Mexico-Guatemala Border Research Articles

Transit as racialized space: Comparing perceptions of refugees along the Mexico–Guatemala border

AbstractScholars have attuned to the challenges Central American migrants face along increasingly perilous northward journeys. However, most studies of “transit spaces” are relatively migrant‐centric, focusing on the meanings these spaces hold for migrants, or how particular locales are reconfigured in relation to migratory processes. There has been less attention to the meanings such places hold for long‐term inhabitants, as well as how they change over time. This article draws on long‐term ethnographic fieldwork along the Mexico–Guatemala border to compare how inhabitants perceived migrants and refugees in two different periods: narratives recalling suspicion of Guatemalan refugees in the 1980s and more recent anxieties held toward Central American migrants. Through the comparison, it problematizes how the very conceptualization of transit spaces and migrants in transit serves to uphold larger racial projects of exclusionary nationalism and the “national order of things” where territory, ethno‐racial identity, and belonging are assumed to align.

Commodifying Passage: Ethnographic Insights into Migration, Markets, and Digital Mediation at the Darién Gap and Mexico–Guatemala Border

This paper examines transit migration through the Darién Gap and the Mexico–Guatemala border, focusing on the commodification of migration, the transformative role of digital platforms, and the socio-economic impacts on local economies. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews conducted from 2021 to 2023, we explore how migration has evolved into a commodified journey where services and safety are bought and sold, often exploiting migrants’ vulnerabilities. We analyze how digital platforms have become essential tools for navigation and community building among migrants, yet also introduce new risks and inequalities. Our findings highlight the dual nature of local economic adaptations, which both capitalize on and are reshaped by the migratory flows, leading to significant economic and social transformations. The paper argues for a reevaluation of migration policies that integrates these elements and supports a migration governance framework that prioritizes human dignity and rights. Through exposing these dynamic and interlinked phenomena, we aim to contribute to a better understanding of migration that goes beyond traditional paradigms of border security and control, advocating for policies that are just, equitable, and respectful of human experiences and challenges.

Cross-border use of health services: An exploratory mixed-methods project at the Mexico-Guatemala border.

Cross-border use of health services has been studied mainly as travel from high- to low- and middle-income countries ("medical tourism"). The movement between low- and middle-income countries has been less studied. The objectives were; 1) to describe the frequency, types of services used, and health needs associated with cross-border utilization of health services at the Mexico-Guatemala border; 2) to explore the drivers of cross-border use among people living in this area. We conducted a mixed-methods study. The quantitative component was a probability survey of border crossers (March to April 2023, analysis sample n = 4,733, weighted n = 74,228). The qualitative component consisted of 28 semi-structured interviews with users and providers of health services living close to the international border (May-June 2023). Descriptive results were obtained separately and triangulated. 3.8% (CI 95% 3.1,4.7) in the sample were crossing the border for the purpose of seeking health care or purchasing medicines, 7.4% (CI 95% 5.9,9.2) had crossed the border in the past year to seek care, and 21.8% (CI 95% 18.8,25.1) to purchase medicines. According to quantitative and qualitative results, those living in Mexico were more likely to cross the border to seek care than those living in Guatemala, independent of country of birth, while crossing to Mexico to buy medicine was more common than crossing to Guatemala for the same reason. Public and private services were accessed in similar proportions, the former mostly for preventive care (vaccination) and the latter for specialized care. Qualitative results showed that the main drivers of cross-border health care use were perceived quality and geographical availability. The main drivers of cross-border buying of medicines were affordability and perceived quality. The use of private services can benefit the local economy. The use of public services for preventive purposes can be an asset for health promotion.

Seeing Like a Smuggler: Borders from Below. By Mahmoud Keshavarz and Shahram Khosravi

The new edited volume Seeing Like a Smuggler: Borders from Below engages with smuggling from the perspective of both the ‘smuggler’ and the smuggled. In contrast to more state-centric or seeing-from-above perspectives, this edited volume applies from-below methodological approaches to address issues of borders and border transgressions. Even with the diversity of case studies and views on the overarching subject of the collection, it is remarkably consistent, with each chapter offering equally valuable insights into the smuggling phenomena. The volume connects bodies, geographies, images, materialities, and economies as case studies of smuggling. It begins with a detailed introduction by the editors, Mahmoud Keshavarz and Shahram Khosravi, that summarizes the structure and main arguments of the book. The case studies themselves explore the illegal movement of people and goods across borders through fieldwork and conceptual framings. They ask the reader to look at smuggling practices within broader cultural, historical, and social contexts. Tekalign Ayalew Mengiste (Chapter 1) and Aliyeh Ataei (Chapter 3) explore people smuggling between Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia and Iran and Afghanistan. Nichola Khan (Chapter 2), Rebecca B. Galemba (Chapter 4), Amin Parsa (Chapter 5), and Javier Guerrero-C (Chapter 6) engage with the smuggling of goods in places such as India, South Asia, the Mexico–Guatemala border, Iran and Iraq, and the northern border of Columbia. Meanwhile, Debdatta Chowdhury (Chapter 7), Kennedy Chikerema (Chapter 8), Craig Martin (Chapter 9), and Simon Harvey (Chapter 10) use more conceptual frameworks to understand how the past shapes modern smuggling practices, infrastructures of smuggling, smuggler tactics to conceal illegal narcotics as legally sanctioned goods, and the presentations of smuggling as either hidden or overly evident. The collection concludes with an afterword by Nandita Sharma, which is discussed in more detail below.

