Vulnerability and Information Practices: experiences of (Undocumented) latino migrants in the USA

Abstract

This article presents the second part of a study that explores information practices (research, use and distribution of information) of Latino migrants, particularly those who are undocumented, on the border between Mexico and the United States, and in Seattle, Washington. In these contexts, different information practices are generated. At the border we find more information poverty practices of the kind “small world", which are expanding and consolidating insofar as the sense of belonging is strengthened, after spending more time settled than the estimated in the United States. However, vulnerability and transience are maintained by the permanent risk of deportation. The findings of the study in Colombian communities are presented in another complementary article, in this same volume. Through participative photography and unstructured interviews, we explore the experiences and information practices of marginalized communities, and relate them to how they experience transience along the different stages of the migratory experience. We also discuss how the stages of migration may not be sufficient to account about the constant changes and iterations on the experiences of the migrants that we studied.