Im/Mobility at the US–Mexico Border during the COVID-19 Pandemic

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dc.contributor.authorBlue, Sarah
dc.contributor.authorDevine, Jennifer A.
dc.contributor.authorRuiz, Matthew P.
dc.contributor.authorMcDaniel, Kathryn
dc.contributor.authorHartsell, Alisa R.
dc.contributor.authorPierce, Christopher
dc.contributor.authorJohnson, Makayla
dc.contributor.authorTinglov, Allison
dc.contributor.authorYang, Mei
dc.contributor.authorWu, Xiu
dc.contributor.authorMoya, Sara
dc.contributor.authorCross, Elle
dc.contributor.authorStarnes, Carol Anne
dc.date.accessioned2021-07-30T19:30:48Z
dc.date.available2021-07-30T19:30:48Z
dc.date.issued2021-02-01
dc.description.abstractIn March 2020, the United States government began a series of measures designed to dramatically restrict immigration as part of its response to the global health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This included Title 42, which deported asylum seekers immediately and prevented them from applying for asylum. These measures worsened an already precarious situation at the US–Mexico border for an estimated 60,000 asylum seekers who were prevented, by the Trump administration’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ (aka MPP) policy enacted in January 2019, from remaining in the United States while they awaited their asylum hearings. In-depth interviews, participant observation, and social media analysis with humanitarian and legal advocates for asylum seekers living in a camp at the border in Matamoros, Mexico reveal that COVID-19’s impacts are not limited to public health concerns. Rather, COVID-19’s impacts center on how the Trump administration weaponized the virus to indefinitely suspend the asylum system. We argue that the Matamoros refugee camp provides a strategic vantage point to understand the repercussions of state policies of exclusion on im/mobility and survival strategies for asylum seekers. Specifically, we use the analytical lenses of the politics of im/mobility, geographies of exclusion, and asylum seeker resilience to identify how COVID-19 has shaped the im/mobility and security of the camp and its residents in unexpected ways. At the same time, our research illustrates that camp residents exercise im/mobility as a form of political visibility to contest and ameliorate their precarity as they find themselves in conditions not of their choosing.
dc.description.departmentGeography and Environmental Studies
dc.formatText
dc.format.extent17 pages
dc.format.medium1 file (.pdf)
dc.identifier.citationBlue, S. A., Devine, J. A., Ruiz, M. P., McDaniel, K., Hartsell, A. R., Pierce, C. J., Johnson, M., Tinglov, A. K., Yang, M., Wu, X., Moya, S., Cross, E., Starnes, C. A. (2021). Im/mobility at the US–Mexico border during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social Sciences, 10(2), 47.
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10020047
dc.identifier.issn2076-0760
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10877/14145
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
dc.rights.holder© 2021 The Authors.
dc.rights.licenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
dc.sourceSocial Sciences, 2021, Vol. 10, No. 2, Article 47.
dc.subjectasylum
dc.subjectCOVID-19
dc.subjectimmobility
dc.subjectUS-Mexico border
dc.subjectrefugee camp
dc.subjectGeography and Environmental Studies
dc.titleIm/Mobility at the US–Mexico Border during the COVID-19 Pandemic
dc.typeArticle

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