Humanitarian Logics and the Everyday (In)Visibility of Climate-Related Migration Along the Central American Migrant Trail through Mexico

Background and Purpose: This study examines how Central Americans who accessed a nongovernmental migrant shelter in Central Mexico perceived the impacts of climate- and health- related disruptions in shaping their decision to migrate. Across Mexico, several dozen loosely networked nongovernmental migrant shelters provide various forms of aid to people migrating along railway and highway corridors. Migrant shelters across Mexico have long played a pivotal role in documenting the realities of forced displacement from Central America. This documentation work tends to revolve around existing humanitarian legal frameworks in both the United States and Mexico that distinguish between economic migrants and asylum seekers who are fleeing forced persecution. In light of ongoing advocacy efforts to integrate climate-related displacement into existing international protection frameworks, this study examines how Central Americans who accessed a nongovernmental migrant shelter in Central Mexico perceived the impacts of climate- and health- related disruptions in shaping their decision to migrate, and how those perceptions are mode visible or obscured in the context of shelter documentation practices.

Data and Methods: This qualitative study compared 40 interviewee’s responses to a standardized shelter intake protocol with responses to a semi-structured interview that focused on perceived motivations for migrating. For each interviewee, we completed an anonymized worksheet that included several key domains from the shelter’s intake protocol as well as several domains that guided our in-depth interviews with migrants. These domains included perceived climate impact (direct, indirect, none), climate impact type, health and disease, prior migration experience, encounters with violence, and any additional notes.

Results: Comparison of participant responses to shelter intake interviews and in-depth follow interviews suggests that climate-related drivers of forced displacement may remain formally invisible in the context of everyday documentation practices within migrant shelters. In responding to the shelters’ intake protocol, 90% (36/40) of interviewees stated “financial reasons” as their primary reason for migrating. The remaining 10% (4/40) listed “violence.” Meanwhile, 82.5% (33/40) of interviewees explained during follow-up interviews that climatic disruptions were a factor shaping their decision to migrate. The remaining 17.5% (7/40) of interviewees did not see climate disruptions as a relevant factor shaping their decision to migrate. Of those who discussed climatic disruptions as a factor shaping their decision to migrate, 55% (22/40) referenced being directly impacted by climate change when discussing their motivation for migrating. Examples of direct impacts include rapid-onset climate events such as hurricanes and floods that destroy a person’s home, as well as slow-onset climate events such as inconsistent rainfall variability that compromise a farmer’s crops. Examples of indirect impacts include individuals who described being impacted by the direct climate impacts on another person, or on a broader community.

Conclusions and Implications: These findings speak to the importance of critically examining everyday humanitarian practices in the context of ongoing advocacy that calls for climate-related disruptions to be integrated into existing humanitarian protection frameworks.