My UM
My UM
Search

A.I. Lopez Garcia

I am an Assistant Professor of Global Migration in the Department of Politics, and a member of both the Centre for Gender and Diversity (CGD) and the Globalization, Transnationalism and Development (GTD) Research Group at FASoS.

My research lies at the intersection of development studies, (international) political economy and the politics of development.

I study how connections with migrants abroad influence state capacity in origin countries, as well as the political attitudes, behaviour and policy preferences of those who remain, through financial remittances and return migration.

My work addresses questions such as how migrant remittances, when they substitute for or complement public goods provision, influence tax attitudes and compliance in migrant-sending countries, and how exposure to public good provision in host countries shapes the public spending preferences of returning migrants in their countries of origin.

A central theme of my research is “financing development”. I analyse how governments can fund public goods by mobilising not only migrant remittances and diaspora contributions, but also fair taxation.

My work focuses on informal economies and settings affected by organised crime, armed conflict, and natural disasters.

In most of my research, I employ quantitative methods of analysis. 

My work has appeared in journals such as World Development, Development and Change, Comparative Political Studies, Studies in Comparative International Development,  Oxford Development Studies,  Political Studies, Policing and Society, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Migration Studies, Comparative Migration Studies, Global Networks, International Migration, Latin American Politics & Society, Journal of Politics in Latin America, among others.

My research has been generously supported by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER),  the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD),  the Gerda Henkel Foundation,  the Zukunftskolleg at the University of Konstanz, FASoS, and Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT).

Most recently, my article "Taxing the Wealthy in Haiti", co-authored with Prof. Dr. Sarah Berens (University of Bremen), received the Best Paper Award at the International Studies Association's 2024 Virtual Conference. The committee described it as “a timely paper that makes an excellent contribution to the study of taxation in fragile and conflict-affected states by focusing on Haiti. Not only was the paper theoretically grounded and methodologically sound, but it also offered practical policy recommendations.”

I am currently working on projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans.

I occasionally consult for development organisations, such as WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Organizing and Mobilizing), the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), among others.

Expertises
  • Political economy of international (labour) migration
  • Political economy of organised crime and violence
  • Political economy of taxation and redistribution
  • Global social policy
  • Political behavior in developing countries
  • Politics of Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Survey research 
Career history

I hold an undergraduate degree in International Relations from Mexico's Autonomous Institute of Technology (ITAM), and an MPhil in Latin American Studies at St. Antony's College, Oxford University, and a DPhil in Politics (Comparative Government) at Nuffield College, Oxford University.

Since completing my graduate studies, I have held visiting research positions at the Madrid Institute of Advanced Studies, the German Institute of Global Affairs in Hamburg, and the University of California in San Diego.

Prior to employment at Maastricht University, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Konstanz.

Since 2018, I am a member of Mexico's National System of Researchers  (SNI - Level I)