De la migración forzada al tráfico de migrantes: la migración clandestina en tránsito de Cuba hacia Chile

This article takes up the critical discussion that has taken place at an international level by considering people smuggling as a crime. It focuses on clandestine transit migration of Cubans to Chile, associated with the trafficking of migrants, the latter understood as forced migration. From a collaborative ethnographic follow-up, the experience of clandestine transit migration is collected while reconstructing the motives, routes, the lack of a coyote figure, the abuses, the risks, the crossing of Chilean borders, and the denial of refuge. It is concluded that emphasizing the voluntariness of being smuggled contributes to the irregularization of migrants, which is why we consider it necessary to stop perceiving this phenomenon from a criminal perspective and consider the density social, cultural, political, and economic dimensions of people smuggling.

The Security Sector Governance–Migration Nexus: Rethinking how Security Sector Governance matters for migrants’ rights

The main argument is that improving migrants’ rights and conceptual linkages between SSG/R and migration is best achieved, by decentring our gaze, namely going beyond the ‘national’ and ‘state-centric’ view that characterizes traditionally SSG/R and to consider the agency of both migrants and SSR actors. First from a migrants’ perspective, it is key for SSR actors to go beyond traditional legal classifications and to consider the diversity of personal situations that involve refugees, stranded migrants and asylum seekers, which might endorse different roles at different times of their journeys and lives. Second, the transnational nature of migration calls for a transnationalization of SSG/R too. For too long the concept has mostly been applied within the national setting of SSR institutions and actors. Migration calls for a clear decentring that involves a transnational dimension and more work among transnational actors and policymakers to facilitate a norm transfer from the domestic to the interstate and international level. As such, the ‘transnational’ nature of migration and its governance needs to be ‘domesticated’ within the national context in order to change the mindset of SSG/R actors and institutions. More importantly, the paper argues that poor SSG/R at home produces refugees and incentivizes migrants to leave their countries after being victims of violence by law enforcement and security services. During migrants’ complex and fragmented journeys, good security sector governance is fundamental to address key challenges faced by these vulnerable groups. I also argue that a better understanding of migrants’ and refugees’ security needs is beneficial and central to the good governance of the security sector. After reviewing the key terms of migration and its drivers in section 2, section 3 reviews how SSG is part of the implementation of the GCM. SSR actors play a role in shaping migratory routes and refugees’ incentives to leave, in explaining migrants’ and refugees’ resilience, in protecting migrants and refugees, and in providing security. Although it cautions against artificial classifications and the term of ‘transit migration’, section 4 reviews what the core challenges are in the countries of origin, transit and destination. Section 5 provides a detailed overview of the linkages between migration and each security actor: the military, police forces, intelligence services, border guards, interior ministries, private actors, criminal justice, parliaments, independent oversight bodies and civil society. Section 6 formulates some recommendations.

Migration Causes, Patterns, and Consequences: Contributions of Location Networks

The interdisciplinary field of migration studies is broadly interested in the causes, patterns, and consequences of migration. Much of this work, united under the umbrella of the “new economics of migration” research program, argues that personal networks within and across households drive a wide variety of migration-related actions. Findings from this micro-level research have been extremely valuable, but it has struggled to develop generalizable lessons and aggregate into macro-level and meso-level insights. In addition, at group, region, and country levels, existing work is often limited by only considering migration total inflows and/or total outflows. This focus misses many critical features of migration. Using location networks, network measures such as preferential attachment, preferential disattachment, transitivity, betweenness centrality, and homophily provide valuable information about migration cascades and transit migration. Some insights from migration research tidily aggregate from personal networks up to location networks, whereas other insights uniquely originate from examining location networks.

