What security and for whom? The social construction of exclusion of migrants from citizen security and health security in Mexico

Abstract

This article explores the social construction of international migrants as a threat to public health and public safety in Mexico, specifically in the case of the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey, since relations within this new sense of “otherness” in this city cause issues for public health and citizen security as traditionally conceived. An in-depth review of the secondary literature on citizen security and health security related to migration and of the Mexican legal framework was conducted, and public information requests were made to Mexican public agencies. If citizen and health security are complementary paradigms, migrants seem excluded from their application. Far from being considered holders of rights, they are primarily restricted in their exercise of rights because they are not “citizens.” These “newcomers” are perceived as “pathogenic agents” and “criminal illegal immigrants” rather than as deserving of these rights by the authorities, the media, and the majority population of Monterrey. These dynamics are likely to keep them not only on the fringes of “the city” but also in a very vulnerable position to fall victim to of all kinds of exploitation, resulting in a form of “management” of human mobility based on exclusion.