Navigating Risks Across Borders: The Lived Experiences of Central American Women Migrants

The journey for ‘unauthorized’ migrant women from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA) through Mexico dangerous and violent. In hopes of achieving safe passage to the United States (U.S.), women migrants will have to navigate borders. In this dissertation, I use the concept of borders to reveal the gendered experiences of (im)mobility. I argue that navigating borders throughout the migratory journey is not simply about experiencing the risks and vulnerabilities associated with restrictive border enforcement policies and practices implemented by the nation-state. (Im)mobility for women migrants is equally about the boundaries and/or barriers that are created by oppressive systems of subordination, such as patriarchy. These borders determine their embodied experiences, which not only affect their journey through Mexico, but their access to migration as well as their migratory options and resources. In Article #1, I begin by exploring how disembodied border policy affects people, specifically migrant women. I show how territorial nation-state borders are governed in Mexico and how this governance can be associated with the long history of immigration control in the U.S. The border governance implemented in Mexico categorizes migrants as ‘unauthorized’. For women migrants, this subordinate category exists throughout their migration journey producing vulnerability and violence as soon as the Mexico-Guatemala boundary is crossed. This embodied illegality creates forced invisibility, further marginalizing women with respect to finding work, experiences of sexual violence and abuses by migration actors. In Article #2, I shift my focus and explore other types of borders and/or barriers. I argue that nation-state border policies and the categories associated with these policies, such as ‘unauthorized’, ‘irregular’, ‘undocumented’, are but only one type of oppression that migrant women face in their migration. I connect the violent effects of territorial border practices with other structures of oppression, such as gender discrimination, class, race, which constitute the woman migrant subject and affect women’s embodied experiences. I frame my analysis using intersectionality and corporeal feminism to examine how gender inequality is embedded in the context of migration; how it is a motivating factor, but can also impact migratory options and resources. Lastly in Article #3, I explore how migrant women navigate these borders and attempt to survive in this migration context. I examine how they act within limitations, constraints, exploitation and violence. Informed by feminist scholarship, I examine the concept of the ‘mobile commons’ and how it fits in this particular context. I explore how situated and relational knowledge affects the survival tactics and strategies applied by women migrants while on the journey to the U.S. I contribute to the scholarship on the mobile commons concept by showing how diverse experiences and vulnerabilities affect knowledge and, thus strategies, while on the run and how migration is not a gender-neutral experience. Together, these three articles illustrate how gender is embedded in migration and borders and how women migrants in the NTCA and Mexico must confront these lived realities and navigate their journeys within these constraints and limitations

The Politics of Temporary Protection Schemes: The Role of Mexico’s TVRH in Reproducing Precarity among Central American Migrant

Using Mexico’s Tarjeta de Visitante por Razones Humanitarias (TVRH) as a primary case study, this article examines how states can use temporary protection schemes as border security measures while claiming to provide protection. Although the TVRH offers a legal pathway and status to move within Mexico, it equally restricts certain rights due to its temporary nature. It becomes a form of differential inclusion by which the state has the right to be able to “exclude and define the limits” of a particular population but also claim inclusion on humanitarian grounds. Despite the claim of protecting migrants, the application of this regular status can essentially become a form of interdiction, which sustains the political framing of migration as ultimately a “threat” that needs to be governed. On the ground, migrants with these temporary regular statuses occupy a liminal space and live a precarious existence similar to those migrants who do not possess a legal status at all. This power imbalance exists more often as states prefer to grant a temporary immigration status, which ensures less responsibility and support that accompanies more rights and protections. Based on policy analysis and field work, the article will examine the TVRH, the processes for obtaining this legal status, and the consequences for irregular migrants. - Usando de la Tarjeta de Visitante por Razones Humanitarias (TVRH) de México, como un estudio de caso prinicpal, este artículo examina cómo los estados pueden utilizar esquemas de protección temporal como medidas de seguridad mientras afirman brindar protección. Y aunque la TVRH ofrece una vía legal y estatus para moverse dentro de México, esto igualmente restringe ciertos derechos debido a su carácter temporal. De esta forma se convierte en una forma de inclusión diferencial mediante la cual el Estado tiene derecho a poder excluir y definir los límites de una población en particular, aunque también tenga la opción de reclamar inclusión por motivos humanitarios. A pesar de la pretensión de proteger a los migrantes, la aplicación de este estatus regular puede esencialmente convertirse en una forma de interdicción, que sostiene el encuadre político de la migración como una “amenaza” que, en última instancia, necesita ser controlada. Sobre el terreno, los migrantes con este regular estatus temporal pueden ocupar un espacio liminal y vivir una existencia precaria similar a los migrantes que no poseen ningún estatus legal. Este desequilibrio de poder existe con mayor frecuencia, ya que los estados prefieren otorgar un estatus migratorio temporal, lo que garantiza menos responsabilidad y compromiso con los derechos que acompañan la debida protección. Basado en la política, el análisis y el trabajo de campo, el artículo examina el TVRH, los procesos para la obtención de este estatus legal y las consecuencias para los migrantes irregulares

