Fernando Riosmena photo portrait
Associate Professor of Geography • International migration; population geography; social demography; population health; Latin America • Faculty, Population Program, Institute of Behavioral Science • Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 2005
Human Geography
Fernando.Riosmena@Colorado.edu
303-492-1476 IBS 483 | GUGG 201H

DR. RIOSMENA IS NOT CURRENTLY ACCEPTING NEW GRAD STUDENTS.

Research Interests

Fernando Riosmena is an Associate Professor at the Population Program and the Geography Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Institute of Behavioral Science. His research aims at improving understanding of the theories, drivers, empirical measurement, and analytical strategies to analyze spatial mobility, with a particular focus on the social, economic, policy, and environmental factors likely influencing international migration between Mexico and the United States. In addition, Riosmena also does research assessing the patterns and explanations of the chronic health status Latin American immigrants arrive with, how this health status changes over time, and how and why it differs between immigrants and their U.S.-born descendants.

Recent Courses Taught

  • Spring 2022 GEOG 4292/5292 Migration, Immigrant Adaptation, and Development
  • Fall 2021 GEOG 4732/5732  Population Geography
  • Spring 2021 GEOG 6732  Formal Population Geography
  • Fall 2020 GEOG 1982  World Regional Geography
  • Summer 2020 GEOG 4292/5292: Migration, Immigrant Adaptation, and Development
  • Fall 2019 GEOG 1982  World Regional Geography
  • Summer 2019 GEOG 4292/5292: Migration, Immigrant Adaptation, and Development
  • Spring 2019 GEOG 1982  World Regional Geography

Selected Publications

Riosmena, F. “Environmental change, its social impacts, and migration responses within and out of Latin America: a review and theoretical inquiry.” In press. In Feldman, Andreas E., Jorge Durand, Stephanie Schütze, and Xóchitl Bada (Eds.). The Routledge History of Modern Latin American Migration. New York: Routledge.

Riosmena, F., H. Beltrán-Sánchez, M. Reynolds, and J. Vinneau. 2021. How is the health of the Mexican-origin population on both sides of the border, and how is it affected by anti-immigrant sentiment? In Hinojosa-Ojeda, R., and E. Telles (Eds.) The Trump Paradox: Migration, Trade, and Racial Politics in US-Mexico Integration. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520302570. 

Sue, C. & F. Riosmena. 2021. “Multiracialism and Intersectional Inequality: New Ethnoracial Categories in Mexico.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 7(4):488-511. 

Riosmena, F., R. Nawrotzki, & L. Hunter. 2018. “Climate Migration at the Height and End of the Great Mexican Migration Era.” Population and Development Review 44(3):455-488.

Riosmena, F., R. Kuhn, & C. Jochem. 2017. “Explaining the immigrant health advantage: self-selection and protection among five major national-origin immigrant groups in the United States.” Demography 54(1):175-200.

Riosmena, F. 2016. “The potential and limitations of cross-context comparative research on migration.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 666(1):28-45.

Updated January 2022