The caravanas de migrantes making their way north: problematising the biopolitics of mobilities in Mexico

Abstract

Since the Trump administration started its ‘war on migrants’ many of civil society’s responses have been oriented to counter the impact of this ‘war’. Such responses include the creation of sanctuary cities and providing legal defence to migrants. In Mexico, the actions of the Trump administration have also reverberated among migrant communities and within government circles. Ways of dealing with the challenges posed by the Trump administration range from policies directed at return migrants to providing shelter to Central American migrants in transit, to organising caravanas de migrantes to the Mexico–US border. This paper addresses how these caravanas have become the focus of biopolitical struggles among different authorities, migrant smugglers and civil society organisations. It argues that biopolitics is not just a state-initiated phenomenon, but that non-state actors are also practicing biopolitics.