A characterization of cross-border use of health services in a transborder population at the Mexico-Guatemala border, September-November 2021.

Cross-border use of health services is an important aspect of life in border regions. Little is known about the cross-border use of health services in neighboring low- and middle-income countries. Understanding use of health services in contexts of high cross-border mobility, such as at the Mexico-Guatemala border, is crucial for national health systems planning. This article aims to describe the characteristics of the cross-border use of health care services by transborder populations at the Mexico-Guatemala border, as well as the sociodemographic and health-related variables associated with use. Between September-November 2021, we conducted a cross-sectional survey using a probability (time-venue) sampling design at the Mexico-Guatemala border. We conducted a descriptive analysis of cross-border use of health services and assessed the association of use with sociodemographic and mobility characteristics by means of logistic regressions. A total of 6,991 participants were included in this analysis; 82.9% were Guatemalans living in Guatemala, 9.2% were Guatemalans living in Mexico, 7.8% were Mexicans living in Mexico, and 0.16% were Mexicans living in Guatemala. 2.6% of all participants reported having a health problem in the past two weeks, of whom 58.1% received care. Guatemalans living in Guatemala were the only group reporting cross-border use of health services. In multivariate analyses, Guatemalans living in Guatemala working in Mexico (compared to not working in Mexico) (OR 3.45; 95% CI 1.02,11.65), and working in agriculture/cattle, industry, or construction while in Mexico (compared to working in other sectors) (OR 26.67; 95% CI 1.97,360.85), were associated with cross-border use. Cross-border use of health services in this region is related to transborder work (i.e., circumstantial use of cross-border health services). This points to the importance of considering the health needs of migrant workers in Mexican health policies and developing strategies to facilitate and increase their access to health services.

Subordinating Space: Immigration Enforcement, Hierarchy, and the Politics of Scale in Mexico and Central America

In recent years, security and immigration enforcement has expanded rapidly throughout Mexico. From checkpoints and patrols to a vast system of detention and deportation, Mexican officials have implemented far-reaching measures to curtail international migration from Central America. Many of these efforts have been concentrated along the Mexico–Guatemala border and deep within southern Mexico, culminating in Programa Frontera Sur, a militarized approach to border security implemented in 2014. In this article, we explore how security and immigration enforcement in Mexico rely on spatial hierarchies that divide north and south. The practice of security and immigration enforcement has received significant attention across many disciplines. The notion of spatial hierarchies and the ways in which scalar differentiation impinges upon well-being has been less covered. As we show, these hierarchies partition North and Central America according to colonial modes, subordinating the latter as inferior while working across global, national, and local scales. Crucially, the linkages between securitization and the spatialization of hierarchies provide insights into nation-building and regional identity, where Mexico and the United States are increasingly designated as separate from South and Central America.

The More Things Change, The More they Stay the Same: Border Governance and Resistance along Mexico’s Southern Border with Guatemala

With the politics of borders, the socio-economic divide between the United States and Mexico is evident. The geographic proximity to the U.S. makes the Mexico–Guatemala border an extension of the U.S. border enforcement regime. This article argues that the politics surrounding the U.S.–Guatemala border have not necessarily changed, because, at the core, the main objective of these border governance practices is to stop the movement of undesirable bodies (Khosravi 2011). Further, the article argues that the practices of containment force migrants to resist through their movement and seek strategies of survival. By comparing the administrations of Peña Nieto and López Obrador (AMLO) and analyzing the survival strategy of migrant “caravans” through border policy analysis and fieldwork conducted in 2014, I show that this border is a site of struggle between the state’s power and migrants’ forms of resistance. I find that border tactics are influenced by U.S. border enforcement requirements of increased militarization and policing, but also aim to restrict and control certain populations. The result is the perpetual securitization of people and the militarization of pathways. Migrants, however, also employ forms of organizing such as travelling in mass groups to achieve safe passage, thus exercising their agency through movement. The bordering practices and the forms of resistance indicate that this border is a constant site of struggle that requires further examination.

