Theorizing participation in the migrant caravans: Perspectives from migration and social movement studies

Abstract Why do everyday people join the migrant caravans? Between October 2018 and August 2025, more than 100,000 people participated in approximately sixty-seven migrant caravans departing from Central America and southern Mexico, with the intention of reaching the USA and Mexico. The phenomenon’s relevance has attracted considerable interest, and in recent years, a growing body of literature has emerged, comprising case studies, conceptualizations, and descriptive works. However, an understanding of why everyday people join the migrant caravans remains undertheorized. We fill this gap by proposing four models—two that draw from social movements and two from migration studies that explain people’s motivations for participating in the caravans. We argue that the models are not mutually exclusive and that they can complement each other. Taken together, the models provide a nuanced understanding of the complexity of people’s decisions to join the caravans. We contribute to the burgeoning literature on the migrant caravan, migration, and social movements by theorizing the motivations that drive people to participate in the caravans. In doing so, we theorize that joining the caravan was a way to achieve migration aspirations, the result of rational choice, an outcome of frame resonance, and an opportunity to escape contexts of containment.