Mexico and Central American migrants: goodwill versus US intransigence

Abstract

This article contrasts the expectations around the changes in the Mexican policy towards migrants made by President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador shortly before his inauguration in 2018, and the reality that migrants have experienced since then. It also challenges the idea that people who migrate do so in search of the “American dream”, an expression which is very common in the mass media discourse and even in academic studies. It argues that aspirations of having a job that allows maintenance of the family is a dream and a right of every human being. The text is based on a hemerographic review and on conversations held with migrants in transit through Mexico City.