Introduction: Mexico’s Southern Border and Beyond

In this introduction, the editors of the special section situate the study of the Mexico–Guatemala border, lay out the themes of the collection, and summarize the individual contributions.

Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Uptake in a Transborder Population at the Mexico-Guatemala Border, September-November 2021.

Assessing COVID-19 vaccination uptake of transborder populations is critical for informing public health policies. We conducted a probability (time-venue) survey of adults crossing from Mexico into Guatemala from September to November 2021, with the objective of describing COVID-19 vaccination status, willingness to get vaccinated, and associated factors. The main outcomes were receipt of ≥1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, being fully vaccinated, and willingness to get vaccinated. We assessed the association of outcomes with sociodemographic characteristics using logistic regressions. Of 6518 participants, 50.6% (95%CI 48.3,53.0) were vaccinated (at least one dose); 23.3% (95%CI 21.4,25.2) were unvaccinated but willing to get vaccinated, and 26.1% (95%CI 24.1,28.3) were unvaccinated and unwilling to get vaccinated. Those living in Mexico, independent of country of birth, had the highest proportion vaccinated. The main reason for unwillingness was fear of side effects of COVID-19 vaccines (47.7%, 95%CI 43.6,51.9). Education level was positively associated with the odds of partial and full vaccination as well as willingness to get vaccinated. People identified as Catholic had higher odds of getting vaccinated and being fully vaccinated than members of other religious groups or the non-religious. Further studies should explore barriers to vaccination among those willing to get vaccinated and the motives of the unwilling.

Different epidemiological profiles in patients with Zika and dengue infection in Tapachula, Chiapas in Mexico (2016\u20132018): an observational, prospective cohort study

BackgroundThe introduction of Zika and chikungunya to dengue hyperendemic regions increased interest in better understanding characteristics of these infections. We conducted a cohort study in Mexico to evaluate the natural history of Zika infection. We describe here the frequency of Zika, chikungunya and dengue virus infections immediately after Zika introduction in Mexico, and baseline characteristics of participants for each type of infection.MethodsProspective, observational cohort evaluating the natural history of Zika virus infection in the Mexico-Guatemala border area. Patients with fever, rash or both, meeting the modified criteria of PAHO for probable Zika cases were enrolled (June 2016–July 2018) and followed-up for 6 months. We collected data on sociodemographic, environmental exposure, clinical and laboratory characteristics. Diagnosis was established based on viral RNA identification in serum and urine samples using RT-PCR for Zika, chikungunya, and dengue. We describe the baseline sociodemographic and environmental exposure characteristics of participants according to diagnosis, and the frequency of these infections over a two-year period immediately after Zika introduction in Mexico.ResultsWe enrolled 427 participants. Most patients (n = 307, 65.7%) had an acute illness episode with no identified pathogen (UIE), 37 (8%) Zika, 82 (17.6%) dengue, and 1 (0.2%) chikungunya. In 2016 Zika predominated, declined in 2017 and disappeared in 2018; while dengue increased after 2017. Patients with dengue were more likely to be men, younger, and with lower education than those with Zika and UIE. They also reported closer contact with water sources, and with other people diagnosed with dengue. Participants with Zika reported sexual exposure more frequently than people with dengue and UIE. Zika was more likely to be identified in urine while dengue was more likely found in blood in the first seven days of symptoms; but PCR results for both were similar at day 7–14 after symptom onset.ConclusionsDuring the first 2 years of Zika introduction to this dengue hyper-endemic region, frequency of Zika peaked and fell over a two-year period; while dengue progressively increased with a predominance in 2018. Different epidemiologic patterns between Zika, dengue and UIE were observed. Trial registration Clinical.Trials.gov (NCT02831699).

Refoulement as Biopolitical Praxis: Subalternity, Ethnography, and Ethics at the Mexico-Guatemala Border

This article analyzes the Mexico-Guatemala border through the lens of the author's sensory ethnographic engagement there. It also uses oral history interviews and collaboration undertaken with refugees, migrants, and deportees. It argues for the contravention of human rights and refugee rights under the Trump Administration as an aspect of a longer history of biopolitics enacted in border regions and beyond them. It draws on border studies and notions of immunity in biopolitics to develop this argument, and its uses collaborative visual ethnographic practices as a way to consider the border.

