Summer 2002 Research Report Allison Davenport "Cross-Border Migrant Advocacy"

 

Migrants that reach the U.S. do so only after a long and perilous journey from numerous locations around the globe. Nearly all Latin American migrants, despite their country of origin or their final destination in the U.S., enter the U.S. through Mexico. Mexico plays contrasting and simultaneous roles in international migration as both a sending and receiving country as well as site of transit. My research focused on exploring this complex role that Mexico plays in international migration through the lens of Chiapas, where various migrant streams converge.

My research in Chiapas included interviews with human rights advocates and government representatives, with undocumented migrants from various nations, and with local people in Chiapas who have friends and relatives in the U.S. I interviewed representatives of government and non-government organizations such as Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolome de Las Casas, Comision Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Matias, and Desarrollo Alternativo to assess the current situation along the border with Guatemala and within the state. In addition, I interviewed consular officers of Central American countries with consulates in Chiapas. I also interviewed migrant advocates who were members of the Catholic church- ranging from parish priests in towns and cities along the border who offer basic social services to migrants as they pass through to the priests who run Casa del Migrante, a network of safe houses for migrants extending from Guatemala, through Mexico, and in to the United States. These informants were central to my research because of the obstacles to access to undocumented migrants due to their transience and concern with being identified. My contact with staff from Casa del Migrante allowed me the opportunity to conduct focus groups with the migrants from various Central and South American nations who were staying temporarily at the house during their journey North.

It is common to see newspaper reports or hear stories of robberies and murders of migrants along the border with Guatemala. Similarly, headlines and tales of migrant deaths due to accidents while crossing by river in to Mexico on rafts or trying to continue North by jumping a cargo train are not unusual. At least 355 migrants died in the attempt to cross into Mexico in 2001. My interviews with human rights advocates in the state revealed that although there is awareness about the violence and corruption surrounding migration in to Mexico, much of the local human rights resources are directed to dealing with the state’s civil conflict. Paramilitary activity, displacement, and the tension between government forces and the Zapatista movement in the highlands are the focal point of human rights advocacy in the area. Along the border with Guatemala more attention is given to the situation of migrants, but projects focus on labor rights relating to domestic workers in the city of Tapachula and temporary workers who enter annually with passes to work during harvest on large plantations. The daily abuses of migrants by police, army and immigration officials as well as by criminal groups is not addressed because generally the resources are not there to support such an effort. Even where such support exists, the migrants themselves are reluctant stay in Chiapas and bring a complaint against the government, preferring to continue the journey to their final destination in the North.

In addition to being the point of entry for migrants coming from Guatemala, Chiapas itself is the source of a relatively new Mexican migrant stream. The recent deportation of eight indigenous Mexicans to Guatemala for what were mistakenly considered false Mexican documents by the Mexican immigration authorities highlights the changes with which the nation is struggling to keep pace. This incident exemplifies the confusion Mexico’s dual identity as both a sending and receiving country has created. During my time in Chiapas I heard or read about the death of several locals who had died in the attempt to enter the U.S. Local newspapers and officials decried the deaths. While most people I interviewed in the rural areas characterized migration as a reality for peasants, overall public opinion is still coming to terms with the issue. Progressive groups in San Cristobal and surrounding areas urge locals to stay in Chiapas with the promise that recent movements for indigenous and peasant rights will bring relief. However, rural peasants explained that the reality of low coffee prices, landlessness, and civil strife have forced many to seek subsistence in the North.

The momentum to migrate has created an entire migrant industry in small towns across Chiapas. Travel agencies, even in small towns, advertise bus trips to Tijuana or other cities along the border with the U.S. These trips leave monthly or bi-monthly taking potential migrants as far as the border where they can find coyotes to cross them in to the U.S. Local banks receive remittances transferred from migrants in the U.S. and families line up every month or two to receive the money that has become a staple in the family economy. Indigenous communities that were once insular now have ties with members living in different areas of the U.S. and are part of a more globalized economy of money wires, long distance phone calls, international courier services, and emails.

In response to this new wave of out-migration, the government’s Instituto Nacional de Migracion is conducting a massive media campaign to discourage potential migrants from hiring and trusting migrant smugglers or coyotes. Radio announcements, tv ads, and posters warn of the dangers of hiring coyotes and the abuses they allegedly perpetrate. However, the newness of the pattern of migration and the fact that most migrants from Chiapas are indigenous and therefore not always fluent in Spanish make the option of traveling North without a coyote nearly impossible and far more dangerous and less effective than hiring one. Regarding migrants entering Mexico, the government initiated the Plan Sur program in summer 2001 to increase border enforcement efforts and to ensure that undocumented migrants found within its borders are sent not merely to the other side of the Mexican border but to their home countries, thus reducing repeat attempts at entry. Mexico deported a total of 130,000 migrants in 2001.

The complexity of the political and social situation in Chiapas is a huge issue in itself, but Chiapas as a site which both receives and sends migrants adds layers and layers to the issue. Because Mexico has a huge number of its migrants living and working in the U.S. it is in the difficult position of wanting to control its own Southern border without contradicting its own pleas to the U.S. government for fair treatment of its own nationals. Despite the near absence of services for migrants and monitoring of human rights, migration continues to be an everyday fact of life for both the Mexicans who migrate and those from around the globe to whom Mexico is a difficult but necessary stepping stone in the journey North.