El objetivo de este artículo es analizar las formas de agencia y las estrategias de quienes ingresan al sistema de asilo, centrándose en los espacios de apoyo y las alianzas dentro de un sistema de asilo desigual y a menudo excluyente en términos de reconocimiento institucional del derecho de asilo. Este trabajo se basa en una década de investigación de campo (2013-2022) con solicitantes de asilo en España. La metodología se sustenta en entrevistas a profundidad con solicitantes de asilo, personas refugiadas, y actores sociales de organizaciones civiles. Los hallazgos indican que, pese a esta situación, las personas han encontrado otro tipo de reconocimiento a través de acciones y prácticas de inclusión, resistencia, y pertenencia que les han permitido continuar con sus proyectos de vida, así como una mayor autonomía y la creación de espacios más seguros. Este estudio se apoya en una categorización de las formas de agencia elaborada a partir de las condiciones específicas que rodean a cada sujeto.
Este estudio explora, desde una perspectiva interseccional y a partir de la concepción tridimensional de la justicia social de Fraser, las experiencias de discriminación de mujeres migrantes africanas negras residentes en Valencia (España), analizando cómo se configuran a lo largo de sus trayectorias en el país de origen, el tránsito migratorio y la sociedad receptora. Metodológicamente, adopta un enfoque cualitativo e interpretativo basado en 19 entrevistas semiestructuradas, analizadas mediante una herramienta de codificación híbrida que combina la aplicación deductiva del marco de Fraser con la incorporación inductiva de categorías analíticas emergentes. Los resultados muestran que la intersección entre género, raza y colonialidad genera exclusiones interrelacionadas, expresadas en precariedad económica, desvalorización cultural e invisibilidad política. El estudio contribuye a superar el nacionalismo metodológico al abordar el continuo transnacional de la injusticia social y propone una herramienta analítica interseccional útil para el diseño de políticas públicas orientadas a la justicia social.
This article analyzes how organized crime in Guerrero uses the forced recruitment of individuals under the age of 18 as a strategy to strengthen its armed structures and exert social and territorial control. It further examines how families respond by resorting to displacement to northern Mexico and asylum requests in the United States as protection mechanisms. The research is based on a qualitative approach using in-depth interviews with Mexican families sheltered in Nogales, Sonora between 2019 and 2022. The analysis of testimonies identified different modes of recruitment and use of children and adolescents within criminal dynamics, as well as their link to processes of forced displacement and the search for international protection. This research offers empirical evidence of the under-explored relationship between recruitment and forced mobility, providing an original perspective on contemporary forms of violence and territorial control in Guerrero.
The aim of this article is to identify and analyze the emerging critical issues in the design and implementation of local migration policies based on the experience of Argentine municipalities during the 2019-2024 period. It finds support in a qualitative methodological strategy that triangulates document analysis, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews. Based on the analytical framework of state capacities, the paper shows that the main critical issues are related to the lack or deficiency of certain technical-administrative capacities of local governments and others of a political or relational nature. The topic is part of an underexplored line of research within the field of Latin American migration studies, which is linked to experiences of the effective recognition of rights.
This article presents an estimate of the contribution of immigrant laborers to sustaining economic dynamics in six high-immigration countries in Latin America. To estimate gross domestic product (GDP) by migratory origin of workforce, we rely on the method developed by Canales (2022), which has been recently used by the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) in its 2023 Social Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean. The results indicate the growing role of immigrants in maintaining economic dynamics (GDP volume and growth) in these countries over the last two decades. This contribution takes on particular relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and the subsequent economic recovery experienced in recent years, a period in which immigrant workers played a leading role in maintaining the functioning and dynamism of national economies.
This study analyzes the determinants of wage differentials between Peruvians and Venezuelan migrants in Peru, with a particular focus on the labor conditions of migrant women. Using data from the National Household Survey (ENAHO) and the Survey of the Venezuelan Population Residing in Peru (ENPOVE) 2022, a Mincer-type wage equation is estimated, incorporating human capital variables, job characteristics, and sectoral controls. The results indicate that, in contrast to traditional human capital-related determinants, factors such as holding a formal contract and the productive sector of employment are more influential in explaining wage gaps. In sectors such as retail trade, hotels and restaurants, and personal services, education and work experience do not generate statistically significant returns for the Venezuelan population. Overall, the findings provide empirical evidence of labor market segmentation affecting migrants in Peru and highlight important implications for the design of inclusive labor market policies.