Intercepted journeys: Associations between migration and mobility experiences and depressive symptoms among substance using migrants at the Mexico-Guatemala border

ABSTRACT Substance use and depressive psychiatric symptoms have been associated with migration and mobility. The Mexico-Guatemala border is a key transit point for internal, regional, and international migration flows. However, there is limited knowledge of the role of substance use, migration, and mobility on mental health among migrants at this border. Our paper explores the association of migration and mobility patterns with possible major depressive symptoms among migrants at this key geographic region. We recruited 392 substance-using migrants using modified time-location sampling. Crude and adjusted logistic regression models were developed. We found that 12% of the sample had possible major depressive symptoms. After adjusting for relevant covariates, including gender, income, and perceived homelessness, we found that recent rural-urban and short-term migrants had higher odds of possible major depressive symptoms, whereas international migrants had lower odds. Findings of this paper suggest that although migrants experience hardship and uncertainty, they may respond with complex and nuanced forms of coping and planning.

The Mexico–Guatemala Border During COVID-19: From Open Border to New Assemblage?

The dynamics at the Mexican–Guatemalan border drastically changed from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper deals with these transformations and tries to evidence a new assemblage that has resulted. The rationale that prevailed until the beginning of 2020 between Mexico and Guatemala was a south-north selective open border derived from migratory controls applied to travelers according to their citizenship and their US or Canadian migratory status. From March until October, 2020 the pandemic gave birth to a new north-south rationale organized around a selective closure: the Guatemalan border was totally closed except to Guatemalans that were allowed to return to their country. On the Mexican side, communitarian, municipal, and local boundaries were established to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Communication Strategies To Enhance HIV/STI Prevention, Sexual and Reproductive Health, and Safety Among Migrant Sex Workers at the Mexico-Guatemala Border.

Communication-based interventions have been linked to improved health and social outcomes among underserved populations. Migrant women in sex work face serious health and social inequities, including risks of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and violence. Given gaps in evidence about health communication among migrant sex workers and the potential for communication-based interventions to promote health and safety, this qualitative study investigates experiences with accessing and sharing information regarding HIV/STI prevention, sexual and reproductive health, and physical safety among migrant sex workers at the Mexico-Guatemala border. Findings suggest that participatory peer-based, workplace, and m-health communication interventions could facilitate access to HIV/STI prevention, and to sexual and reproductive health/safety resources for migrant women involved in sex work, while strengthening peer support networks and social cohesion. To have long-lasting results, such interventions must be complemented by broader structural changes, including sex work and migration law reforms, increased community mobilization, and improved working conditions.

Evidence of volcanic activity in the growth rings of trees at the Tacaná volcano, Mexico–Guatemala border

Volcanic activity can have a significant effect on the growth and survival of trees. The objective of our research was to analyze the effects of the 1855–1856 eruption of the Tacaná volcano and the ashfall from the 1902 eruption of the Santa María volcano, Guatemala, on the radial growth of trees at Tacaná. Dendrochronological sampling was carried out on sites covered by Pinus hartwegii Lindl., and a ring-width chronology was built using 102 increment cores from 75 trees. The ring-width chronology shows two statistically significant suppression events. One of these events occurred from 1857 to 1868 and was potentially caused by the historic eruption of Tacaná (1855–1856). The second suppression event occurred from 1903 to 1908, during which tree growth was affected 1 year after the ashfall caused by the 1902 eruption of Santa María. The growth suppression did not have the same magnitude in all sampled trees and may be related to the thickness of the ash layer deposited around each tree. For the first time, we show that tree growth at Tacaná is reduced by ashfall from volcanic eruptions. Our results may contribute to the evaluation of risks associated with the volcanic activity of the Tacaná volcano.

The Mexico-Guatemala Border in the Daily Press: Words of Power and the Power of Words

Since the 1990s, the border between Mexico and Guatemala has received increasing attention in the media and the political sphere, which has coincided with the growing international migration from Central America to the United States. This article focuses on the process of naming and designation of this border in online newspapers, especially the mainstream media from Mexico and the United States. It identifies dominant themes through a categorical analysis of a corpus of media articles, and discusses how the use of certain terms, images and analogies shapes social representations and participates in the construction of a reality which is not unrelated to geopolitical interests, in particular on security and control of migratory flows.

