Andrés Besserer Rayas
Andrés Besserer Rayas’s dissertation analyzes how and when states provide documentation to undocumented immigrants, and how such documentation, or lack of it, affects them and their families. Using multi-sited ethnographic and comparative analysis, he studies Colombia as a paradigm of inclusionary policies towards immigrants, in contrast to the United States.
His publicly engaged scholarship in the US includes research to protect DACA, advance immigrant rights and health post-Covid-19, driver’s licenses for the undocumented, among other topics. In Colombia, his research on the effects of statelessness was used in a ruling by the country’s highest court that protected plaintiff’s rights, and publicized the issue. He received ESS’s 2023 pre-tenure publicly engaged sociology award.
His research has been published in Sociological Forum; The Journal on Migration and Human Security; Territory, Politics, Governance; among others. He has an MSc from University College London and a BA from El Colegio de México.