Uncertain Odysseys: Migrant Journeys and Transnational Routes
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UNCERTAIN ODYSSEYS: MIGRANT JOURNEYS AND TRANSNATIONAL ROUTES A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Noelle Kateri Brigden August 2013 © 2013 Noelle Kateri Brigden UNCERTAIN ODYSSEYS: MIGRANT JOURNEYS AND TRANSNATIONAL ROUTES Noelle Kateri Brigden, Ph. D. Cornell University 2013 How do people behave when confronted with uncertainty and violence? This dissertation examines how Central American migrants cope with escalating violence in transit and how these coping tactics reshape the social landscape of transnational routes. From villages in El Salvador into Mexico and through the United States, the sustained practice of migration informs behavior along a dangerous route, not only through social networks, but also by carving a transit political economy and transnational imaginary. Migration decisions are rational, but must be viewed as an ongoing process of learning constituted by information gathering, imagination and improvisation en route. As people move along these routes, migrants and citizens improvise new identities, shifting national, racial and gendered boundaries. The ethnographic framework of this dissertation elucidates the implications of this process for the governance of states through which transnational flows pass. The attempt to impede these flows within the territory of transit states, like Mexico, has not only thickened borders and policing; it has extended the social ambiguities and uncertainty of the borderlands, inviting the Hobbesian anarchy of the international system into the domestic domain of the state. Thus, this dissertation points to how migrants and citizens share the catastrophic human security consequences of migration policing. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Noelle Brigden was born and raised in Southern California. At age 17, she enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in the Signal Corp. She was stationed in the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea and the 1st Infantry Division in Germany, with a deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina. After receiving an honorable discharge, Noelle earned an A.A. degree from Colorado Mountain College, where she was the class valedictorian. She also holds a dual-B.A. and M.A. degree in international studies from the University of Denver. As an undergraduate, she minored in Spanish and mathematics, and graduated Summa Cum Laude. Before beginning her doctoral work in 2005, Noelle had worked as a ski instructor, wrangler and ranch hand, union organizing intern, and research assistant. In 2009, she received a second M.A., and in 2013 a Ph.D., both in Government from Cornell University. She conducted over two years of fieldwork along migratory routes in El Salvador, Mexico and the United States. At Cornell University, Noelle won the LeFeber Prize for Teaching Excellence and the Buttrick Crippen Teaching Fellowship. She also taught college courses through the auspices of the Cornell Prison Education Program. As of summer 2013, she is a postdoctoral fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. In 2014, Noelle will join the faculty at Marquette University’s department of political science as an assistant professor. iv To my father, J. Kraig Brigden, who showed me that it’s never too late to learn v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is an artifact of a long ethnographic journey, an odyssey that began many years before I even realized that I had embarked on anything of the sort. For this reason, I have accumulated many unacknowledged debts, and I cannot possibly do justice to them all. I will start, however, by thanking my father J. Kraig Brigden, to whom I have dedicated this work, and my mother Katie Kelly. From my childhood in southern California in the 1980s, I remember the queues of migrant men loitering on street corners, in hope of catching a day of labor, and my parents’ righteous anger at the failure of our society to guarantee these workers’ rights and wellbeing. My father, in particular, raised me on stories of the Great Depression that echoed the images of inequality before my eyes. Without a doubt, the work presented here draws on this social imaginary and ethics. To my father, I also owe a somewhat dubious gift for stubbornness, rebelliousness and learning from the rough hand of experience. He unwittingly bred an ethnographer. As a child, I once threatened to run away to join the temporary settlements of migrants living in cardboard boxes in the canyons outside San Diego. These camps sometimes sprouted up within sight of the homes that employed Spanish- speaking housekeepers and gardeners. I watched these men and women from a distance with a child’s sense of awe, and I cringed at a frightening nighttime raid with helicopters that dislodged them from their makeshift refuge. I had forgotten some of those scenes until I found myself sleeping on a cardboard box in a crowded cement room with Central American migrants en route to the United States. Only then did it occur to me that perhaps this