DOI: / Rethinking Transit Migration

Transcription

1 DOI: / Rethinking Transit Migration

2 Mobility & Politics Series editors: Martin Geiger (Carleton University, Ottawa, CAN), Parvati Raghuram (Open University, Milton Keynes, UK) and William Walters (Carleton University, Ottawa, CAN) Global Advisory Board: Michael Collyer, University of Sussex, Brighton (UK); Susan B. Coutin, University of California, Irvine (US); Raúl Delgado Wise, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Zacatecas (MEX); Nicholas De Genova, King s College, London (UK); Eleonore Kofman, Middlessex University, London (UK); Rey Koslowski, University at Albany, State University of New York (US); Loren B. Landau, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (ZA); Sandro Mezzadra,Universitá di Bologna, Bologna (IT); Alison Mountz, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo (CAN); Brett Neilson, University of Western Sydney, Sydney (AUS); Antoine Pécoud, Université Paris 13, Villetaneuse (F); Ranabir Samaddar, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Calcutta (IN); Nandita Sharma, University of Hawai i at Manoa, Honolulu (US); Tesfaye Tafesse, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa (ET); Thanh-Dam Truong, Erasmus University, Rotterdam (NL). Human mobility, whatever its scale, is often controversial. Hence it carries with it the potential for politics. A core feature of mobility politics is the tension between the desire to maximize the social and economic benefits of migration, and pressures to restrict movement. Transnational communities, global instability, advances in transportation and communication, and concepts of smart borders and migration management are just a few of the phenomena transforming the landscape of migration today. The tension between openness and restriction raises important questions about how different types of policies and politics come to life and influence mobility. Mobility & Politics invites original, theoretically and empirically informed studies for academic and policy-oriented debates. Authors examine issues such as refugees and displacement, migration and citizenship, security and cross-border movements, (post-)colonialism and mobility, and transnational movements and cosmopolitics. Other Titles Include: Vicki Squire POST/HUMANITARIAN BORDER POLITICS BETWEEN MEXICO AND THE US People, Places, Things Antoine Pécoud DEPOLITICISING MIGRATION Global Governance and International Migration Narratives Nicos Trimikliniotis, Dimitris Parsanoglou and Vassilis Tsianos MOBILE COMMONS, MIGRANT DIGITALITIES AND THE RIGHT TO THE CITY Chris Rumford COSMOPOLITAN BORDERS Mobility & Politics Series Standing Order ISBN hardback (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England DOI: /

3 Rethinking Transit Migration: Precarity, Mobility, and Self- Making in Mexico Tanya Basok Professor, University of Windsor, Canada Danièle Bélanger Professor, Université Laval, Canada Martha Luz Rojas Wiesner Professor, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Mexico Guillermo Candiz Researcher, Université Laval, Canada DOI: /

4 Tanya Basok, Danièle Bélanger, Martha Luz Rojas Wiesner and Guillermo Candiz 2015 Foreword Michael Collyer 2015 S o f t c o v e r r e p r i n t o f t h e h a r d c o v e r 1 s t e d i t i o n All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: PDF ISBN: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. doi: /

5 Contents Series Editors Foreword Acknowledgements List of Abbreviation vi viii ix 1 From Transit to Mobility: Characteristics and Concepts 1 2 The Context of Precarity: Actors and Spaces 28 3 Trajectories of Precarity and Mobility: Places and Actors 50 4 Techniques of the Self in the Face of Precarity 72 5 Towards Dignity and Security 89 Appendix: The List of Migrants Interviewed in This Study, by Place of Origin, Age, and Gender 96 References 98 Index 117 DOI: / v

6 Series Editors Foreword In the 21st century, we have become familiar with stark inequalities in access to mobility. A large proportion of the world s population enjoys international mobility on a scale never previously experienced, while unprecedented resources are devoted to preventing the mobility of most of the rest. This inequality has many implications, summarized in Zygmunt Bauman s famous observation that mobility, not capital, is the key differentiating factor of the globalized world. 1 The long, dangerous journeys by land and sea that have become a key feature of global mobility over the past few decades are the most obvious manifestation of the rejection of this inequality. The widespread use of the term transit migration to describe these journeys highlights how a linear policy logic has come to colonize broader understandings of complex mobility patterns. This new contribution to our Mobility & Politics series goes further than any other recent work in clarifying the context of these tremendously significant forms of contemporary mobility. Rethinking Transit Migration in Mexico: Precarity, Self-Making, and Mobility sets out a clear argument against these over-simplified policy frameworks. It draws on original interviews with migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador in locations across Mexico. The value of this empirical work is highlighted through the identification of a central paradox of widespread immobility within broader patterns of mobility. 1 Bauman, Z. (1998). Globalization. The Human Consequences. Columbia University Press, p. 2. vi DOI: /

