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Gateway to the North? Contingent Journeys at the Mexico‐Guatemala Border
Author(s) -
Galemba Rebecca B.,
Dingeman Katie,
DeVries Kaelyn
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the journal of latin american and caribbean anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.624
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1935-4940
pISSN - 1935-4932
DOI - 10.1111/jlca.12511
Subject(s) - deportation , gateway (web page) , destinations , vulnerability (computing) , settlement (finance) , contingency plan , immigration , preparedness , contingency , political science , sociology , criminology , business , law , economics , finance , world wide web , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , computer security , management , tourism , payment
As insecurity in Central America persists and avenues for asylum in the U.S. constrict, migrants are exploring options in Mexico—to seek humanitarian relief or to bide time as they consider whether to continue north, settle, or return. Based on interviews with migrants and shelter staff at the Mexico‐Guatemala border in the summer of 2017, this article applies contingency logics (Bledsoe 2002) to analyze how proximate social ties, accumulated experiences, and harsh ordeals inform how migrants make decisions, change their minds, and re‐envision destinations amid uncertainty. Complicating tensions between mobility/immobility and settlement/transit, we demonstrate how decisions to settle, seek protection, or wait in Mexico may be socially understood as fostering migrants’ larger goals to continue their journeys and pursue their migratory aspirations. However, given Mexico's expanding deportation apparatus and the unpredictability of options in Mexico, such forms of waiting also risk consigning migrants to indeterminate waiting, vulnerability, and entrapment.