After a long pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ximena Alba Villalever was finally able to return to Mexico and to conduct qualitative field work for the ForMOVE project. From October 2021 to January 2022, our project coordinator spent time in Tapachula, close to the Mexican-Guatemalan border, in Mexico City, and in Tijuana at the US-American-Mexican border.

She conducted participant observation at important places where Central American migrants gather, such as migrant shelters, public squares and civil society organizations supporting migrants. Furthermore she did biographical interviews with migrants that will be analyzed profundly in the next weeks. Our main focus will be on experiences of organized violence in their home countries as well as during transit through Mexico, but also the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the effects of recent changes of migration policies in Mexico and the United States will be of interest in our analysis.