'He used to be a Pollero' the securitisation of migration and the smuggler/migrant nexus at the Mexico-Guatemala border. Issue 5 (4th April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Galemba, Rebecca B.
• Is Part Of: Journal of ethnic and migration studies. Volume 44:Issue 5(2018)
• Page Start: 870
• Page End: 886
• Publication Date: 2018-04-04
• Subjects: Migration -- smuggling -- Mexico-Guatemala border -- ethnicity; Ethnic relations -- Periodicals; Race relations -- Periodicals; Emigration and immigration -- Periodicals; Assimilation (Sociology) -- Periodicals; 305.8005
• DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2017.1327803
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-183X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Based on ethnographic fieldwork in an unmonitored crossing along the Mexico-Guatemala border, this article explores how enhanced border securitisation made migration and border smuggling more suspect, illicit, and risky. In a region where identities have been fluid, official documentation is uneven, and immigration policing is racialised, border residents increasingly use racial stereotypes and fears to conjure the Central American migrant 'other' to protect themselves from being mistaken as smugglers and as migrants. Residents cope with an unpredictable landscape through silence, rumour, and distancing themselves from migrants which further justifies securitised migration policies and makes migrants and residents less secure.