Pau Garcia Sánchez is a PhD candidate in the Communication program at Blanquerna – Universitat Ramon Llull (URL). He joined the Research Institute at the School of Communication and International Relations in 2025, where he conducts his doctoral research under the supervision of Dr. Oscar Mateos and Dr. Valeria Bello as a Joan Oró predoctoral research fellow (FI), co-funded by the Department of Research and Universities of the Government of Catalonia and the European Union’s European Social Fund Plus (ESF+). Pau holds a Master’s degree in Advanced Studies in International Affairs from Blanquerna – URL (2024), and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) (2022). His research interests lie in migration studies, with a particular focus on critically examining how (un)sustainable development contributes to irregular migration dynamics and fuels securitisation processes in both sending and receiving countries.

His doctoral dissertation “Fishing industrialization in the Republic of The Gambia: How unsustainable development fuels irregular migration and its securitisation” explores the constellations of factors shaping individuals’ decisions to pursue irregular migration routes and its intersection with increasingly securitized narratives. Prior to joining the Research Institute, Pau worked as an administrative assistant at IBEI (Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals) and completed an internship at the European Union and Foreign Affairs Department of the Government of Catalonia.

RESEARCH

• Migration studies
• Environmental migration
• Critical security studies
• Sustainable development
• Political ecology