Difference and Waiting: African and Asian Migrants in Tapachula, Southern Border of Mexico

Abstract

By systematizing ethnographic notes, newspaper articles, intergovernmental reports, and official statistical data, we analyze how migrants from Africa and Asia manage their individual and collective resources as well as their markers of social difference to sustain themselves while waiting in Tapachula, in the southern border of Mexico, before continuing transit towards the Mexico-US border. Three places where groups of transcontinental migrants frequently gather are examined. Our findings reveal that speaking different native or regional African languages, or languages learnt in transit, the constitution of groups in movement, and transcontinental migration networks, allow for subsistence and eventually shorten waiting times.