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Reversing Channels and Unsettling Binaries: Rethinking Migration and Agrarian Change under Expanded Border and Immigration Enforcement

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  • Richard L. Johnson

    (School of Geography, Development & Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85712, USA)

Abstract

Unauthorized migration under global regimes of border and immigration enforcement has become more risky and costly than ever. Despite the increasing challenges of reaching, remaining in, and remitting from destination countries, scholarship exploring the implications of migration for agricultural and environmental change in migrant-sending regions has largely overlooked the prevalent experiences and consequences of “failed” migration. Drawing from recent fieldwork in Central America with deportees, this paper demonstrates how contemporary migration at times reverses the “channels” of agrarian change in migrant-sending regions: instead of driving remittance inflow and labor loss, migration under contemporary enforcement can result in debt and asset dispossession, increased vulnerability, and heightened labor exploitation. Diverse migration outcomes under expanded enforcement also reveal a need to move beyond the analytical binary that emphasizes differentiations between migrant and non-migrant groups while overlooking the profound socioeconomic unevenness experienced among migrants themselves. With grounding in critical agrarian studies, feminist geographies, and emerging political ecologies of migration, this paper argues that increased attention to the highly dynamic and diverse lived experiences of migration under expanded enforcement stands to enhance our understanding of the multiple ways in which contemporary out-migration shapes livelihoods and landscapes in migrant-sending regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard L. Johnson, 2021. "Reversing Channels and Unsettling Binaries: Rethinking Migration and Agrarian Change under Expanded Border and Immigration Enforcement," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-19, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:3:p:228-:d:504953
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lindsey Carte & Birgit Schmook & Claudia Radel & Richard Johnson, 2019. "The Slow Displacement of Smallholder Farming Families: Land, Hunger, and Labor Migration in Nicaragua and Guatemala," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-12, June.
    2. Mines, Richard & Nuckton, Carole Frank, 1982. "The Evolution of Mexican Migration to the United States: A Case Study," Information Series 263856, University of California, Davis, Giannini Foundation.
    3. Wayne A. Cornelius, 2001. "Death at the Border: Efficacy and Unintended Consequences of US Immigration Control Policy," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 27(4), pages 661-685, December.
    4. Hecht, Susanna B. & Kandel, Susan & Gomes, Ileana & Cuellar, Nelson & Rosa, Herman, 2006. "Globalization, Forest Resurgence, and Environmental Politics in El Salvador," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 308-323, February.
    5. Richard Mines & Alain de Janvry, 1982. "Migration to the United States and Mexican Rural Development: A Case Study," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(3), pages 444-454.
    6. Atanu Sengupta & Sanjoy De, 2020. "Review of Literature," India Studies in Business and Economics, in: Assessing Performance of Banks in India Fifty Years After Nationalization, chapter 0, pages 15-30, Springer.
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    Cited by:

    1. Birgit Schmook & Lindsey Carte & Claudia Radel & Mariel Aguilar-Støen, 2023. "A Diversity of Migration and Land Couplings: An Introduction to the Special Issue “Migration and Land”," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-6, July.

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