Carla Angulo-Pasel | University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley (original) (raw)
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Papers by Carla Angulo-Pasel
Critical Studies on Terrorism
Borders in Globalization Review
With the politics of borders, the socio-economic divide between the United States and Mexico is e... more With the politics of borders, the socio-economic divide between the United States and Mexico is evident. The geographic proximity to the U.S. makes the Mexico–Guatemala border an extension of the U.S. border enforcement regime. This article argues that the politics surrounding the U.S.–Guatemala border have not necessarily changed, because, at the core, the main objective of these border governance practices is to stop the movement of undesirable bodies (Khosravi 2011). Further, the article argues that the practices of containment force migrants to resist through their movement and seek strategies of survival. By comparing the administrations of Peña Nieto and López Obrador (AMLO) and analyzing the survival strategy of migrant “caravans” through border policy analysis and fieldwork conducted in 2014, I show that this border is a site of struggle between the state’s power and migrants’ forms of resistance. I find that border tactics are influenced by U.S. border enforcement requireme...
Social Sciences, 2019
In an increasingly globalized world, border control is continuously changing. Nation-states grapp... more In an increasingly globalized world, border control is continuously changing. Nation-states grapple with ‘migration management’ and maintain secure borders against ‘illegal’ flows. In Mexico, borders are elusive; internal and external security is blurred, and policies create legal categories of people whether it is a ‘trusted’ tourist or an ‘unauthorized’ migrant. For the ‘unauthorized’ Central American woman migrant trying to achieve safe passage to the United States (U.S.), the ‘border’ is no longer only a physical line to be crossed but a category placed on an individual body, which exists throughout her migration journey producing vulnerability as soon as the Mexico–Guatemala boundary is crossed. Based on policy analysis and fieldwork, this article argues that rather than protecting ‘unauthorized’ migrants, which the Mexican government narrative claims to do, border policies imposed by the state legally categorize female bodies in clandestine terms and construct violent relation...
Mobilities, 2018
This article delves into the concept of the 'mobile commons' which is articulated within the Auto... more This article delves into the concept of the 'mobile commons' which is articulated within the Autonomy of Migration (AoM) approach. The AoM literature focuses on migrant agency by advocating that migrants practice 'escape' and 'invisibility'. However, drawing on the stories of women migrants from the Northern Triangle of Central American (NTCA) (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras) travelling through Mexico, this article aims to engender and thereby trouble the concept of the mobile commons by questioning several taken-for-granted assumptions that are based on gender-neutral knowledge and dichotomous ways of thinking. Using women's experiences to question the assumptions made with respect to 'migrant knowledge', I show that the knowledge among women migrants from the NTCA is influenced by gendered power imbalances that place women in subordinate positions. The analysis will first focus on explaining the mobile commons as a theoretical concept. Following this, I discuss how conceptualizing the mobile commons through a feminist perspective challenges the ideas of invisible knowledge and trust often integral to the ways in which the concept of the mobile commons is used. Finally, I outline the survival strategies that migrant women may use given their own knowledge of the migration context in Mexico, and reflect on what this means for the scholarly understanding of the 'mobile commons'.
Journal of Borderlands Studies
Mobilities, 2018
This article delves into the concept of the ‘mobile commons’ which is articulated within the Auto... more This article delves into the concept of the ‘mobile commons’ which is
articulated within the Autonomy of Migration (AoM) approach. The AoM
literature focuses on migrant agency by advocating that migrants practice
‘escape’ and ‘invisibility’. However, drawing on the stories of women
migrants from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA)
(El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras) travelling through Mexico, this article
aims to engender and thereby trouble the concept of the mobile commons
by questioning several taken-for-granted assumptions that are based on
gender-neutral knowledge and dichotomous ways of thinking. Using
women’s experiences to question the assumptions made with respect to
‘migrant knowledge’, I show that the knowledge among women migrants
from the NTCA is influenced by gendered power imbalances that place
women in subordinate positions. The analysis will first focus on explaining
the mobile commons as a theoretical concept. Following this, I discuss how
conceptualizing the mobile commons through a feminist perspective challenges the ideas of invisible knowledge and trust often integral to the ways in which the concept of the mobile commons is used. Finally, I outline the survival strategies that migrant women may use given their own knowledge of the migration context in Mexico, and reflect on what this means for the scholarly understanding of the ‘mobile commons’.
Identities, 2022
Using a critical border, feminist perspective, this article analyzes the role of the migrant shel... more Using a critical border, feminist perspective, this article analyzes the role of the migrant shelter as a practitioner community actively involved in the dialogue of borders and directly affected by the restrictive border policies that are implemented against ‘unauthorized’ migrants in the name of national security. Based on field research carried out in Mexico, this article examines how borders affect the shelters used by ‘transit’ migrants. Specifically, since the Programa Frontera Sur [Southern Border Plan] policy was implemented in Mexico in the summer of 2014, migrant shelters have taken a more engaged role with respect to protection and assistance for ‘unauthorized’ migrants. Within this migratory context, temporary migrant shelters are transforming into more permanent spaces. At the same time, however, despite good intentions, migrants continue to face particular challenges in migrant shelters with respect to constraining rules, which sheds light on the power relations at play in these spaces of migration.
