Fusion Points: The Perceived, Performed, and Passive Merging of Criminality and Mobility in Mexico

Abstract

Abstract Organized criminal actors increasingly diversify criminal portfolios, streamline illicit supply chains, and expand social networks in a process referred to as convergence. The frame is simultaneously used by State actors to justify the criminalization of certain populations, including irregular migrants. Relying on ethnographic and quantitative research with Central American migrants in Mexico, this paper argues that the supposed threat posed by convergence grossly overstates the relationship between organized criminal activities and migrants’ own experiences. There are spaces and times when migrants do interact with organized criminal actors to facilitate their transits. These interactions, though, do not point to convergence. Rather, they demonstrate the brief but fundamental encounters of migrants with criminal/ized actors in Mexico. I refer to these instances as fusion points to elucidate the ways that Central American migrants advance their journeys.