Fellowship (4YF), UBC | 113,600 CAD |
| 2020/9 – 2024/12 | UBC President’s Academic Excellence Initiative | 5,820 CAD |
| 2020/4 – 2020/12 | Next Generation Research Fellowship, ILDA | 5,000 USD |
| 2019/9 – 2020/8 | Graduate Support Initiative Award (GSI), UBC | 8,000 CAD |
| 2018/9 – 2019/8 | Mitacs Globalink Graduate Fellowship | 15,000 CAD |
| 2017/5 – 2017/8 | Globalinks Mitacs Research Internship Award | 10,000 CAD |
Presentations
(2025) Comics & Knowledge Mobilization in Migration Studies with María Cervantes-Macías & Sofi Donner. UBC Pop Culture Research Cluster. Vancouver, Canada. November, 2025
(2025) Immigrant Workers and the Digital Transformation of Work: Spatial Precarity and Urban Labour in Toronto and Vancouver. Pathways to Prosperity 2025, Halifax (Virtual). November 2025.
(2025) “Digital Platforms and Transnational Social Protections: Uneven Territorialization in the Digital Economy” ‘Cartographies of Platform Labour in the Digital City’ International Conference. November 2025. Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED, Madrid, Spain). November 2025.
(2025) “Digital Platforms and Transnational Social Protections: Uneven Territorialization in the Digital Economy” 4th Digital Geographies Conference. November 2025. University of Lisbon, Portugal. November 2025.
(2025) “Landscapes of the “Global North”: Tracing Networks of Elite Mobilities in the Americas”. University of British Columbia, Vancouver. September 2025.
(2025) “Digital Platforms and Transnational Social Protections: Uneven Territorialization in the Digital Economy”. Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference 2025. University of Birmingham, UK. August 2025.
(2025) “Crossing borders: the intersection of privilege and surveillance” LANSA Tertulia/Latin American Dialogues: Latinx in Trump’s USA. University of British Columbia, Vancouver. April 2025.
(2025) “Uneven Development in the Platform Economy:The New Landscape of Transnational Social Protections” American Association of Geographers. Detroit, Michigan, USA. March 2025.
(2025) “How to Build a Highly Skilled Migrant” in The Crash of the International Student ‘Market’: Facing the consequences. Green College, University of British Columbia. Green College Colloqium. February 2025.
(2025) “How to Build a Highly Skilled Migrant” in Migration Working Group: Temporary migrations – Labour force and migrant mobilities workshop. Toronto Metropolitan University. January 2025.
(2024) “How to Build a Highly Skilled Migrant.” The Migration Conference. Mexico City, Mexico. Virtual. July 2024
(2024) “How to Build a Highly Skilled Migrant.” Centre for Migration Studies Annual Research Conference. Vancouver, Canada. In person. March 2024.
(2024) “How to Build a Highly Skilled Migrant.” Centre for Migration Studies Graduate Fellows Symposium. Vancouver, Canada. In person. March 2024.
(2023) “The Global Race for Talent Starts in Kindergarten”. Belonging and Mobility – National Institute for Advanced Studies. Amsterdam, Netherlands. Virtual. October 2023.
(2023) “Digital Transnationalism: Strategies against Vulnerability in the Immigration Journey of Skilled Mexicans in Vancouver”. Migration Working Group: (Trans)nationalism. Toronto, Canada. Virtual. April 2023.
(2023) “Multi-sited Ethnography in Pandemic Times: Intersections between Privilege and Regional Mobility”. American Association of Geographers. Denver, United States of America. Virtual. April 2023.
(2023) “International Students’ Notions of Success in the Context of Canada’s ‘Edugration’ Policies: Examining Mexican and Vietnamese Students’ and Graduates’ Discourses in Vancouver”. Metropolis Canada. Ottawa, Canada. In person. March 2023.
(2022) “The Global Race for Talent Starts in Kindergarten” Doctoral Symposium: Global Perspectives on Social Problems, Policy, and Practice. Seoul National University. Seoul, Korea. In person. December 2022.
(2022) “The Global Race for Talent Starts in Kindergarten”. Fox Fellowship Seminars. Yale University. New Haven, United States of America. In person. November 2022.
(2022) “Open Data for Migratory Policy”. Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO). Quito, Ecuador. Virtual. June 2022.
(2021) Recolección de datos de las personas migrantes para la integración social. Next Generation Fellowship Series. Montevideo, Uruguay. Virtual. June 2021.
(2021) “Digital Transnationalism: Strategies against Vulnerability in the Immigration Journey of Highly Skilled Mexican Immigrants in Vancouver”. American Association of Geographers. Denver, United States of America. Virtual. April 2021.
Teaching Experience
Supervision
| 2025/9 – Ongoing | Research Lab | Centre for Migration Studies |
Students: Isabella Pojuner (PhD), Angel Bella (MA), Luke Stockall (BA)
| 2025/9 – Ongoing | Capstone Project Supervision | Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy |
Students: Jessica Wang (MSc), Veronica Hernandez de Paoli (MSc) Co-supervised with Suzanne Huot
Teaching
| 2024/9-2024/12 | GEOG350: Urban Worlds | UBC Department of Geography |
| 2024/1/2024-5 | GEOG450: Urban Research | UBC Department of Geography |
Teaching Assistance
| 2023/9-2023/12 | Political Geography | UBC Department of Geography |
| 2023/9-2023/12 | Theory and Practice in Geography | UBC Department of Geography |
| 2020/1-2020/5 | Geography, Modernity and Globalization | UBC Vantage College |
| 2019/9-2019/12 | Geography, Environment and Globalization | UBC Vantage College |
| 2019/1-2019/5 | Geography, Modernity and Globalization | UBC Vantage College |
| 2018/1-2018/12 | Geography, Environment and Globalization | UBC Vantage College |
Guest lectures
| 2023/2 | Privilege in the Americas | Yale University |
Professional Experience
| 2023/6- 2024/10 | Researcher | The GovLab, New York University (Remote) |
| 2018/8 – 2023/03 | Researcher | Latin American Open Data Initiative (Remote) |
| 2018/2 – 2022/12 | Help Desk Manager | Open Contracting Partnership (Remote) |
| 2018/1-2018/8 | Researcher | Distrito Tec, Tecnológico de Monterrey |
Service
Institutional Service
2024/08 – Graduate Student Writing Group UBC Department of Geography
2024/08 – 2024/12 Undergraduate Curriculum Committee UBC Department of Geography
2024/10 – 2024/12 Indigenous Biodiversity Search UBC Department of Geography
2023/8 – 2024/5 Executive Committee Member UBC Centre for Migration Studies
2018/8 – 2021/05 Graduate Committee Member UBC Department of Geography
Editorial Service
2025 Population, Space and Place 2023 Journal of International Students 2025, 2021 Trail Six
Language Skills
Languages Spanish (Native) English (Advanced proficiency) French (Limited proficiency)
María Esther Cervantes 