Journal of Politics in Latin America, 2021
Using Mexico’s Tarjeta de Visitante por Razones Humanitarias (TVRH) as a primary case study, thi... more Using Mexico’s Tarjeta de Visitante por Razones Humanitarias (TVRH) as a primary case
study, this article examines how states can use temporary protection schemes as border
security measures while claiming to provide protection. Although the TVRH offers a legal
pathway and status to move within Mexico, it equally restricts certain rights due to its temporary nature. It becomes a form of differential inclusion by which the state has the right to be able to “exclude and define the limits” of a particular population but also claim inclusion on humanitarian grounds. Despite the claim of protecting migrants, the application of this regular status can essentially become a form of interdiction, which sustains the political framing of migration as ultimately a “threat” that needs to be governed. On the ground, migrants with these temporary regular statuses occupy a liminal space and live a precarious existence similar to those migrants who do not possess a legal status at all. This power imbalance exists more often as states prefer to grant a temporary immigration status, which ensures less responsibility and support that accompanies more rights and protections. Based on policy analysis and field work, the article will examine the TVRH, the processes for obtaining this legal status, and the consequences for irregular migrants.
Social Sciences, 2019
Border control is continuously changing. In an increasingly globalized world, complete with a ris... more Border control is continuously changing. In an increasingly globalized world, complete with a rise in migration, states grapple with ‘migration management’ and maintaining secure borders against ‘illegal’ flows. In Mexico, borders are elusive; internal and external security is blurred, and policies create legal categories of people whether it is a ‘trusted’ tourist or an ‘unauthorized’ migrant. For the ‘unauthorized’ Central American woman migrant trying to achieve safe passage to the U.S., the ‘border’ is no longer only a physical line to be crossed but a category placed on an individual body, which exists throughout her migration journey producing vulnerability as soon as the Mexico-Guatemala boundary is crossed. Based on policy analysis and fieldwork, this paper argues that rather than protecting ‘unauthorized’ migrants, which the Mexican government narrative claims to do, border policies imposed by the state legally categorize female bodies in clandestine terms and construct violent relationships. This embodied illegality creates forced invisibility, further marginalizing women with respect to finding work, experiences of sexual violence and abuses by migration actors. The analysis focuses on three areas: the changing definition of ‘borders’; the effects of categorization and multiple vulnerabilities on Central American women; and the grim dangers caused by forced invisibility.
Teaching Documents by Carla Angulo-Pasel
Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for plagiarism. Students may be required ... more Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for plagiarism. Students may be required to submit their written work in electronic form and have it checked for plagiarism.
Critical Studies on Terrorism
Borders in Globalization Review
With the politics of borders, the socio-economic divide between the United States and Mexico is e... more With the politics of borders, the socio-economic divide between the United States and Mexico is evident. The geographic proximity to the U.S. makes the Mexico–Guatemala border an extension of the U.S. border enforcement regime. This article argues that the politics surrounding the U.S.–Guatemala border have not necessarily changed, because, at the core, the main objective of these border governance practices is to stop the movement of undesirable bodies (Khosravi 2011). Further, the article argues that the practices of containment force migrants to resist through their movement and seek strategies of survival. By comparing the administrations of Peña Nieto and López Obrador (AMLO) and analyzing the survival strategy of migrant “caravans” through border policy analysis and fieldwork conducted in 2014, I show that this border is a site of struggle between the state’s power and migrants’ forms of resistance. I find that border tactics are influenced by U.S. border enforcement requireme...
Social Sciences, 2019
In an increasingly globalized world, border control is continuously changing. Nation-states grapp... more In an increasingly globalized world, border control is continuously changing. Nation-states grapple with ‘migration management’ and maintain secure borders against ‘illegal’ flows. In Mexico, borders are elusive; internal and external security is blurred, and policies create legal categories of people whether it is a ‘trusted’ tourist or an ‘unauthorized’ migrant. For the ‘unauthorized’ Central American woman migrant trying to achieve safe passage to the United States (U.S.), the ‘border’ is no longer only a physical line to be crossed but a category placed on an individual body, which exists throughout her migration journey producing vulnerability as soon as the Mexico–Guatemala boundary is crossed. Based on policy analysis and fieldwork, this article argues that rather than protecting ‘unauthorized’ migrants, which the Mexican government narrative claims to do, border policies imposed by the state legally categorize female bodies in clandestine terms and construct violent relation...
Mobilities, 2018
This article delves into the concept of the 'mobile commons' which is articulated within the Auto... more This article delves into the concept of the 'mobile commons' which is articulated within the Autonomy of Migration (AoM) approach. The AoM literature focuses on migrant agency by advocating that migrants practice 'escape' and 'invisibility'. However, drawing on the stories of women migrants from the Northern Triangle of Central American (NTCA) (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras) travelling through Mexico, this article aims to engender and thereby trouble the concept of the mobile commons by questioning several taken-for-granted assumptions that are based on gender-neutral knowledge and dichotomous ways of thinking. Using women's experiences to question the assumptions made with respect to 'migrant knowledge', I show that the knowledge among women migrants from the NTCA is influenced by gendered power imbalances that place women in subordinate positions. The analysis will first focus on explaining the mobile commons as a theoretical concept. Following this, I discuss how conceptualizing the mobile commons through a feminist perspective challenges the ideas of invisible knowledge and trust often integral to the ways in which the concept of the mobile commons is used. Finally, I outline the survival strategies that migrant women may use given their own knowledge of the migration context in Mexico, and reflect on what this means for the scholarly understanding of the 'mobile commons'.