The More Things Change, The More they Stay the Same: Border Governance and Resistance along Mexico’s Southern Border with Guatemala

With the politics of borders, the socio-economic divide between the United States and Mexico is evident. The geographic proximity to the U.S. makes the Mexico–Guatemala border an extension of the U.S. border enforcement regime. This article argues that the politics surrounding the U.S.–Guatemala border have not necessarily changed, because, at the core, the main objective of these border governance practices is to stop the movement of undesirable bodies (Khosravi 2011). Further, the article argues that the practices of containment force migrants to resist through their movement and seek strategies of survival. By comparing the administrations of Peña Nieto and López Obrador (AMLO) and analyzing the survival strategy of migrant “caravans” through border policy analysis and fieldwork conducted in 2014, I show that this border is a site of struggle between the state’s power and migrants’ forms of resistance. I find that border tactics are influenced by U.S. border enforcement requirements of increased militarization and policing, but also aim to restrict and control certain populations. The result is the perpetual securitization of people and the militarization of pathways. Migrants, however, also employ forms of organizing such as travelling in mass groups to achieve safe passage, thus exercising their agency through movement. The bordering practices and the forms of resistance indicate that this border is a constant site of struggle that requires further examination

Navigating Risks Across Borders: The Lived Experiences of Central American Women Migrants

The journey for ‘unauthorized’ migrant women from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA) through Mexico dangerous and violent. In hopes of achieving safe passage to the United States (U.S.), women migrants will have to navigate borders. In this dissertation, I use the concept of borders to reveal the gendered experiences of (im)mobility. I argue that navigating borders throughout the migratory journey is not simply about experiencing the risks and vulnerabilities associated with restrictive border enforcement policies and practices implemented by the nation-state. (Im)mobility for women migrants is equally about the boundaries and/or barriers that are created by oppressive systems of subordination, such as patriarchy. These borders determine their embodied experiences, which not only affect their journey through Mexico, but their access to migration as well as their migratory options and resources. In Article #1, I begin by exploring how disembodied border policy affects people, specifically migrant women. I show how territorial nation-state borders are governed in Mexico and how this governance can be associated with the long history of immigration control in the U.S. The border governance implemented in Mexico categorizes migrants as ‘unauthorized’. For women migrants, this subordinate category exists throughout their migration journey producing vulnerability and violence as soon as the Mexico-Guatemala boundary is crossed. This embodied illegality creates forced invisibility, further marginalizing women with respect to finding work, experiences of sexual violence and abuses by migration actors. In Article #2, I shift my focus and explore other types of borders and/or barriers. I argue that nation-state border policies and the categories associated with these policies, such as ‘unauthorized’, ‘irregular’, ‘undocumented’, are but only one type of oppression that migrant women face in their migration. I connect the violent effects of territorial border practices with other structures of oppression, such as gender discrimination, class, race, which constitute the woman migrant subject and affect women’s embodied experiences. I frame my analysis using intersectionality and corporeal feminism to examine how gender inequality is embedded in the context of migration; how it is a motivating factor, but can also impact migratory options and resources. Lastly in Article #3, I explore how migrant women navigate these borders and attempt to survive in this migration context. I examine how they act within limitations, constraints, exploitation and violence. Informed by feminist scholarship, I examine the concept of the ‘mobile commons’ and how it fits in this particular context. I explore how situated and relational knowledge affects the survival tactics and strategies applied by women migrants while on the journey to the U.S. I contribute to the scholarship on the mobile commons concept by showing how diverse experiences and vulnerabilities affect knowledge and, thus strategies, while on the run and how migration is not a gender-neutral experience. Together, these three articles illustrate how gender is embedded in migration and borders and how women migrants in the NTCA and Mexico must confront these lived realities and navigate their journeys within these constraints and limitations

