Risk and security on the Mexico-to-US migrant journey: women’s testimonios of violence

Abstract

In this article, I argue that immigrants’ meanings, perceptions, and feelings of risk and (in)security are relational, multi-scalar, and contextual to lived experiences before, during, and after the migration journey. Paying attention to and analyzing Mexican women’s testimonios of intimate experiences uncovers why they migrate, how migration is experienced, and how migrant women frame their lives in the US. In this article, I compare how national and transnational policies of the War on Drugs in Mexico, which increased militarization of the US-Mexico border and created tougher immigration policies in the US (all in the name of US national security), form and transform intimate experiences of risk and (in)security across the migration journey for the same population. This comparative approach challenges and expands US-Mexico literature that does not read across experiences in the three sites of the migration journey.

Keywords:

• Mexico-US migration
• violence
• women’s testimonial/testimonio
• risk and security
• War on Drugs

Acknowledgements

My most profound gratitude to the women who shared their testimonials of intimate experiences across the migration journey. This article is of no value to them until global inequality is reduced and justice is afforded to forced migrants. Special thanks to Victoria Lawson, Kathryn Gillespie, Jennifer Porter, Monica Farías, Lauren Drakopulos, Julian Barr for their support and contributions. Big thanks to the Gender Place and Culture Editorial Board for their constructive and thoughtful feedback. All errors are mine.