New Migration’s Gordian Knot: Mexico and the Caravans of the Northern Triangle of Central America

Abstract

Migration processes in Mexico are varied and complex; the country sends migrants abroad and receives returnees in addition to migrants in transit and others wishing to settle there. In this sense, Mexico may be considered a global migration hub (a country of origin, reception, transit and destination). This chapter focuses on transit migration and the reception of migrants seeking asylum, with a particular focus on migrant caravans from the Northern Triangle of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) between 2018 and 2020. These caravans, characterised by thousands of people (Kahn, 2018) fleeing their countries of origin due to situations of violence and threats to their personal security—in addition to economic factors—have posed challenges for Mexico’s domestic and foreign policies, especially in terms of its relations with the United States. In this context, we explore the actions and policies introduced to deal with migrants and refugees transiting Mexico, and the impact these have had. Taking mid-2018—the end of Enrique Peña’s presidential term—as the point of departure for our analysis, we examine Mexico’s migration policies more generally, together with the response of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration to Donald Trump’s immigration policies and the pressure the Trump administration exerted on Mexico to contain the flow of irregular migrants.