Bella.Vista – Agronomy-Campus Bolivia

Gedruckt erschienen im Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, ISBN 978-3-7983-2926-3 (ISSN 2510-215X)In der Debatte um globale Themen wie wachsende Urbanisierung, Landflucht und Armutsbekämpfung spielt die Suche nach lokal wirksamen Lösungsvorschlägen eine wesentliche Rolle und es stellt sich für Architekten die Frage nach dem Beitrag ihrer Profession in diesem Kontext. Das Fachgebiet Prof. Pasel widmet sich dieser Aufgabe mit einem interdisziplinären und langfristig angelegten Projekt für das andine Dorf Bella Vista in Bolivien. In einer internationalen Kooperation mit der gemeinnützigen Organisation Fundación Cristo Vive Bolivia, die sich der Armutsbekämpfung in Lateinamerika widmet, haben Studierende unter Leitung des Fachgebietes den Bau einer Landwirtschaftsschule entworfen, geplant und anschließend gemeinsam mit den lokalen Partnern vor Ort in die Realität umgesetzt.In the discourse of global issues like rapid urbanization processes, rural exodus and fighting against poverty, it is more than essential to develop effective strategies that have an sustainable impact on a local level. As architects and planers we are asked to deal with these challenges in a spatial way. The project of a boarding school for the agronomy-campus Bella Vista in Bolivia, a project of Prof. Pasel and his team from TU Berlin, addresses this challenge by integrating students and local stakeholders in an architectural design and building project, that creates spatial solutions by catalysing social processes. This co-productive project is realized in cooperation with the charitable organisation of Cristo Vive Bolivia in a two year design-build process

Методы моделирования режимов работы электрических систем с несимметрией и тенденции их развития

Рішення цілого ряду актуальних завдань проектування і експлуатації вимагає достатньо докладних досліджень режимів роботи електричних систем з несиметрією. Для реалізації таких досліджень необхідні розробки відповідних моделей на основі рівнянь у фазних координатах і представлення елементів трифазними багатополюсниками.The decision of a number of actual tasks of planning and exploitation requires the enough detailed researches of the modes of operations of the electric systems with unsymmetry. For realization of such researches developments of the proper models on the basis of equalizations in phase co-ordinates and presentation of elements by three-phase multiterminal network are needed

Reconfiguring the past

How can the museum of the future look like? This publication deals with the currently strongly changing landscape of museums in Germany and Berlin. The museum complex in Dahlem is the starting point for the explorations of a place that is to be established as a new type of research location in the next few years. To be able to think of such a research campus at a location that is already anchored in the cultural memory of Berliners and has a positive connotation in society presents itself as a unique opportunity, which the department CODE I Design and Building Construction of the TU Berlin together with the foundation Seize Prussian cultural heritage approaches with numerous illustrated design strategies

IFA inside out

Gedruckt erschienen im Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, ISBN 978-3-7983-3243-0 (ISSN 2510-215X)INSIDE OUT ist ein Design Build Experiment, das kuratorische Praxis und interaktive Installation zusammenführt und im Rahmen der IFA Jahresausstellung 2021 am Institut für Architektur im Hermkes Bau am Ernst Reuter Platz zusammenenführt. Geprägt von den Ereignissen der Covi-19 Pandemie spielt die Frage der Ausstellungskonzeption auf Distanz dabei die zentrale Rolle, die über Produktion, Gestaltung und Realisierung entscheidet.INSIDE OUT is a design build experiment that merges curatorial practice in an interactive installation as part of the IFA annual exhibition 2021 at the Institute for Architecture in the Hermkes Building on Ernst Reuter Platz in Berlin. Shaped by the events of the Covi-19 pandemic, the question of the exhibition concept at a distance plays the central role that decides on production, design and implementation

D'abord... comprendre le fonctionnement de la langue : Proposition pour un apprentissage court

22,5 heures, quinze cours, c'est la duree totale maximum desormais proposee aux etudiants de l'Universite de Gifu pour l'etude de leur seconde langue etrangere. Un seul semestre auquel il faut pourtant bien essayer de donner un sens. L'approche que je propose a pour but de limiter au possible l'inutile et l'ambigu tout en tentant de faire comprendre les rouages de la langue francaise aux etudiant

Werkstatt Multihalle – Contemporary Living Experiments

Gedruckt erschienen im Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, ISBN 978-3-7983-3234-8 (ISSN 2510-215X)Die 'Werkstatt Multihalle' setzt mit 'Contemporary Living Experiments' einen Schwerpunkt an der Schnittstelle von 'akademischer Wissenschaft' und 'demokratische Stadtgesellschaft' und entspricht durch den Fokus auf experimentellen Wohnformen und durch das Ausloten neuer qualitativer Lebensräume dem Grundgedanken der Multihalle Frei Ottos. In dieser werden aktuelle Themen zu Gesellschaft, Urbanität, Wohnen und Nachhaltigkeit verhandelt. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Entwicklung innovativer Antworten auf die Fragestellungen des zukünftigen städtischen Lebens.With 'Contemporary Living Experiments', the 'Werkstatt Multihalle' focuses on the interface between 'academic science' and 'democratic urban society' and corresponds to the basic idea of Frei Otto's Multihalle by focusing on experimental forms of living and by exploring new qualitative living spaces. In it, current topics on society, urbanity, housing and sustainability are negotiated. The focus is on the development of innovative answers to the questions of future urban life