Family dynamics, violence and transit migration through Mexico

Abstract

I explore how violence and uncertainty affect straight migrant families in the context of their transit through Mexico. Based on 15 months’ of multi-situated fieldwork, I argue that there are multiple ways for people to react to migration. While some men challenge the masculine patriarchal stereotypes and become more caring, others attempt to reinforce traditional gender roles. Women become resourceful and try to build networks with other women. Some male migrants react to the loss of ownership of space and the fear of sexual violence in Mexico by attempting to limit women’s contact with others, deciding unilaterally where to go, and trying to isolate the family from the rest of the migrant community. Women are thus pushed into an ‘invisible’ domestic sphere while migrating. The article illustrates how migrating women often find themselves subject to the same types of violence they encountered at home while concurrently experiencing new forms (such as sexual violence) on the road. However, by rejecting the position of women as passive recipients of abuse, I explore how women understand and use their perceived vulnerability to obtain information about the road and support from strangers, as well as to create solidarity with other women who are migrating.

Keywords:

• Transit migration
• Central American migration
• families in transit
• solidarity
• violence
• gender and migration

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Tatiana Sanchez Parra and Sanne Weber for organising the workshop that generated this article. Thanks to the amazing anonymous reviewers whose thoughtful comments really took this article to the next level.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 I obtained ethical approval from the University of Essex for the research that generated this article. All names are pseudonyms.

2 I had already suggested an earlier version of how families recreated the private sphere in Díaz de León (2023).

3 According to Connell and Messerschmidt (2005) some of the traits associated with hegemonic masculinity are being unemotional, nonnurturing, aggressive and dispassionate. Since the concept of masculinity is culturally specific, I would add that according to the men I interviewed being a man includes being strong, reliable and able to provide.

4 For more information on how men relate to each other in the shelters, see Díaz de León (2023, 2021) and Doering-White (2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alejandra Díaz de León

Alejandra Díaz de León is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Sociological Studies at The College of Mexico (El Colegio de México). Her research focuses on solidarity and trust between migrants in transit through Mexico.