7 Series Editors Foreword vii This paradox arises through the ongoing rejection of the inequality of access to global mobility, as people try to move despite the barriers against movement. This in turn produces new forms of vulnerability which constrain further movement. These twin characteristics of rejection and vulnerability are theorized through the perspectives of techniques of the self and precarity. This combination effectively acknowledges the extreme suffering and isolation that these migrations experience while recognizing the reflexivity and autonomy of the migrants concerned. Currents and counter currents of these conflicting impulses produce the complexity that is apparent in the experiences of the migrants involved in the research. These ideas structure the book, ensuring an important contribution to this series and the wider critique of transit migration. They also provide a valuable new approach to think through the ongoing evolutions in these patterns of radically autonomous mobility. Michael Collyer, Sussex University Member of the Mobility & Politics Global Advisory Board The Series Editors: Martin Geiger, Carleton University Parvati Raghuram, Open University William Walters, Carleton University DOI: /

8 Acknowledgements We are extremely grateful to all the migrants who were willing to generously share with us their often dramatic stories of adventure, hardship, resilience, and resourcefulness. We also thank representatives of migrant help organizations who provided invaluable insight for our analysis. Victoria Simmons, our remarkable research assistant who conducted interviews in Tapachula and subsequently assisted us in the coding of data, deserves special recognition. A skillful ethnographer, Victoria enriched our study by collecting candid and elaborate narratives. Some of the sections of this manuscript were originally written (or transcribed in the case of migrants narratives) in Spanish, and Margarita Píntin Pérez, Ana Pesic, and Sorelia Donis assisted Tanya Basok in translating them. We deeply appreciate their expertise and hard work. Other individuals who assisted us in the preparation of this manuscript include Jaime Cinta, Elvia Porcayo, and Carolina Meneses; they also helped us compile and review some literature. We are also grateful to Alice Hedley for her superb editing skills, to Louise Marcoux who produced our maps, María Eugenia Zavala de Cosío and Sara María Lara Flores for their warm hospitality and assistance during our stay in Mexico City. Finally, this research would not have been possible without the generous support from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. viii DOI: /

9 List of Abbreviations CBP Customs and Border Protection CDHFMC Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Matías de Córdova (Fray Matías de Cordova Human Rights Centre) CIDEHUM Centro Internacional para los Derechos Humanos de los Migrantes (International Centre for Human Rights of the Migrants) CILA Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas-International (International Committee for Boundaries and International Waters) CNDH Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos México (National Human Rights Committee-Mexico) COFAMIDE Comite de Familias de Migrantes Fallecidos y Desaparecidos de El Salvador (Committee of Family Members of Dead and Disappeared Migrants COFAMIPRO Comité de Familiares de Migrantes Desaparecidos del Progreso, Honduras (Progreso Committee of Family Members of Disappeared Migrants) COMIFAH Asociación Red de Comités de Familiares de Migrantes de Honduras (Network of Committees of Migrants and Migrants Families) DHS Department of Homeland Security DOI: / ix

10 x List of Abbreviations DPMH Dimensión Pastoral de la Movilidad Humana (Pastoral Dimension of Human Mobility) EMIF-sur Encuesta sobre Migración en la Frontera Sur de México (Survey of Migration at the Southern Border in Mexico) FONAMI Foro Nacional para las Migraciones, Honduras (National Forum on Migration-Honduras) FY Fiscal Year GTPM Grupo de Trabajo sobre Política Migratoria (Working Group on the Migration Policy) ICE United State Immigration and Customs Enforcement INM Instituto Nacional de Migración (National Migration Institute) INS Immigration and Naturalization Services IRCA Immigration Reform and Control Act MENAMIG Mesa Nacional para las Migraciones en Guatemala (National Forum on Migration in Guatemala) NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement PEM Programa Especial de Migración (Special Program for Migration) PND-Migración Colectivo Plan Nacional de Desarrollo-Migración (Working Group on the National Plan for Migration and Development) RDODM Red de Documentación de las Organizaciones de Defensa de los Migrantes (Documentation Network of Organizations for the Defense of Migrants) RROCM Red Regional de las Organizaciones Civiles para las Migraciones (Regional Network of Civil Organizations for Migration) SEGOB Secretaría de Gobernación (Mexican Secretariat of the Interior) SJM Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes Mexico (Mexican Jesuit Migrant Service) UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime DOI: /