Rica Agnes Castaneda

Rica Castaneda is a PhD student under the Immigration, Settlement and Diaspora stream. Her background is in migration studies, politics and the developing world. She worked as junior researcher (and WB-IMF Annual Meeting Coordinator for Singapore 2006) for the Institute of Policy Studies in Singapore, and the National University of Singapore where she handled research projects mostly on the topic of governance in Southeast Asia, Asian migrations, and creative cities. Several projects in the past include multi-author manuscript publications, and journal articles (as Assistant to the Regional Editor (Asia), Women’s Studies International Forum). Her approach is comparative and interdisciplinary, highlighting intersectionality in issues surrounding development politics and daily life. She advocates for the democratization and creation of local knowledge in developing communities through spaces and programmes designed at the community level. Rica’s research interests include comparative migration policy and governance, specifically return migration and diaspora engagement. She intends to embark on a research and creative project looking at return and remittances as key points in both emigrant state governance and the migration narrative.