Abstract
In the context of evolving migration dynamics in Mexico, the issue of local hospitality policies has taken on a dimension that was unknown a decade ago in the country. Mexico City has sought to be a pioneer on these issues, both in the positions put forward by political actors as well as in the programs that the city administration has implemented, especially since the adoption of legislative and constitutional reforms that create new possibilities and responsibilities for the urban elites. These happened at a time when the greater Mexico City region is going through the historical process of transformation of migratory dynamics at the national scale. Emigration, immigration, transit and returns are mixed phenomenon, questioning the ability of urban actors to make a hospital and inclusive city truly exist and be effective. Among others, Central American migrants’ settlement patterns have challenged the receiving capacity of the City. Using fieldwork material on the urban experience of population arriving from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala in Mexico City, the chapter questions the local positions and initiatives with the forms of urban incorporation for the migrants. High levels of vulnerability and invisibility contribute to the migrants’ perspective to maintaining distance from institutions, especially when local welcoming discourse coexists with control and detention operations by the national migration authority.
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Notes
- 1.
It should be specified here that Central American migration is not the same as it was during the period of civil war in Central America, when it was the object of other modalities of reception.
- 2.
The fieldwork conducted for this research was made possible thanks to the author’s participation in various research programs including the LMI MESO (IRD/CIESAS/ACR), the INMIMEX Program (SECTEI/Ciudad de Mexico) and the PAMIMEX Program (Labex DynamiTe Paris).
- 3.
The head of Mexico City’s government serves a 6-year term without the possibility of re-election. The office’s powers are both those of a mayor and of a governor within the Mexican federal system. The office has only existed since 1997. Before this, the head of the Department of the Federal District was appointed by the Mexican president. Those who have held the office (excluding interim office-holders) are: Andrés Manuel López Obrador, 2000–2005; Marcelo Ebrard, 2006–2012; Miguel Ángel Mancera, 2012–2018. The current head, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, took office in December, 2018.
- 4.
Law on Interculturality, Assistance for Migrants, and Human Mobility.
- 5.
The Network of Multicultural Cities is a collaborative structure between Spanish cities founded in 2011 and later expanded to other cities in association with the network “Intercultural Cities”, created in 2008 by the European Commission and the European Council. A Euro-Latino American meeting of multicultural cities was held in Mexico City on the 27 and 28 of August, 2014, supported by the European Council, the Organization of Ibero-American States, and Mexico City’s government.
- 6.
Regional constitutions do exist butare not issued from a capital with its specific territory as was the Federal District until 2016.
- 7.
The constitution provides that”the city must guarantee priority attention for the full exercise of the rights of people who, as a result of structural inequality, are victims of discrimination, exclusion, ill treatment, abuse, violence, and major obstacles to fully exercising their fundamental rights and freedoms” (Cd de México, 2017, p. 42).
- 8.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an immigration policy instituted in the United States by the Obama administration in 2012 which allowed approximately 800,000 young people, often called Dreamers, to benefit from immigrant status for a period of two years (renewable) despite their arrival on American soil in childhood without immigration documents.
- 9.
Source: SIBISO, Primer informe de gestión, December 2018–September 2019. The total budget for the SIBISO in 2019 was 5832 million pesos.
- 10.
In 2017, 60 people received individual assistance from the program, under the category “monetary grants to people involved in training, disseminating, monitoring, and tracking the operations of the social program” for an amount of 116,000 pesos (about $4600). That same year, a fund of 3 million pesos gave grants to 18 community organizations involved in assisting the migrant and returning populations in the city (source: SEDEREC).
- 11.
The condition necessary to receive the document was presence in the city for at least 30 days, which applicants had to be able to prove with a document from the person housing them or from a utility (water, electricity, telephone…). From September, 2016, to September, 2017, 1113 credencialesSederec were issued (Informe de actividades SEREC, 2017).
- 12.
ConsejoNacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social.
- 13.
15,000 members of the National Guard were deployed in the north, and 6000 at the southern border (El Economista, 20/VI/2019).
- 14.
The Clave ÚnicadelRegistro de Población number is an individual registration number for each resident of Mexico (whether a citizen or foreign resident) and for Mexicans living abroad; itis considered the access key to procedures and services offered by public administration agencies.
- 15.
The InstitutoNacional Electoral card is the identity document of Mexican citizens.
- 16.
The ZMVM (Zonametropolitana del Valle de México) is an urban area of 7900 km2 that includes 60 municipalities around the central city, which itself only covers a space of 1480 km2, i.e. less than 20%.
- 17.
The communityorganizationsthatparticipatedwere the Casa de Acogida, Formación y Empoderamiento de la Mujer Migrante y Refugiada (CAFEMIN); Casa Tochan; SMR ScalabrinianasMisión con Migrantes y Refugiados; Comisión de DerechosHumanos de la Ciudad de México; Centro de Atención y Apoyo a Migrantes (CAAM); and the Instituto de Investigación y Práctica Social y Cultural (IIPSOCULTA).
- 18.
In particular, Spanish Republicans and those in exile from Latin American dictatorships.
- 19.
The COMAR (Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid) has indicated that the number of asylum requests went from 3424 in 2015, to 8781 in 2016. Fewer than one in three applicants is granted refugee status.
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Faret, L. (2021). Has Mexico City Truly Become a Ciudad hospitalaria? Insights from the Experience of Central American Migrants. 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_8
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