Migrant journeys to the US southern border: mapping aspirations, capabilities and risks of asylum seekers

From 2021 to 2024, there was an unprecedented expansion of migrant entry and asylum seeking along the US-Mexico border from a growing diversity of countries, but especially from Venezuela and Haiti. This article focuses on the aspirations and capabilities of migrants seeking asylum, and the risks they undertake to reach the US southern border. The study is based on field research in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in which 153 migrants were interviewed. Methodologically, it develops a process for creating migrant journey maps based on in-depth interviews and place-specific journey details as a form of counter-mapping that visualises individual capabilities and risks over time and through space. Theoretically, the work expands the aspirations and capabilities framework proposed by Hein de Haas, H. 2021. “A Theory of Migration: The Aspirations-Capabilities Framework.” Comparative Migration Studies 9 (1): 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-020-00210-4] by adding the risks (extortion, kidnapping, hunger, and violence) to which migrants and their families are subjected on these journeys. Many of the risks resulted from migration deterrence policies created by the US and Mexico, along with growing involvement of cartels in human smuggling and extortion.