Espacios de estancia prolongada para la población migrante centroamericana en tránsito por México

The objective of this article is to identify the main areas where Central American migrants spend most of their time during their transit through Mexico. The theoretical framework reviews the mobility-immobility and aspiration/ability approaches that focus on mobility restrictions and waiting times. The definition of waiting territories and the inclusion of the length of stay variable contribute to the study of transit migration from the perspective of immobility. Using the Migration Survey in the Northern Border (Emif Sur), the magnitude of displacements through the reported areas by migrants is estimated as having the longest length of stay in their migratory displacement. Long-term transit spaces correspond to different border regions and locations close to migratory routes. The provided empirical evidence indirectly suggests obstacles to mobility manifested in long- term transit spaces.

Migration transformation in Mexico. Challenges and new opportunities for the A. M. Lopez Obrador government

The regional migration system that includes the U.S., Mexico and the Central American countries is currently in a turbulence. Mexico has become a territory where migrant caravans move, where refugees waiting for a decision on the U.S. asylum are concentrated. The Mexican-American border has become a line attracting hundreds of thousands of migrants hoping for good luck. The constant change of the U.S. migration policy principles increases an uncertainty and chaos level at the border. The role of Mexico in the regional migration system has changed radically in the second decade of the XXI century. Now it acts not only as a labor donor, but also as a key migration transit country and the first safe country to provide asylum and international protection. The transformation that took place affected the change in the status of Mexico in relations with the states of the region. The article examines the key changes in the Mexico migration model - the growth of the immigrants and refugees number, the transit migration management, the initiatives aimed at forming socio-economic development tools in the Northern Triangle countries – Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador.

From Temporary Protection to Transit Migration: Responses to Refugee Crises Along the Western Balkan Route

In recent history, the countries along the Western Balkan route faced several refugee crises. In the 1990s refugee crises were the result of the conflicts after the disintegration of the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Between the summer of 2015 and early 2016, the European continent faced another refugee crisis due to the ongoing civil war in Syria. During the 2015/16 refugee crisis, different political leaders, especially in the post-Yugoslav space, claimed that their humanitarian approach towards refugees was based on their previous experience with refugee crises from the 1990s. This paper explores and compares legal and political responses to different refugee crises in the in-between countries along the Western Balkan route: three European Union (EU) Member States (Austria, Slovenia and Croatia) and two EU candidate countries (Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia). In the first part, the paper looks at the impact of the refugee crisis on EU law. It shows how EU law was developed due to the post-Yugoslav refugee crisis (Temporary Protection Directive), but then faced ambivalent application during the 2015/16 refugee crisis. Second, it studies the transformation of national legislation during both refugee crises in the chosen countries. On the basis of the socio-legal analysis of these transformations, the main argument is that there has been a major shift in the ‘management’ of the refugee crises in the countries along the Western Balkan route: while the main approach adopted during the post-Yugoslav refugee crisis was temporary protection, this approach was replaced with a ‘transit migration’ approach during the 2015/16 refugee crisis.

From Temporary Protection to Transit Migration: Responses to Refugee Crises Along the Western Balkan Route

In recent history, the countries along the Western Balkan route faced several refugee crises. In the 1990s refugee crises were the result of the conflicts after the disintegration of the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Between the summer of 2015 and early 2016, the European continent faced another refugee crisis due to the ongoing civil war in Syria. During the 2015/16 refugee crisis, different political leaders, especially in the post-Yugoslav space, claimed that their humanitarian approach towards refugees was based on their previous experience with refugee crises from the 1990s. This paper explores and compares legal and political responses to different refugee crises in the in-between countries along the Western Balkan route: three European Union (EU) Member States (Austria, Slovenia and Croatia) and two EU candidate countries (Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia). In the first part, the paper looks at the impact of the refugee crisis on EU law. It shows how EU law was developed due to the post-Yugoslav refugee crisis (Temporary Protection Directive), but then faced ambivalent application during the 2015/16 refugee crisis. Second, it studies the transformation of national legislation during both refugee crises in the chosen countries. On the basis of the socio-legal analysis of these transformations, the main argument is that there has been a major shift in the ‘management’ of the refugee crises in the countries along the Western Balkan route: while the main approach adopted during the post-Yugoslav refugee crisis was temporary protection, this approach was replaced with a ‘transit migration’ approach during the 2015/16 refugee crisis.