Migrant autonomy and wilfulness amidst the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic at the Tijuana border

Q2 Social Sciences

Crossings Pub Date : 2020-10-01 DOI:10.1386/CJMC_00022_1

R. Irwin, J. D. Del Monte

{"title":"Migrant autonomy and wilfulness amidst the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic at the Tijuana border","authors":"R. Irwin, J. D. Del Monte","doi":"10.1386/CJMC_00022_1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the United States and Mexico in March 2020, both the pandemic itself and the measures taken to contain its spread produced potentially devastating effects on the lives of migrants in Tijuana Qualitative data from interviews with eight Honduran migrants sheltering in place in Tijuana reveal the fragility of the city’s network of migrant service providers in the context of a border closed to non-essential movement, and ensuing repercussions for the migrants that they serve However, beyond questions of access to basic necessities such as food, shelter and health services;protection from criminal violence;or complications to legal processes and visa status, the data provided by these eight migrants offer insights regarding migrant autonomy: aside from the undeniable frustration evoked by the pandemic and the measures taken to control it, migrants also exhibit a persistence and inventiveness seen in their willingness to wait, their resolve to maintain their projects of migration, a shift in their attention from the future to the present, their general resourcefulness in problem solving, and a hidden agenda of humour that functions as a subtle form of resistance Together our observations show that in spite of appearing to be trapped, with hopes thwarted, migrants continue to be social agents, and continue to represent a wilful social force in Tijuana","PeriodicalId":38038,"journal":{"name":"Crossings","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Crossings","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1386/CJMC_00022_1","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 1

Abstract

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the United States and Mexico in March 2020, both the pandemic itself and the measures taken to contain its spread produced potentially devastating effects on the lives of migrants in Tijuana Qualitative data from interviews with eight Honduran migrants sheltering in place in Tijuana reveal the fragility of the city’s network of migrant service providers in the context of a border closed to non-essential movement, and ensuing repercussions for the migrants that they serve However, beyond questions of access to basic necessities such as food, shelter and health services;protection from criminal violence;or complications to legal processes and visa status, the data provided by these eight migrants offer insights regarding migrant autonomy: aside from the undeniable frustration evoked by the pandemic and the measures taken to control it, migrants also exhibit a persistence and inventiveness seen in their willingness to wait, their resolve to maintain their projects of migration, a shift in their attention from the future to the present, their general resourcefulness in problem solving, and a hidden agenda of humour that functions as a subtle form of resistance Together our observations show that in spite of appearing to be trapped, with hopes thwarted, migrants continue to be social agents, and continue to represent a wilful social force in Tijuana

查看原文本刊更多论文

在蒂华纳边境新冠疫情的冲击下，移民的自主性和任性

2020年3月，当Covid-19大流行袭击美国和墨西哥时，大流行本身以及为遏制其传播而采取的措施都对蒂华纳移民的生活产生了潜在的破坏性影响。对在蒂华纳避难的8名洪都拉斯移民的采访得出的定性数据显示，在边境对非必要流动关闭的背景下，该市的移民服务提供商网络非常脆弱。然而，除了获得食物、住所和保健服务等基本必需品;免受犯罪暴力侵害;或法律程序和签证身份的复杂性等问题之外，这8名移徙者提供的数据提供了关于移徙者自主权的见解:除了因这一流行病和为控制这一流行病所采取的措施而引起的不可否认的沮丧之外，移徙者还表现出一种毅力和创造力，他们愿意等待，决心维持其移徙项目，将注意力从未来转向现在，在解决问题方面普遍足智多谋，我们的观察表明，尽管移民似乎被困住了，希望被挫败了，但他们仍然是社会的代理人，继续代表着蒂华纳一股任性的社会力量

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Crossings Social Sciences-Cultural Studies

CiteScore

0.30

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture situates itself at the interface of Migration Studies and Cultural Studies. The terminology and key concepts in use in discourses on migration have yet to be sufficiently theorized or understood from theoretical perspectives linked to cultural studies, although migration is intrinsically linked to questions of culture. The course of cultures at both local and global levels is crucially affected by migratory movements. In turn, culture itself is turned migrant. This journal''s scope will be global, with a predominant focus on migration and culture from the latter half of the twentieth century to the present-day. Apart from the inclusion of refereed articles, Crossings: Journal of Migration and Culture will include a section of reviews of films, music, photography, exhibitions or books on migration-related topics, interviews with cultural practitioners who focus on migration-related topics, and oral histories of migrant cultural experiences.