Crises and Migration Critical Perspectives from Latin America

This book critically examines the association between the notions of crisis and migration in the context of Latin America, and from three different perspectives: first, it analyzes the discourses based on the concept of crisis employed by the media, academic researchers, civil society organizations and the state to frame human mobility issues; second, it investigates migrants’ agency under conditions of crisis; and third, it discusses whether “migration crisis” is a conjunctural or structural phenomenon in the region.

Chapters in this contributed volume investigate the crisis-migration nexus in seven Latin American countries – Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay – by discussing different human mobility phenomena, such as the migrant caravans that departed from Central America bound to Mexico and the United States; the Nicaraguan exodus caused by the political crisis in the country; the perception of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia’s media; the presence of Caribbean migrants in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.

Crisis and Migration: Critical Perspectives from Latin America will be of interest to a wide range of social scientists interested in migration studies, as well as to policy makers and civil society organizations. This book offers a fresh look at the way we conceive, represent, and think about the relationship between crisis and human mobility. As the volume’s contributions show, a critical examination of the notion of crisis is a first step towards a more comprehensive understanding of the plight of present-day migrants worldwide.

Part I

Venezuelan Migration and Crime in Colombia: Migrant Stigmatization in the Media and its Connection to a Crisis of (Failed) Integration of Said Migrants

“Migration Crisis” and Migrant Caravans (October 2018-January 2019) in Mexico: An Analysis from Contemporary Academic Publications

Emerging from Crisis: Transformations in Uruguayan Migration Management of Venezuelan Migration

Part II

Parting and Keep on Existing. Crisis and Reproduction of the Existence of Migrants and their Collectives in the City of Rosario

Mobility and Crisis in Nicaragua. Narratives and Subjectivities of Forced Migration

Part III

Migration Crisis in Brazil and Treatment of Venezuelan Migrants

Nicaraguans in Costa Rica: Continued Crisis as Context in Nicaragua and as Breakdown of Normality in Costa Rica

Violent Contexts and “Crisis” in Mexico-Central America and Colombia-Venezuela Cross-border Dynamics, 2010-2020