Implications of Complex Migrant Trajectories, Itineraries, and Legal Pathways in the Americas: Lessons from Fieldwork in Mexico

Abstract

Migrant flows through and to Mexico have become increasingly complex. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2025 in Ciudad Juárez and Mexico City, we find that many of the migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean have had very long and complex itineraries, trajectories, and legal statuses within the Americas. They were negotiating new possibilities in the face of constant change in migration policies in other Latin American countries, as well as recent changes in internalization and externalization policies of border control in the United States and Mexico. Specifically, our findings showcase (1) how relatively direct trajectories to Mexico have become longer, more dangerous, and more uncertain; (2) how people have visited multiple countries and lived in multiple countries holding several legal statuses before arriving to Mexico; and (3) how a reversal of the flow is increasing, with some considering returning to countries where they lived before, not necessarily their country of birth because staying in Mexico or arriving to the United States had become harder. In this Dispatch from the Field, we focus the discussion on their implications in three domains: (1) migrant's lives in terms of future plans, international protection, and legal pathways for migration; (2) theorizing migration, refuge, integration, transit, and return; and (3) data collection and analysis.