Michelle Quiñones

Michelle is pursuing a DPhil in Migration Studies at the Oxford Department of International Development and the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. Her doctoral research focuses on the dynamics of migration policies across the Global South, with a focus on the externalisation of borders and asylum systems. Her research examines the negotiation process of externalisation agreements between the Global North and South, exploring the agency and resistance strategies of Global South states under conditions of strong power asymmetries. Using comparative methodologies and drawing on interpretivist epistemologies and constructivist theories of International Relations, Michelle explores how factors such as colonial legacies, foreign policy, domestic interests and local actors influence the interests and agency of states in the Global South.

Michelle holds a Bachelor's degree in International Relations at Universidad Iberoamericana and a Master's degree in Political Science at El Colegio de México. She is also a Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund Fellow at the Tokyo Foundation. Before starting her DPhil, she developed her career in the humanitarian sector at the Habesha Project, a non-profit organisation that offers higher education opportunities to young refugees from around the world. She has extensive experience in developing complementary education pathway programmes for refugee youth and has also worked as a research consultant on issues related to border externalisation and militarisation, development and inequalities in the Global South, and the Post-2030 Agenda. Michelle has collaborated on strategic research projects in these fields with the American Friends Service Committee and Southern Voice.