Everyday Restriction: Central American Women and the State in the Mexico-Guatemala Border City of Tapachula

Abstract

Media coverage and emerging scholarship have brought increasing international attention to the urgent humanitarian crisis facing Central American transmigrants as they navigate landscapes of violence in Mexico. While stories of Central American immigrants who remain in Mexico are largely absent from this coverage, there is arguably a “Central Americanization” occurring on the southern border through this permanent settlement. Central Americans choosing to establish themselves in the border state of Chiapas do so in a socio‐spatial and political context defined by the introduction of “progressive” state‐ and national‐level migration policies on the one hand and the persistence of discrimination and violence on the other. We know little about the implementation of these policies on the ground, namely how they are applied and the impacts they have on the immigrant experience in Mexico. To begin to fill this gap, this paper focuses on the experiences of Central American immigrant women living in the Mexico‐Guatemala border city of Tapachula. Employing a feminist geopolitical lens, which encourages conducting research and analysis at diverse scales, it examines their everyday interactions with low‐ to mid‐level representatives of the Mexican state as they seek to avail themselves of their legal and social citizenship rights, and the impacts of these interactions on their livelihoods. This article argues that low‐ to mid‐level officials’ actions reveal the importance of a form of extra‐official, subtle, yet pervasive regulation through which immigrant women are denied rights they are entitled to, inducing negative impacts to their livelihoods, which I term everyday restriction.

The paradox of choice in the sexual and reproductive health and rights challenges of south-south migrant girls and women in Central America and Mexico: A scoping review of the literature

“…(2010) Quantitative Mexico northern border 324 pregnant adolescent females aged 10–19 years of whom 105 were migrants Identify and correlate characteristics of adolescent mothers in a border city with their migratory status 36 Goldade (2011) Qualitative Costa Rica 43 female international migrants aged 21–50, 10 health providers Explore how undocumented migrant women parlayed reproductive capacities in a host country increasingly limited in its capacity to fulfill longstanding national ideals of universal health coverage 37 Sintonen et al. (2013) Quantitative Costa Rica 318,279 adolescent females ages 12–19 years, international and non-migrant population Explore dynamics of adolescent childbearing of migrant and non-migrant adolescents and examine associations between socio-demographic factors and adolescent childbearing 38 Carte (2014) Qualitative Mexico southern border 25 female international migrants aged 20–60+ Examine immigrant women's everyday interactions with low- to mid-level government representatives and health personnel and the impacts of these interactions on the women's livelihoods 39 dos Santos (2015) Qualitative Costa Rica 10 health providers (gender and ages not specified) Present discourses of health professionals that reveal a contradiction between merit and prejudice in prenatal and delivery care for migrants 40 Gamlin (2013) Qualitative Mexico central region 25 internal indigenous migrants (number of women not specified), ages not specified Explore how indigenous migrant laborers experience structural, everyday and symbolic violence while away working, and in their home communities that have impact upon indigenous conceptions of health and health-seeking behavior …”

“…A total of 19 articles described aspects of access to sexual health services – largely for testing for sexually transmitted infections ( Acharya, 2010 ; Camarena Ojinaga et al., 2017 ; Serván-Mori et al., 2013 ; Medecins Sans Frontieres, 2017 ; Goldenberg et al., 2016 ; Rocha-Jiménez et al., 2017 ; Pintin-Perez et al., 2018 ; Rangel et al., 2012 ; Rodriguez-Montejano et al., 2015 ; Leyva-Flores et al., 2013 ; Rocha-Jiménez et al., 2018 ; Febres-Cordero et al., 2018 ; Goldenberg et al., 2018 ; Servin et al., 2018 ; Medecins Sans Frontieres, 2020 ; Cardenas-Rodriguez and Vázquez Delgado, 2014 ; Gustafsson, 2018 ; Angulo-Pasel, 2018 ; Ramirez-Lopez et al., 2012 ). And 15 articles touched on themes of marriage, unions and sexual partnerships (components eight and nine) ( Goldenberg et al., 2012 ; Conners et al., 2017 ; Ojeda et al., 2012 ; Morris et al., 2013 ; Pintin-Perez et al., 2018 ; Rangel et al., 2012 ; Kendall and Pelcastre, 2010 ; Rocha-Jiménez et al., 2018 ; Gustafsson, 2018 ; Angulo-Pasel, 2018 ; Ramirez-Lopez et al., 2012 ; Arriaga-Romero et al., 2010 ; Goldade, 2011 ; Sintonen et al., 2013 ; Carte, 2014 ). However, the Guttmacher-Lancet framework's original focus is on whether unions are consensual and equitable, but the studies rarely discussed unions within this context.…”

“…Some migrant women were encouraged into sex work or drug use by their male partners ( Morris et al., 2013 ). Finally, there were stark contrasts in the healthcare access of migrant women compared to their non-migrant partners and children ( Ramirez-Lopez et al., 2012 ; Goldade, 2011 ; Carte, 2014 ).…”

Subsistence migration: Smallholder food security and the maintenance of agriculture through mobility in Nicaragua

“…The continuation and intensification of restrictive migration policies and anti‐immigrant discourse by the US government, while not entirely discouraging migration to that country, likely increases the desirability of southern destinations. Indeed, Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans have already begun to choose Mexico as a destination, and not just a point of transit to the US (Carte, ; Fernández Casanueva, ). We may also ask whether a reconfiguration of labour markets in the Northern Triangle countries (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador), due to large‐scale emigration, could produce acute labour needs, especially in rural areas.…”

Spatial crossings: gender, race and politics in Yucatecan Maya municipalities

“…These types of sexist conceptions were highlighted in ten of the municipalities where it was the first time women were elected as mayors. The deployment of threat tactics can be seen as a moment when anti-women and anti-indigenous power relations became particularly visible (Carte, 2014). By winning and becoming mayors, these women are to some degree destabilising gender-racial power dynamics that have historically denied indigenous female presence in city hall.…”