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Before Covid-19, countries in the Americas—deeply unequal spaces historically determined by migrant mobilities—had hardened their migratory policies, provoking the rise in the number of undocumented migrants and limitations on the right to refuge Based on the initial findings of a collaborative and comparative research project encompassing twenty-one countries in the Americas (www inmovilidades org), this article argues that the current pandemic justifies a perverse intersection between health policies and politics to control mobility that has configured a de facto state of exception in migration matters, which only magnifies the existing tension between mobility and control By reviewing press material and policy documents, and complementing those with the testimonies of regional and extra-continental migrants, this article proves that common situations are arising across the Americas that disproportionately affect regional and extracontinental undocumented migrants and asylum seekers, consigning them to daily hyper-precarization and dispossession of rights It also shows that new forms of migrant mobility are emerging The article thus focuses on five intertwined common situations: 1) border closures and increased internal policing;2) suspension or limitation of the right to refuge;3) selective hyper-nationalist aid programmes;4) the adoption of a new anti-migrant legal architecture;and 5) new forms of migrant mobility and struggle As the article suggests, against the current pandemic and hyper-control migrant mobilities are strategies for resistance with spatial effects on national and transnational scales across the continent (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Antes del Covid-19, los paises de las Americas—espacios profundamente desiguales e historicamente determinados por movilidades migrantes—habian endurecido sus politicas migratorias, provocando el aumento del numero de migrantes indocumentados y limitando tambien el derecho al refugio En base a los resultados iniciales de un proyecto de investigacion [End Page 11] colaborativo y comparativo que abarca vientiuno paises de las Americas (www inmovilidades org), este articulo sostiene que la actual pandemia justifica una perversa interseccion entre politicas de salud y politicas de control a la movilidad que ha configurado un estado de excepcion de facto en materia migratoria, que no hace sino magnificar la tension existente entre movilidad y control A traves de la revision de material de prensa y documentos de politica, y complementando con testimonios de migrantes regionales y extra-continentales, este articulo da cuenta de que en las Americas se estan presentando situaciones comunes que afectan de manera desproporcionada a migrantes indocumentados y solicitantes de asilo, confinandolos a una hiper-precarizacion y despojo de derechos cotidiano Tambien muestra que estan surgiendo nuevas formas de movilidad migrante Asi, el articulo se centra en cinco situaciones comunes entrelazadas: 1) cierre de fronteras y aumento de la vigilancia policial interna;2) suspension o limitacion del derecho de refugio;3) programas selectivos de ayuda hiper-nacionalista;4) adopcion de una nueva arquitectura legal antinmigrante;y 5) nuevas formas de movilidad y lucha migrante Como sugiere el articulo, frente a la actual pandemia e hiper-control a las movilidades migrantes son una estrategia de resistencia que produce efectos espaciales a escala nacional y transnacional en todo el continente (Spanish) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Latin American Geography is the property of University of Texas Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )

Unlike other transit countries, Ecuador’s position as a transit country has just begun to be publicly addressed, having been more of a strategic public secret than a topic of public interest. Based on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2015 and 2016, this article discusses the dynamics of the (re)configuration of Ecuador as a transit country used by both immigrants and Ecuadorean deportees mainly from the United States to reach other destinations. It argues that this process should be interpreted in light of a series of historical and political elements in tension. The article suggests that the subtle presence of the United States’ externalized border, together with national political inconsistencies, have a repressive as well as a productive effect, which has functioned to produce a systemic form of selective control of transit mobility.

