Disciplining Mobility: care, mistrust and migration management in Mexico
Humanitarian organisations and migrant shelters have been the main advocates against the criminalisation of migrants by state authorities in Mexico. Some of these organisations have sought to support migrants trying to reach the US-Mexico border, yet within their day-to-day activities, they also cooperate with governmental institutions which suggests more complex functions. This paper explores the tension between care and control within humanitarian infrastructures to understand the underlying social and historical structures that govern global migration. This paper argues that NGOs engage in practices of screening, doubting and policing of migrants from the Global South that do not align with their intention to safeguard them. I also explore instances of punishment, time constriction and paternalism used to discipline racialised migrants. I examine colonial logic that persist in these places, the racialisation and subordination of Central American migrants, the influence of the UNHCR, that ultimately lead to the dehumanisation of individuals
Date: 4 June 2024, 16:15 (Tuesday, 7th week, Trinity 2024)
Venue: St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details: Centre for Criminology, Criminology Seminar Room
Speakers: Speaker to be announced
Organising department: Centre for Criminology
Organisers: María Jesús Valenzuela Suárez (University of Oxford), Iulia Cristiana Vatau (Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: maria.valenzuelasuarez@worc.ox.ac.uk
Host: María Jesús Valenzuela Suárez (University of Oxford)
Part of: Southernising Criminology
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://forms.office.com/e/jY3Bx2FbdU
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Iulia-Cristiana Vatau