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Migrant Protection Protocols: Remain in Mexico, (Non)Movement, and the Other Side of the Law
PhD candidate in Hispanic Studies at the Department of French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies of the University of British Columbia
Tuesday January 31, 12-1 PM
C. K. Choi Building – Choi 231
Speaker Bio
Lorenia Salgado-Leos is a PhD candidate in Hispanic Studies at the Department of French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies of the University of British Columbia. Her dissertation, Infrastructures of Mobility, examines 21st century migrancy across the Americas. Focusing on movements from Haiti, Central America, Mexico, and the United States, Lorenia’s project engages with the structuring of movement that is both drawn and hindered by the Mexico-US border. Her research interests include Borders, (Post)Migration, and (Im)Mobility Studies; Politics, Law, and Literature; and Philosophy. She is a Sessional Lecturer at the Social Justice Institute (GRSJ) and a Graduate Student Fellow at the Centre for Migration Studies.
Abstract
This is a work-in-progress presentation by Hispanic Studies Ph.D. candidate Lorenia Salgado-Leos.
Migrant caravans constitute a form of human mobility of Central Americans (and others) traversing Mexico and heading towards the United States. Even though “since at least 2011, Central American migrants and their allies in Mexico have staged caravans” (Frank-Vitale 38), caravaneros became more relevant as of 2018, drawing attention from governments and the international media.
In 2019, the United States’ Department of Homeland Security implemented the “Remain in Mexico” policy also known as the “Migrant Protection Protocols,” requiring asylum seekers (and others) to wait in Mexico while their juridical case hearing process take place in the USA.
This presentation will focus on the resulting state of suspension (or stasis) as migrants wait in Mexico, to think through the complex dynamics that arise when movement becomes “suspended.”
Drawing from recent theoretical and philosophical reflections on Migration and Mobility Studies within the contemporary context of narco-accumulation on the Mexico-US corridor (Gareth Williams, Infrapolitical Passages), this talk will engage with the concept of suspension to think about the practices that arise between borders, considering the everyday affective rhythms between the body and the other side of the law.
It will ask: Under contemporary (post)migratory conditions, then: How is movement effected in Mexico?
Please RSVP for this in-person event below – This event is now closed.