espanolLejos de concebir que seguridad y derechos humanos, por un lado, y restriccion y proteccion, por otro, son dos perspectivas excluyentes en el manejo de las migraciones internacionales, este articulo argumenta que ambas se articulan y alimentan mutuamente. Exploramos esta articulacion desde los estudios sobre gubernamentalidad, y analizamos las politicas antitrata y antitrafico, centrales en las agendas migratorias regionales e internacionales. Nos enfocamos en el caso de Ecuador durante el gobierno de la “Revolucion Ciudadana”. Con base en un estudio etnografico, mostramos el rol de la trata y el trafico de migrantes como estrategias de produccion de “migraciones riesgosas” y de la “irregularidad migrante”, y como justificativos de medidas excepcionales en coyunturas definidas como “crisis humanitarias”. Concluimos que las politicas migratorias formuladas en el periodo “post-neoliberal” ecuatoriano no son totalmente autonomas ni disidentes, sino funcionales al hegemonico regimen neoliberal de control global de las migraciones. EnglishFar from conceiving that security and human rights, on one hand, and restriction and protection, on the other, are two exclusionary perspectives in international migration management, this article argues that both articulate and feed one another. Drawing on research on governmentality, we explore this articulation, while analysing anti-trafficking and anti-smuggling policies, core elements within regional and international migration agendas. We focus on Ecuador’s “Citizens Revolution” government. Based upon an ethnographic study, we reveal the role migrants smuggling and human trafficking have strategically played in the production of “risky migration” and “migrant irregularity”, and in justifying exceptional measures during particular conjunctures defined as “humanitarian crises”. We conclude that migration policies formulated during the Ecuadorean “post neoliberal” period are not wholly autonomous nor dissident, but functional to the global and hegemonic neoliberal migration control regime.

espanolEl articulo reflexiona en torno a como la movilidad transnacional, de ninos, ninas y adolescentes, NNA, ha tenido y tiene efectos espaciales en la (re)configuracion del corredor migratorio extendido Region Andina-Centroamerica-Mexico-EUA. Aqui se presenta una revision historica sobre los distintos elementos que dan cuenta de la existencia de dicho corredor como un espacio abstracto que se produce y reproduce a partir de distintas dinamicas de movilidad, poder y desigualdad desplegadas por sujetos, instituciones, Estados, organismos no estatales y redes criminales. Proponemos la migracion de NNA como eje critico para pensar dicho corredor, y posicionamos a las multiples manifestaciones y procesos de ese tipo de migracion como respuesta y resistencia a las dinamicas de violencia y desigualdad que estan en la raiz de la existencia misma del corredor extendido. Asi como experiencias nodales para entender las dinamicas de produccion y (re)produccion del espacio supranacional, estatal/institucional y subjetivo/animico. EnglishThis articles looks how the transnational mobility of children and adolescents impacts the spatial re-configuration of the extended migratory corridor of the Andean Region-Central America-MexicoU.S. We present a historical revision of the emergence of this corridor as an abstract space re-produced as a result of diverse dynamics of mobility, power and inequality deployed by subjects, institutions, states, NGOs and criminal networks. We posit that the migration of children and adolescents is of critical importance for thinking and understaning the existence of the extended corridor. We argue that this type of migration should be conceived of as a form of response and resistance in the face of violence and inequality, as well as a productive force in the production and re-production of a supranational, state/institutional and subjective/emotional spaces.

Este artículo repasa de manera sucinta los debates en los que converge la geografía crítica en las tradiciones latinoamericanas y anglosajonas, así como las principales líneas de discusión en ecología política; geografía feminista; geografía poscolonial y decolonial; y geografía de la movilidad y las migraciones, con el afán de contribuir a delinear una geografía crítica latinoamericana. Además, se indaga en torno a por qué ciertas líneas investigativas han tenido mayor o menor acogida en la región, con énfasis en la importancia de abrir un diálogo transnacional que, con base en investigaciones críticas locales, retroalimente, cuestione, proponga nuevas vías en la producción de conocimiento geográfico desde, en y sobre la región y, en línea con la teoría crítica, se comprometa con las luchas políticas y territoriales en América Latina.

Based on ethnographic research in the Ecuadorian Highlands, this article puts the mobility, migration, and smuggling practices of Ecuador’s indigenous people in historical and contemporary context. The people of Ecuador’s Southern Highlands have been on the move for generations, and migration is deeply embedded in the social and cultural landscape. In the rural communities of Cañar, indigenous coyotes are more than facilitators of migration: they are community members operating amid broader structural constraints, which have led to the emergence of specific trends in the facilitation of irregularized migration, yet they are expected to adhere to communal principles of reciprocity and trust. We place indigenous migrant narratives of mobility and identity at the center of our analysis of human smuggling, articulating a counternarrative to that of criminalization prevalent in transnational debates of irregularized migration, national security, and border control.