McMaster-Led Migration Conference Strengthens Regional Collaboration in El Salvador

Dr.Geraldina Polanco, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at McMaster University, is advancing international collaboration on migration research through partnerships with scholars and community organizations across Central America. In October 2025, she convened an international and intersectoral conference in San Salvador, El Salvador, hosted at the José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA).  

The event, entitled: At the Crossroads: Migration, Return, and Regional Futures, brought together migration scholars, migrant-serving organizations, healthcare and social service providers, and policy stakeholders from Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America. Participants shared perspectives on how recent changes in U.S. immigration policy are shaping migration patterns in the region, with attention to the experiences of individuals and families who have been deported. 

The conference aligns with Dr. Polanco’s research on people who have experienced deportation from the United States to El Salvador. She continues to work with regional partners to share research findings and support community organizations supporting communities affected by deportation. Recent activities include community dissemination events with Salvadoran NGOs INSAMI Foundation and CIMITRA 

Dr. Polanco and her collaborators are also developing a digital platform to connect volunteers, migrant-serving organizations, and migration scholars working across Central America. The conference and related activities are supporting ongoing collaboration among researchers and community partners in the region. 

This global engagement is partially supported by a recent grant Faculty Mobility for Partnership Building Grant that Dr. Polanco received. Through this grant, Dr. Polanco has further strengthened her relationship with academics and staff at the UCA El Salvador, including faculty from the Department of Psychology & Public Health, and the Vicerrectoría de Proyección Social (translation: The Vice-Presidency for Social Outreach and Community Engagement). They are collaborating to write two papers in Spanish on the experiences of elderly and female deportees; coordinating a virtual meeting space for intersectoral knowledge exchange of current migration challenges in the region; and producing conference proceedings from the October 2025 exchange. These activities stem from Dr. Polanco’s belief that to conduct ethical global research, one must center local actors and be attuned to sending-context dynamics to promote meaningful social change.