Immigration Detention, the Patriarchal State and the Politics of Disgust in the Hands of Street-level Bureaucrats

This article presents the results of ethnographic research conducted in the southern border of Mexico from 2017 to 2019, specifically at the Estación Migratoria Siglo XXI [XXI Century Immigration Station], which is one of the biggest and most important detention centres in the country. It analyses the functioning of an immigration detention centre as a ‘total institution’ where street-level bureaucrats enforce practices of biopolitics through daily deprivation of access to vital resources and the protection of the law. The article depicts how women are treated within a detention centre and provides an explanation focusing on observing gendered power relations and practices of disgust and contempt by the Instituto Nacional de Migración, a State-organised institution in the hands of street-level local bureaucrats who work in precarious conditions. Finally, the article demonstrates the dehumanisation practices in immigration detention that are deployed as a deterrence policy through operational strategies in Estación Migratoria Siglo XXI, located in Tapachula, Chiapas

Reflections on ethics, care and online data collection during the pandemic: Researching the impacts of COVID-19 on migrants in Latin America

Marcia Vera Espinoza - ORCID: 0000-0001-6238-7683 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6238-7683While most borders in Latin America were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the dynamics of mobility and immobility in the region did not stop. In this extreme context, there was a growing need to understand how the pandemic impacted migrant and refugee populations, as well as the long-lasting effects of measures implemented to mitigate its effects. With many migrants facing exacerbated conditions of vulnerability and with new working modalities affecting all members of society, especially those who were key respondents to protect migrants in the first year of the pandemic, key ethical questions emerged about how, when and where, should research be conducted. This paper reflects on the ethical challenges we faced – such as interviewees' research fatigue, negotiation of access, researcher’s positionality and the strategies to create rapport – and the methodological decisions we made in the context of a regional project (CAMINAR) that conducted online interviews with governmental and non-governmental actors working with migrants between June and August 2020.https://doi.org/10.33182/ml.v20i2.283820pubpub

Towards a typology of social protection for migrants and refugees in Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic

Marcia Vera Espinoza - ORCID: 0000-0001-6238-7683 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6238-7683The COVID-19 health crisis has put to the test Latin America’s already precarious social protection systems. This paper comparatively examines what type of social protection has been provided, by whom, and to what extent migrant and refugee populations have been included in these programmes in seven countries of the region during the COVID-19 pandemic, between March and December 2020. We develop a typology of models of social protection highlighting the assemblages of actors, different modes of protection and the emerging migrants’ subjectification in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay in relation to Non-Contributory Social Transfer (NCST) programmes and other actions undertaken by state and non-state actors. The analysis is based on 85 semi-structured interviews with representatives of national and local governments, International Organisations, Civil Society Organisations, and migrant-led organisations across 16 cities, and a systematic review of regulatory frameworks in the country-case studies. The proposed typology shows broad heterogeneity and complexity regarding different degrees of inclusion of migrant and refugee populations, particularly in pre-existing and new NCST programmes. These actions are furthering notions of migrant protection that are contingent and crisis-driven, imposing temporal limitations that often selectively exclude migrants based on legal status. It also brings to the fore the path-dependent nature of policies and practices of exclusion/inclusion in the region, which impact on migrants’ effective access to social and economic rights, while shaping the broader dynamics of migration governance in the region.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-021-00265-x9pubpu

La construcción de procesos de autonomía para la toma de decisiones de mujeres trabajadoras migrantes de retorno

Esta investigación doctoral inscrita en los estudios de género explica cómo es que las mujeres trabajadoras migrantes de retorno construyen procesos de autonomía para la toma de decisiones desde los diversos roles que ejercen (novias, esposas, madres, trabajadoras migrantes). A través de entrevistas realizadas a trabajadoras migrantes de retorno de Estados Unidos en el estado de Tlaxcala, muestro que existen formas muy diversas de construir autonomía dependiendo del contexto sociocultural, el régimen de género y la interpretación subjetiva sobre los significados y prácticas de roles sociales en la vida cotidiana. --Resumen p. ix

Trascender la violencia de género desde el reconocimiento ético: Un diálogo entre la filosofía y la empiria en contextos migratorios

Based in an interdisciplinary dialogue between philosophical conceptions on structural and cultural violence, and a qualitative study on domestic violence in migration contexts, this article points out the relationship between culture and violence against women, its power mechanisms, and the possibilities to revert them. Te concepts of structural violence, cultural violence and ethical recognition, are essential for the analysis on the reversal of violence against women. Te non- fxed state of violence demands the creation of a more humane way of living; therefore, all types of legitimized and justifed violence (explicit, structural and cultural) in our lives must be critically rejected and surpassed by means of an infallible resource: ethical recognition.A partir del diálogo interdisciplinario entre las acepciones flosófcas de la violencia estructural y cultural y los resultados de un estudio sociológico de corte cualitativo sobre la violencia doméstica en contextos migratorios, este artículo muestra de manera refexiva el funcionamiento del entramado entre cultura y la violencia por motivos de género, así como los mecanismos de poder que las sustentan y la posibilidad de revertir dichas estructuras. Mediante la utilización de los conceptos de violencia cultural, violencia estructural y reconocimiento ético, exploramos las posibilidades reales para revertir estas formas de violencia contra las mujeres. La violencia no es un estado inamovible, por lo que se requiere construir una prospectiva que nos permita vivir de una manera más humana. Las formas de violencia tanto explícitas como estructurales y culturales, legitimadas y justifcadas en nuestro ámbito vital, han de ser rechazadas críticamente y trascendidas mediante un recurso importante: el reconocimiento ético