Holly Haynes

I was born in Chicago to a South African father, descended from Irish migrants, and an English mother. Growing up in the US to immigrant parents has shaped my interest in migration and I believe that Latin America is a particularly fascinating region in this regard. 

I hold a BA in Spanish & Portuguese from King’s College London and a Postgraduate Diploma in International Relations and Development from SOAS, University of London. For my SOAS dissertation I conducted a comparative study on the nikkeijin communities in Brazil and Peru. I investigated how race and identity are often conflated with the goal of provoking a contemplation of how migrants are compartmentalised, often through Western preconceptions.

I have just finished two years volunteering for the Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation in London. I worked in three departments, but it was through doing immigration casework that I was able to gain a first-hand insight into some of the root causes of migration from Latin America as well as the difficulties faced by migrants from the region in the UK. 

I hope to synthesise my personal interest and my work experience whilst at Oxford by focussing my dissertation on two BRICS nations, South Africa and Brazil, and the extent to which the two are upholding the rights of migrants crossing the borders from the respective neighbouring fragile states.    

Alongside my MSc, I am interning at the Latin American News Digest, a publication based in Washington D.C. that aims to propagate news from the region in Anglophone communities.