Immigration detention, the patriarchal state and the politics of disgust in the hands of street-level bureaucrats

Journal article

This article presents the results of ethnographic research conducted in the southern border of Mexico from 2017 to 2019, specifically at the Estación Migratoria Siglo XXI [XXI Century Immigration Station], which is one of the biggest and most important detention centres in the country. It analyses the functioning of an immigration detention centre as a ‘total institution’ where street-level bureaucrats enforce practices of biopolitics through daily deprivation of access to vital resources and the protection of the law. The article depicts how women are treated within a detention centre and provides an explanation focusing on observing gendered power relations and practices of disgust and contempt by the Instituto Nacional de Migración, a Stateorganised institution in the hands of street-level local bureaucrats who work in precarious conditions. Finally, the article demonstrates the dehumanisation practices in immigration detention that are deployed as a deterrence policy through operational strategies in Estación Migratoria Siglo XXI, located in Tapachula, Chiapas.

Authors: Fernandez de la Reguera, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Lectito
• Journal: Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 2
• Article number: 30
• Publication date: 2022-09-12
• DOI: 10.20897/femenc/12353
• EISSN: 2468-4414
• Language: English
• Keywords: disgust; migrant women; immigration detention; patriarchal state; total institution