Water Scarcity and Agricultural and Conservation Policies: Old and New Challenges for Mexican Smallholder Maize Production in the Protected Forests of the Mexico-Guatemala Border

Water Scarcity and Agricultural and Conservation Policies: Old and New Challenges for Mexican Smallholder Maize Production in the Protected Forests of the Mexico-Guatemala Border

Being a Sex Worker and Migrant in Times of Trafficking: Experiences from the Mexico (Chiapas)–Guatemala Border

ABSTRACTThis article examines the construction of a dominant narrative around human trafficking at Mexico´s southern border, as articulated through the experiences of two specific actors: sex workers and the armed division of the State. Through ethnography and the actors’ own voices, this study demonstrates the tensions and contradictions between assumptions of law and order and the women’s lived experiences. Findings from field data suggest that trafficking ought to be understood not only through punitive justice and criminality, but also in terms of the effects the anti-trafficking apparatus has on lives and bodies on the Mexico-Guatemala border, without losing sight of structural forces at play.

Struggling bodies at the border: migration, violence and HIV vulnerability in the Mexico/Guatemala border region

The Mexico–Guatemala border is the site of significant movement of people whose principal destination is the USA. The first step, to cross Mexico, is considered as one of the most dangerous routes in the world for undocumented migrants. For some male migrants and displaced persons from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, initiating sex work in the Mexican border city of Tapachula has become a way to earn money to survive during the trip northward – providing funds to keep traveling and decrease the danger of being killed or kidnaped by organized crime groups. Non-injected drug use during sex work with men and/or women is a common praxis for this purpose, and is linked to HIV risk activities such as unprotected sex. Our study is based on ethnographic fieldwork with observation and interviews and within a relational approach understanding the processes subject/structure, sociopolitical/cultural and global/local, not as oppositions, rather as linkages visible through actors’ points of view and praxis. The productions of politics and cultures related to structural vulnerability to HIV infection are embedded in local and global borderization processes where legal and illegal transnational forces, states’ frameworks and social groups play a linked role. The economies of structural, symbolic and direct violence affect migratory patterns, institutional interactions and social and cultural relations with the local population. In this context, social representations and praxis about unprotected sex and drug use are the locus of struggling bodies at the border.

Paradoxes of Protection: Compassionate Repression at the Mexico–Guatemala Border

Executive Summary Anti-immigrant rhetoric and constricting avenues for asylum in the United States, amid continuing high rates of poverty, environmental crisis, and violence in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, have led many migrants from these countries to remain in Mexico. Yet despite opportunities for humanitarian relief in Mexico, since the early 2000s the Mexican government, under growing pressure from the United States, has pursued enforcement-first initiatives to stem northward migration from Central America. In July 2014, Mexico introduced the Southern Border Program (SBP) with support from the United States. The SBP dramatically expanded Mexico’s immigration enforcement efforts, especially in its southern border states, leading to rising deportations. Far from reducing migration or migrant smuggling, these policies have trapped migrants for longer in Mexico, made them increasingly susceptible to crimes by a wide range of state and nonstate actors, and exacerbated risk along the entire migrant trail. In recognition of rising crimes against migrants and heeding calls from civil society to protect migrant rights, Mexico’s 2011 revision to its Migration Law expanded legal avenues for granting humanitarian protection to migrants who are victims of crimes in Mexico, including the provision of a one-year humanitarian visa so that migrants can collaborate with the prosecutor’s office in the investigation of crimes committed against them. The new humanitarian visa laws were a significant achievement and represent a victory by civil society keen on protecting migrants as they travel through Mexico. The wider atmosphere of impunity, however, alongside the Mexican government’s prioritization of detaining and deporting migrants, facilitates abuses, obscures transparent accounting of crimes, and limits access to justice. In practice, the laws are not achieving their intended outcomes. They also fail to recognize how Mexico’s securitized migration policies subject migrants to risk throughout their journeys, including at border checkpoints between Guatemala and Honduras, along critical transit corridors in Guatemala, and on the Guatemalan side of Mexico’s southern border. In this article, we examine a novel set of data from migrant shelters — 16 qualitative interviews with migrants and nine with staff and advocates in the Mexico–Guatemala border region, as well as 118 complaints of abuses committed along migrants’ journeys — informally filed by migrants at a shelter on the Guatemalan side of the border, and an additional eight complaints filed at a shelter on the Mexican side of the border. We document and analyze the nature, location, and perpetrators of these alleged abuses, using a framework of “compassionate repression” (Fassin 2012) to examine the obstacles that migrants encounter in denouncing abuses and seeking protection. We contend that while humanitarian visas can provide necessary protection for abuses committed in Mexico, they are limited by their temporary nature, by being nested within a migration system that prioritizes migrant removal, and because they recognize only crimes that occur in Mexico. The paradox between humanitarian concerns and repressive migration governance in a context of high impunity shapes institutional and practical obstacles to reporting crimes, receiving visas, and accessing justice. In this context, a variety of actors recognize that they can exploit and profit from migrants’ lack of mobility, legal vulnerability, and uncertain access to protection, leading to a commodification of access to humanitarian protection along the route.