This paper analyzes the perceptions and attitudes of the native population of the city of Temuco, Chile, toward the growing influx of international immigrants, from a survey of 384 residents over 18. The results show that Chileans tend to have more favorable perceptions of migrants when they maintain frequent contact with them. It also reveals that negative perceptions of immigration appear to be largely imagined without necessarily being based on direct experiences with migrants. These negative perceptions are more common among older individuals than among younger ones. Overall, the study suggests that in cities where the migratory phenomenon is recent, local perceptions and attitudes toward migrants are shaped without substantial prior contact and vary according to certain demographic characteristics, particularly age.
This study aims to analyze the transformation of Mexican migration policies during the López Obrador administration (2018-2024), highlighting the shift from a detention-deportation paradigm to containment strategies. Through descriptive statistical analysis of administrative records and newspaper data collection, five mechanisms are identified: 1) alignment with U.S. asylum and border policies; 2) detentions spanning from the southern border to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; 3) delays in issuing non-conventional migration documents; 4) systematic blocking of migrant caravans; and 5) forced relocations from north to south. The results reveal that these strategies have consolidated an unprecedented detention-containment model, which is essential to understanding current transit migration management; thus, serving as an explanatory and reference framework for other studies on migration in Mexico.
From a quantitative approach, this research aims to describe the sociodemographic characteristics, perceptions, and motivations for mobility of the international community residing in the coastal municipality of Chapala, Mexico, a popular destination for retirees from abroad. Using a simple random sampling, migratory patterns directed towards this region in the context of lifestyle mobility are analyzed. Between December 2023 and March 2024, questionnaires were applied at various gathering points frequented by the international community. Descriptive analysis reveals a diverse range of nationalities and age groups engaged in working life within the study area, highlighting the destination’s attractiveness not only for retirees but also for remote workers. Likewise, it was identified that Europeans are motivated to settle in Mexico by economic factors, especially the affordability of housing and healthcare.
This paper assesses the effects of declining globalization on the emigration and unionization of export employees in Casablanca, Morocco. Ninety-two in-depth interviews (2015-2017) were analyzed using qualitative methodology. The supply chains of export companies which had facilitated emigration deteriorated over many crises. Emigration and the desire to emigrate declined. Many union gains were diminished or cut. Unions resisted greater precarity, fighting losses and/or making compromises. Sixty percent of interviewees rejected emigration. Unionized migrant men and women want to emigrate most, especially younger men, but unionized Casablancans were a close second. Non-unionized migrant men and women reject emigration most. This research helps to predict how emigration in the present and future will be influenced by the division of the world into new regional blocks replacing globalization. As a case study, generalization is limited, but comparisons can be made.
This paper explores how unaccompanied LGBT+ migrant children in the context of mobility live their processes of gender transition and/or discovery of their sexual orientation. Based on in-depth interviews with four young people who migrated to Mexico as adolescents, their experiences are reconstructed, evidencing the violence and discrimination suffered in their countries of origin as a result of their sexogenic dissidence. This forces them to migrate in order to live their sexual expressions and orientations, where migration becomes a survival strategy in the face of hostile contexts towards sexual and gender diversity. This text explores LGBT+ child migration, a facet little studied in Mexico, making visible that it is not homogeneous but rather composed of a diverse population, highlighting the need to recognize the specific realities of children in their migration processes.
This study aims to identify and characterize Colombian households with emigrants, addressing their limited visibility in national information systems. To achieve this, a methodological strategy is employed that links administrative records (REMI and REBP) with the 2018 Census, allowing an indirect estimation of these households. The results indicate that 1.8% of Colombian households have at least one emigrant member and highlight the feminization of migration, along with a reduction in household size. Household typologies are analyzed by comparing those with and without the effect of emigration to identify differences in structure, life cycle, and intergenerational composition. This study contributes to the sociodemographic understanding of households with emigrants and demonstrates the usefulness of linking administrative records and census data as a methodological alternative for their identification in the absence of a direct information source.
This article examines the impact of the new Spanish immigration regulation (RD 1155/2024) on applicants for international protection (IP). Although it introduces a provisional pathway to regularization through the Fifth Transitional Provision, it actually consolidates a restrictive jurisprudence that limits the possibilities of accessing a legal status after the denial of an IP application. Through a comparison with the German system, which has developed flexible mechanisms such as the Spurwechsel (track-change) to facilitate the transition of rejected applicants towards legal residence, the need to consider stable and coherent alternatives adapted to current mobility dynamics becomes evident. The analysis reveals the prevailing tension between integration and control, showing how Spanish policy, aligned with restrictive European trends, places IP applicants in a legal limbo that compromises their rights and inclusion processes.
