Abstract
In this chapter, we examine the contrasting reception contexts of two migrant groups upon their arrival to the border city of Tijuana: around 16,000 Haitian migrants during the second half of 2016, and more than 10,000 Central American migrants moving in caravans, in late 2018. Drawing on fieldwork carried out during those two critical events, we argue that Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and local authorities generated opposite framings and political actions toward both groups. In the first case, CSOs constructed social narratives creating the image of Tijuana as a city of migrants and encouraging solidarity to the newcomers; in the second case, framings on migrant caravans were heavily reliant on xenophobic and criminalizing narratives. We also sustain that the level of coordination and frame alignment, or lack of them, between local authorities, long-standing and emergent CSOs, and local and transborder citizens determined the distinct reception context for the newly arrived migrants.
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Notes
- 1.
By reception, we mean all those services that have to be provided to meet basic and decent conditions for a group of individuals at the time of arrival at a new place.
- 2.
According to Alegría (2012, p. 104) “the maquiladora is a diverse mix of industrial activities that include exportation, primarily by foreign companies—whose principle role is to produce goods for final consumption”.
- 3.
Casa del Migrante and Instituto Madre Assunta were founded in the 1980s and 1990s, the first for migrant men and the second for women and children. Both are run by the Scalabrini, a Catholic congregation dedicated to the care of migrants across world regions.
- 4.
Since 2010, a caravan known as Viacrucis migrante crosses through Mexico before the Holy Week; it is a religious and political demonstration. Until 2017, it gathered a few hundred migrants and activists and ended in Mexico City or in a city near the US border. In April 2018, the Viacrucis arrived at the Tijuana border with close to one thousand migrants and activists.
- 5.
The Municipal Migrant Assistance Office registered the arrival of a total of 18,730 foreigners between May 26 and November 30, 2016 (París et al., 2018). According to the INM, 17,078 Haitians entered Mexico in 2016 and 852 between January and April 2017 (http://www.politicamigratoria.gob.mx/es_mx/SEGOB/Boletines_Estadisticos).
- 6.
The Grupo Beta functions under the umbrella of the Mexican National Institute of Migration. Its mission is to protect human rights of migrants regardless their migration status. They offer water, medical aid, and information to migrants at risk.
- 7.
This system, which later came to be known as “metering,” has been repeatedly condemned by US organizations as a violation both of US law and the international right to asylum. Human Rights First, “Crossing the Line. U.S. Border Agents Illegally Reject Asylum Seekers,” May 2017, http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/crossing-line-us-border-agents-illegally-reject-asylum-seekers.
- 8.
See Montes, Veronica (2019). Fleeing home: Notes on the Central American caravan in its transit to reach the US–Mexico border. Latino Studies. Vol. 17:4, pp. 432–439 for more details on this interview (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41276-019-00214-x).
- 9.
The local entrepreneurs association estimated that 150 million pesos, or 8.4 million dollars, were lost in Tijuana commerce and tourism due to the closure of the border that single day (https://www.debate.com.mx/mexico/perdidas-millonarias-comercios-tijuana-garita-san-ysidro-migrantes-20181128-0203.html).
- 10.
Since 2017, the metering system has been implemented in all the ports of entry at the US southern border. Each port communicates with Mexican officials to accept a certain number of asylum seekers every day. New arrivals have to register their names in notebooks managed by different actors in the Mexican border cities: the INM, civil society shelters, and the municipal government (European University Institute, Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law of The University of Texas at Austin, Center for U.S./Mexican Studies of the University of California at San Diego, Asylum Processing and Waiting Lists at the U.S.-Mexico Border, December 2018).
- 11.
Around three hundred people participated in this march; however, it is worthwhile to look at this expression of hatred in perspective. Tijuana is a city of about 2 million inhabitants and about three hundred people attended this march.
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París Pombo, M.D., Montes, V. (2021). Hostility, Humanitarianism, and Radical Solidarity with Migrants in Tijuana, Mexico. In: Faret, L., Sanders, H. (eds) Migrant Protection and the City in the Americas. Politics of Citizenship and Migration. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74369-7_9
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