Wayne Cornelius is a U.S. scholar of comparative immigration policy and Mexican politics and development.
Cornelius founded the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego in 1979, and directed it from 1979–1994 and 2001-2003.
[2] Cornelius has also been a Research Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn, Germany), the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (New York).
[3] Cornelius' main expertise is on Mexico and Mexican and Central American migration to the U.S., Latin American migration to Japan and Spain, the Mexican political system and justice system, and measuring the efficacy of immigration control policies pursued by the United States and other countries of immigration.
He has done field research in the United States, Mexico, Cuba, Spain, and Japan.