At a crossroads: Historicizing encounters with new racializations in the Central American and Mexican migratory landscape

Abstract

This collection explores how contemporary racialization processes shape and are shaped by migration dynamics in the Central American and Mexican context. Marked by histories of migration and displacement, the region has become a critical crossroads for increasingly diverse populations on the move, from journeys of African, Asian, and Caribbean migrants through the region en route North, to dramatic increases in forced migration within Latin America. Drawing on ethnographic research from Costa Rica, southern Honduras, the Mexico-Guatemala border, and Tijuana, Mexico, the contributions examine encounters between migrants and local communities in spaces defined by histories of marginalization, displacement, and nation-building. This introduction underscores racialization as a central lens for understanding the experiences of people on the move, emphasizing how global migration regimes intersect with local inequalities to shape reception, exclusion, and belonging. By historicizing migration discourse and practice, the collection contributes to broader debates on mobility and belonging in the Americas.