María Luz Espiro

She did her PhD on South-South migration, focusing on transnational labour pathways of Senegalese migrants between Senegal and Southern Cone. She conducted ethnographic fieldwork in different regions of Senegal, Argentina and southern Brazil. Her current research focuses primarily on African transnational relations, including kinship, Islamic brotherhoods, gender, labour market, and migration policy control in South America from a decolonial epistemology and visual ethnography.

María Luz Espiro is a social anthropologist and researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and at the National University of La Plata, Argentina.

Currently she holds a position as a postdoctoral fellow (CONICET). She is a Guest Professor at the MA International Social Work with Refugees and Migrants, University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (FHWS), in Germany, and a Guest Research Fellow at the Dublin City University (DCU) Centre for Engaged Research, in Ireland. Moreover, her participation as organiser of the African Film Festival in Argentina (FICAA) is a necessary complement to her academic work, and stimulates her constant search for creativity in research.

Her latest publications address South‐South migration with a focus on the labour trajectories of African migrants in Latin America.

List of publications (selection 2022-2020)

• Espiro, María Luz and Sabrina Vecchioni. “Gender stereotypes in human mobility: Reflections and challenges from the Global South”. In: R. Delgado Wise, B. Likić-Brborić, R. Munck and C.-U. Schierup (coord.), Handbook on Migration and Development. UK: Edward Elgar (in press)
• Le Monde diplomatique (September, 2022). Organización Internacional para las Migraciones (OIM) y María Luz Espiro. “Los mitos en las migraciones”. Special Issue. https://www.eldiplo.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Suplemento_OIM.pdf
• Espiro, María Luz and Bernarda Zubrzycki. “Catch-22: The Labor Market for Senegalese Migrants in Argentina”. In: Lucía Ramírez Bolívar, Jessica Corredor Villamil (coord.), Migration and Decent Work: Challenges for the Global South. Bogotá: Center for the Study of Law, Justice and Society, Dejusticia (2022)
• GIMAAA Group. “Research itineraries: contributions to the knowledge of African migrations and afro‐descendants in Argentina”. In: Ronaldo Munck, Tanja Kleibl, Maria de Carmo, Petra Dankova (Eds.), Migration and Social Transformation: Engaged Perspectives. Dublin: Machdohnil Ltd. (2022)
• Espiro, María Luz. “‘A veces ganas, a veces perdés’. La trayectoria de un migrante senegalés en el corredor migratorio entre Argentina y Brasil”. PERIPLOS, Revista de Investigación sobre Migraciones. Volumen 5 – Número 1, pp. 181-206 (2021) https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/obmigra_periplos/article/view/34311/29129
• Espiro, María Luz. “Migración senegalesa: aportes para comprender las afromodernidades en Sudamérica”. En Handerson Joseph y Bruno Miranda (cords.) (Trans)Fronteriza: Movilidades y diásporas negras en las américas.  Buenos Aires: CLACSO (2021)
• Espiro, M. Luz. Prácticas comerciales entre migrantes africanos wolofs en Argentina: aportes para el análisis.  Estudios de Asia y África, El Colegio de México.  ISSN 2448-654X (2020) https://estudiosdeasiayafrica.colmex.mx/index.php/eaa/article/view/2624/
• Espiro, M. Luz. Migratory regularization of Senegalese in Argentina: implications for work and mobility. The Journal of African and Postcolonial Studies – UCAD – Senegal (2020)
• Espiro, M. Luz “La gente pide que estén los senegaleses”. Negociaciones en una ciudad turística de la Patagonia. ILUMINURAS¸ 54, E-ISSN 1984-1191 (2020) https://seer.ufrgs.br/iluminuras/article/view/103200
• Espiro, M. Luz. Del Baol a Buenos Aires. Actualizando la genealogía de la migración modou-modou. Diarios del terruño. Reflexiones sobre migración y movilidad, número 10, UAM-Cuajimalpa, México. ISSN 2448-6876 (2020) https://www.revistadiariosdelterruno.com/maria-luz-espiro/
• Espiro, M. Luz “Esta noche sagrada es mejor que mil meses”. En Crónicas migrantes. OIM -Anfibia, ISSN 2344-9365 (2020) http://cronicas-migrantes.com/esta-noche-sagrada-es-mejor-que-mil-meses/