Between Hostility and Solidarity: The Production of the Andean Region–Southern Cone Transit Migratory Corridor

Abstract

Beyond the domination of the Mexico-U.S. corridor as the prototypical example of Latin America’s space of transit in the Americas, in the past years a new migratory transit corridor has begun to take shape. Drawing on ethnographic data collected between 2015 and 2019, the dynamics at work in the configuration of the extended migratory corridor Andean Region-Southern Cone countries and Brazil are here inquired. The compared experiences of African, Caribbean, and South American regularized and irregularized migrants within long and short terms transits, will allow an analysis focused on: (1) the causes that triggered such mobilities; (2) its social and digital organization; and, (3) the emerging control policies against it. With empirical data regarding new mobilities and forms of control within South America, the chapter contributes therefore in a wider debate regarding the new geography of transit states and transit migration from a multi-scaled perspective.