Talking to Migrants: Invisibility, Vulnerability, and Protection

ABSTRACT

Individuals and families are being displaced from the Northern Triangle of Central America by structural and physical violence. Clandestine migration increases the invisibility of forced migrants and makes them difficult to access for researchers. Gatekeepers perceive or depict forced migrants as vulnerable populations and often deny investigators access to them, arguing that traumatised people should not be asked to retell their stories and be revictimised. The growing literature on research participation suggests that individuals categorised as vulnerable often decide to collaborate in studies, because they welcome the opportunity to talk about their experience to an empathetic listener and to help improve policies and services. Immediate distress produced by revisiting painful moments in life often dissipates quickly and is outweighed by the benefits of research participation, such as feelings of catharsis and a sense of acknowledgement and purpose. When gatekeepers deny investigators access to vulnerable population groups, they preclude them from autonomously deciding whether to grant or withhold informed consent and from exercising their right to participate in research. Their invisibilities and silences render migrants more susceptible to human rights violations. Taking protection seriously means widening the research participation of vulnerable individuals.

KEYWORDS:

• Informed consent
• vulnerability
• gatekeepers
• protection
• autonomy

Acknowledgments

This research was first presented at the workshop on Research Challenges in Violent Contexts in San Salvador in June 2018. I thank Noelle Brigden and Miranda Hallett, as well as the anonymous reviewers, for their generous comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

1. El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala are not the only countries witnessing a displacement crisis. The research grew out of an earlier interest in understanding gang violence, particularly the contribution of state policies and violence, in this geographical area.

2. INM Protection Officers (OPIs), who are also federal migration agents, are meant to screen detainees for protection needs and refer unaccompanied minors to DIF shelters. But these transfers do not routinely take place (CNDH (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos) 2019), and DIF shelters lack the capacity to house large numbers of children and offer conditions like those in INM facilities (Chavez et al. 2017; Doering-White 2018). For my research on forced migration I did not approach the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR), because its case files are confidential. Asylum - seekers are often housed in private shelters, however, and may be contacted through service providers. This is a path I pursued at a later stage in my research.

3. A second phase of my research on forced migration included questions about the motives for, and impact of, research participation.

4. Interview with Sister Leticia Gutiérrez, Executive Secretary, Pastoral of Human Mobility, Mexico City, 12 July 2018.

5. Even Mexican citizens, who were racially profiled as indigenous from Guatemala, have on occasion been detained and deported (CNDH 2016).

6. The DIF facilities are monitored even less frequently.

Additional information

Funding

Parts of this research were supported by the Open Society Foundations.