This book marks a critical contribution to the intercultural dialogue about immigration. Each year, thousands of Central Americans leave their countries and walk across Mexico, seeking to reach the United States. The author explores the dispossession process that drives these migrants from their homes and argues that they are caught in a kind of trap: forced to emigrate, but impeded to immigrate. This trap is discussed empirically through the analysis of immigration policies implemented by the United States government and ethnographic fieldwork carried out in some of albergues (shelters).

Provides a panoramic description and interpretation of exclusion and forced immigration in Central America Contributes to the burgeoning intercultural dialogue about Central American immigration to the United States Offers an English-language study of a topic most often written about in Spanish

Autorentext
Carlos Sandoval-Garcia is Professor at the Institute for Social Research, University of Costa Rica.

Inhalt

Introduction .- 2. 'They Flee, Not Travel': War, Dispossession and Migration .- 3. 'Death Drop by Drop neither Hurts nor Angers Official Circles': The Securitization of Migration .- 4. 'What Have We Done? Well, Nothing and Everything': The Shelter Experience .- 5. Conclusion: Resources of Hope.