dissertation is, in some way, a long-forgotten promise kept. I thank the many migrant men and women who taught me during the course of this project. I hope to keep my unspoken promises to them, made while I listened in vi silence to stories of injustices suffered. While I am sure there is much in this dissertation with which many individual participants in the interviews would disagree, I hope that I successfully convey the dignity of their experience. Indeed, this project has been a long time in the making. When as a teenager I joined the army, I travelled the world only to find that Tijuana seemed to follow me wherever I went. Around military bases and border towns, the same local political economy thrived: saloons, brothels, cheap clothing and tacky souvenirs, all animated by grey and black markets of every sort. This experience engendered a respect for the everyday practice of the global economy and a sense of the larger political system in which unauthorized transactions take place. During my time in the military, my father and I often talked philosophically about these observations and traded stories of our various misadventures. I thank him for letting his daughter teach him about the world, which in turn is the most valuable lesson he has given me. My intellectual debts accumulated rapidly during my return to college after my enlistment. I thank the wonderful counselors and professors at Colorado Mountain College for encouraging me and informing me about the possibilities in higher education. In particular, Laurie Marano from the Student Support Services TRIO program played a special role propelling me on the journey that culminated in this dissertation. At the University of Denver, my teacher, mentor and friend Professor George DeMartino showed me the value of intellectual courage. My dissertation committee deserves a very special thank you. Professor Peter J. Katzenstein, who chaired the dissertation, has an epic reputation as a mentor and man of vision for excellent reason. At a personal level, I cannot express the gratitude that I feel for his brilliance, guidance, patience, trust and support throughout my training as a social scientist. More generally, Professor Katzenstein has opened intellectual space in the discipline of political science and continues to defend vii creativity and real-world relevance in academia. I count myself very lucky to be a student of this great scholar. Professor Richard F. Bensel has also played a profound and generous role from the project’s proposal through its final stages. I am awestruck by the time and creativity that he has lent to this project. Long conversations with Professor Bensel, both in person and via email, have provided much inspiration for the work presented here. I hope some of his genius has rubbed off along the way. Professor Kenneth Roberts has offered many perceptive comments on successive drafts and excellent advice for the fieldwork. In particular, his rich understanding of the Latin American social and political reality has been invaluable to the project. I thank him also for pointing to imaginative ways to converse with social science concepts. Professor Christopher Way has been a great advisor and teacher since my arrival at Cornell University. His sharp intellect and natural enthusiasm for the process of discovery have prevented me from making many grave errors along the way. As outside reader, Professor Michael Jones-Correa read the entire dissertation and provided insightful commentary during the defense. His contributions will transform this dissertation into a much better book. It is simply unimaginable that I could have completed such unorthodox and challenging work with another committee. Thank you. Of course, my debts at Cornell are not limited to faculty. Over the years, my student cohort has been a font for creative conversations, instructive tips for navigating research, and emotional support (and sometimes even emergency childcare). Since the beginning of graduate school, Jennifer Erickson, Maria Sperandei, Lucia Seybert, Jen Hadden, Phil Ayoub, Danielle Cohen, Alice Michtom, Andrew Yeo, Kristin McKie, Daniel Kinderman and Alison McQueen kept me sane. Special thanks to the Cornell Government department office team, in particular Tina Slater, Laurie Coon and Judy Virgilio, for preventing me from sliding into the viii poorhouse with their deft organizational assistance during grant application and job market season. Several people graciously read drafts of the proposal or various chapters, providing key feedback: Alexandra Innes, Maria Lorena Cook, Susan Bibler Coutin, Ronald Herring, Jared McCormick, Paul Roge, Shoshana Perrey, Gaurav Kampani, Don Leonard, Lisa Bjorkman, Steve Samford, and Burke Hendrix. During fieldwork, I depended on the kindness and intelligence of several key colleagues and gatekeepers. Katharine Andrade-Eekhoff made my smooth transition to fieldwork possible, and I thank her for sharing her extensive knowledge of Salvadoran migration. A very special thanks to Sister Barbara Dundon of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary for her wisdom and guidance during my time in El Salvador.