Why do you trust him? The construction of the good migrant in the Mexican migrant route

Abstract

How do Central American migrants in transit decide which other migrants they can trust when they are crossing Mexico? In this article, based on extensive multi-situated ethnography in Mexico, I suggest that migrants look for the same signs and signals when deciding whom to trust, thus creating a single, ideal “good migrant”. This stereotype is fed to them by the migrant shelters and advocacy institutions which, in an effort to protect the migrants and to humanise them, create a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate migrants. The construction of the “good migrant” ideal forces migrants to change the way they behave and affects those migrants who are unable to conform to the stereotype as they are likely to get less solidarity and help.  Resumen: ?Por que confiar? La construccion del buen migrante en la ruta migrante mexicana ?Como deciden los migrantes centroamericanos en transito en que otros migrantes pueden confiar cuando cruzan Mexico? En este articulo, basado en una extensa etnografia multi-situada en Mexico, sugiero que los migrantes buscan los mismos signos y senales al decidir en quien confiar, creando asi un unico “buen migrante” ideal. Este estereotipo es alimentado por los albergues para migrantes y las instituciones de defensa que, en un esfuerzo por pro-teger a los migrantes y humanizarlos, crean una distincion entre migrantes legitimos e ilegi-timos. La construccion de un ideal de “buen migrante” obliga a los migrantes a cambiar su forma de comportarse y afecta a aquellos migrantes que no pueden adaptarse al estereotipo, ya que es probable que obtengan menos solidaridad y ayuda.