“I risk everything because I have already lost everything”: Central American Female Migrants Speak Out on the Migrant Trail in Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract

This article examines Central American women migrants’ decision-making and protective strategies while on the migrant trail. Through feminist research methodologies and social media networks shared by women migrants, this study addresses how physical and economic violence in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala) contributes to women’s decisions to migrate, their migration experiences, and their proactive development of networks while on the migrant trail. In-depth interviews were conducted with female migrants ages 19–46 years old in the migrant shelter ‘Hermanos en el Camino’ in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, and follow-up interviews were conducted in some migrants’ next destinations within Mexico. By including women’s own stories of violence and their formation of migrant networks, this study highlights the lived experiences of women migrants thus making them more visible international actors.