Bordering Through Exemption: Extracontinental Migration Flows in Mexico

Abstract

This paper examines Mexico’s governmentality of extracontinental migration in transit to the United States. It argues that, in the context of transit control regimes, exemption is instrumentalised as a bordering mechanism and practice in which transit states assume, react and utilise their role as a ‘transit’ country. By drawing on statistical information about migrant populations from Asia and Africa intercepted by Mexican authorities from 2010 to 2019, four arrangements are identified: (1) sporadic expulsion, (2) regularisation façade, (3) guardianship and (4) self-deportation. The analysis sheds light on the transformative and adaptive dimension of the Mexican Transit Control Regime and how this is geared towards maintaining its focus on intercepting and deterring Central American migrants in transit to the United States.

La migración haitiana en la región andina y Ecuador: políticas, trayectorias y perfiles

“…Según dicho autor, los haitianos representan 38%, los cubanos 32% y los nepalies 5% de todos los migrantes en tránsito que durante los últimos 12 años han atravesado por el Darién. También aparecen entre las principales nacionalidades chilenos y brasileños, la mayoría de ellos son hijos de haitianos que obtuvieron la nacionalidad y que en los últimos meses también han incrementado las detenciones y deportaciones desde México (Campos-Delgado, 2021;París Pombo, 2018;Torre Cantalapiedra, 2021).…”

COVID-19 and Protracted Displacement: a Scoping Review of Migration Policies in Mexico and Central America

“…Between 2010 and 2019, more than 31,500 African and 30,400 Asian irregular migrants were apprehended by Mexican authorities (Campos-Delgado, 2021 ). According to Priya Morley et al ( 2021 ), the majority of African migrants detained by Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Migración, (National Institute for Migration or INM) authorities are from Eritrea, Ghana, Somalia, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).…”

“…Campos-Delgado’s ( 2021 ) analysis of extracontinental migration flows in Mexico reveals that Africans and Asians constitute a fraction of irregular migrants, but unlike Central Americans, extracontinental migrants are subject to unsystematic migration arrangements in Mexico. Though fewer African and Asian migrants were deported from Mexico compared to Central Americans, systematic barriers such as long asylum proceedings have resulted in migrants abandoning their application to continue north to the US.…”