A question that has no end: the politics of life and death in the search for disappeared migrants in Mexico

Abstract

This article explores the struggles of Central American families of disappeared migrants to maintain hope in the search for their loved ones along the migrant route in Mexico. The militarization of borders and threats from organized crime and corrupt state authorities have led to the disappearance and death of thousands of migrants in transit in Mexico. Drawing from ethnographic research conducted with the families of disappeared migrants, this article contributes to literature on migrant struggles by analyzing the Caravan of Central American Mothers of Disappeared Migrants as an example of a life-centered politics that rejects the normalization of migrant suffering and death. By searching for their disappeared loved ones, the families enact an embodied demand that migrants be treated as subjects with rights–both in life and death.