El artículo analiza el impacto del crimen organizado en la huida y persecución de personas mexicanas y centroamericanas, así como su llegada y espera prolongada en Tijuana. Se realizaron 15 entrevistas estructuradas y 29 semiestructuradas a migrantes con necesidad de protección internacional en un centro de acogida gubernamental. Los resultados indican que los factores de salida de violencia criminal y de género incrementan los riesgos de sufrir agresiones, explotación y violaciones a derechos humanos durante su movilidad y espera fronteriza prolongada. Se muestran los efectos de la articulación multiescalar de la violencia -criminal, institucional y de género- en el atrapamiento con esperanza del asilo. El estudio enriquece el conocimiento relacional entre la violencia criminal y la movilidad forzada. Su originalidad radica en la explicación del continuum de violencia en el desplazamiento forzado.
This paper seeks to unravel how the digital social network Facebook constructs a favorable discourse to migration and migrants in transit through Mexico. To this end, a discursive and semiotic-multimodal analysis of pro-migrant Facebook accounts is carried out, inquiring into emotions, metaphors, narratives, and recurrent argumentative topics. Two central ethos are detected: that of the migration manager, who conceives migration as a phenomenon that must be organized through bureaucratic procedures, and even promotes a change of legal status (from migrant to resident); and that of the facilitator-participant, who promotes a more humane, supportive, and understanding image. These pages may contribute to the reflection on a less studied discourse, alternative to the securitizing, rejectionist, or xenophobic one. Preliminary results show that even within the pro-migrant discourse and among supposedly like-minded accounts, there are discordant voices and conceptions about migration.
This article examines intergenerational social mobility patterns by migratory family origins in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA). The data is drawn from Germani’s probabilistic survey created in 1961 and its replication by PI-Clases in 2016. The results show that, in 1961, the second generation of European immigrants exhibited upward mobility patterns similar to those of individuals with two generations of native ancestry in AMBA, thereby supporting the linear assimilation theory. In contrast, by 2016, subaltern ethnic groups, including descendants of internal criollo migrants and Latin American migrants, faced fewer opportunities for upward mobility due to “cumulative disadvantages” and “additional penalties” rooted in ethno-racial discrimination, thereby supporting the segmented assimilation framework. Overall, the Argentine case underscores the interplay between ethnicity, cultural assimilation, and shifting opportunity structures in shaping intergenerational social mobility across migratory streams.
International migration offers benefits for women. However, the feminization of care work, driven by gender social norms, acts as a barrier to their mobility. The paper analyzes how caregiving responsibilities in households with male migration in Mexico limit women’s ability to migrate. Using a quantitative approach, it applies a probit model with instrumental variable regression and data from ENADID 2023 to assess the impact of caregiving on female mobility. Factors such as marital status, age, ethnicity, income, access to health services, and working conditions are considered. The results show that feminization of care work, deeply rooted in gender norms, restricts women’s probability of migration. This study contributes to the literature on “women who are left behind” in international migration from a care perspective.
Contemporary migrations are undergoing significant reconfigurations in terms of population composition, settlement strategies, waiting, and transit within migration systems in and from Latin America. This article, in opposition to critical studies that address this issue, presents an analytical proposal on how the transition from the so-called feminization of migration to its familiarization has taken place. Migrant families are approached as a collective political subject that challenges the research and action agendas of various feminist movements and migration and refuge scholars from an academic perspective. Methodologically, this essay is based on a multi-sited, analog, and digital feminist perspective that focuses on this novel form of migration and transmigration.
This article examines the geography of H-2 visas, a temporary migrant labor program that recruits mainly Mexican workers to the United States. The analysis draws on the EMIF Norte survey and labor certification data from the U.S. Department of Labor to map the origins and destinations of H-2 temporary migrant workers. Findings indicate that, despite significant changes in the modality of cross-border migration, in Mexico, H-2 recruitment occurs in the states and regions where undocumented sojourning previously took place. In the United States, while demand remains strongest in regions long familiar with guest workers, H-2 recruitment has become increasingly prominent in western states. Overall, the H-2 visa program has expanded at a national scale in both countries, and although the rise of H-2 visas reflects a new mobility regime, this managed migration scheme is spatially developing on the legacy of undocumented migration.