Journal of Borderlands Studies
Mobilities, 2018
This article delves into the concept of the ‘mobile commons’ which is articulated within the Auto... more This article delves into the concept of the ‘mobile commons’ which is
articulated within the Autonomy of Migration (AoM) approach. The AoM
literature focuses on migrant agency by advocating that migrants practice
‘escape’ and ‘invisibility’. However, drawing on the stories of women
migrants from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA)
(El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras) travelling through Mexico, this article
aims to engender and thereby trouble the concept of the mobile commons
by questioning several taken-for-granted assumptions that are based on
gender-neutral knowledge and dichotomous ways of thinking. Using
women’s experiences to question the assumptions made with respect to
‘migrant knowledge’, I show that the knowledge among women migrants
from the NTCA is influenced by gendered power imbalances that place
women in subordinate positions. The analysis will first focus on explaining
the mobile commons as a theoretical concept. Following this, I discuss how
conceptualizing the mobile commons through a feminist perspective challenges the ideas of invisible knowledge and trust often integral to the ways in which the concept of the mobile commons is used. Finally, I outline the survival strategies that migrant women may use given their own knowledge of the migration context in Mexico, and reflect on what this means for the scholarly understanding of the ‘mobile commons’.
Identities, 2022
Using a critical border, feminist perspective, this article analyzes the role of the migrant shel... more Using a critical border, feminist perspective, this article analyzes the role of the migrant shelter as a practitioner community actively involved in the dialogue of borders and directly affected by the restrictive border policies that are implemented against ‘unauthorized’ migrants in the name of national security. Based on field research carried out in Mexico, this article examines how borders affect the shelters used by ‘transit’ migrants. Specifically, since the Programa Frontera Sur [Southern Border Plan] policy was implemented in Mexico in the summer of 2014, migrant shelters have taken a more engaged role with respect to protection and assistance for ‘unauthorized’ migrants. Within this migratory context, temporary migrant shelters are transforming into more permanent spaces. At the same time, however, despite good intentions, migrants continue to face particular challenges in migrant shelters with respect to constraining rules, which sheds light on the power relations at play in these spaces of migration.
Journal of Politics in Latin America, 2021
Using Mexico’s Tarjeta de Visitante por Razones Humanitarias (TVRH) as a primary case study, thi... more Using Mexico’s Tarjeta de Visitante por Razones Humanitarias (TVRH) as a primary case
study, this article examines how states can use temporary protection schemes as border
security measures while claiming to provide protection. Although the TVRH offers a legal
pathway and status to move within Mexico, it equally restricts certain rights due to its temporary nature. It becomes a form of differential inclusion by which the state has the right to be able to “exclude and define the limits” of a particular population but also claim inclusion on humanitarian grounds. Despite the claim of protecting migrants, the application of this regular status can essentially become a form of interdiction, which sustains the political framing of migration as ultimately a “threat” that needs to be governed. On the ground, migrants with these temporary regular statuses occupy a liminal space and live a precarious existence similar to those migrants who do not possess a legal status at all. This power imbalance exists more often as states prefer to grant a temporary immigration status, which ensures less responsibility and support that accompanies more rights and protections. Based on policy analysis and field work, the article will examine the TVRH, the processes for obtaining this legal status, and the consequences for irregular migrants.
Social Sciences, 2019
Border control is continuously changing. In an increasingly globalized world, complete with a ris... more Border control is continuously changing. In an increasingly globalized world, complete with a rise in migration, states grapple with ‘migration management’ and maintaining secure borders against ‘illegal’ flows. In Mexico, borders are elusive; internal and external security is blurred, and policies create legal categories of people whether it is a ‘trusted’ tourist or an ‘unauthorized’ migrant. For the ‘unauthorized’ Central American woman migrant trying to achieve safe passage to the U.S., the ‘border’ is no longer only a physical line to be crossed but a category placed on an individual body, which exists throughout her migration journey producing vulnerability as soon as the Mexico-Guatemala boundary is crossed. Based on policy analysis and fieldwork, this paper argues that rather than protecting ‘unauthorized’ migrants, which the Mexican government narrative claims to do, border policies imposed by the state legally categorize female bodies in clandestine terms and construct violent relationships. This embodied illegality creates forced invisibility, further marginalizing women with respect to finding work, experiences of sexual violence and abuses by migration actors. The analysis focuses on three areas: the changing definition of ‘borders’; the effects of categorization and multiple vulnerabilities on Central American women; and the grim dangers caused by forced invisibility.
Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for plagiarism. Students may be required ... more Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for plagiarism. Students may be required to submit their written work in electronic form and have it checked for plagiarism.