Life after deportation: Repatriation, Risk and Resilience among asylum-seekers and migrant families in Guatemala and Mexico (L.I.F.E)

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This project examines the effects of US immigration policies on asylum-seekers and transit migrants who have been forcibly returned to Mexico and Guatemala as a result of new third country asylum processing agreements. It explores how they and their families experience risk and insecurity during this process, and also how they may develop coping mechanisms to mitigate these stressful situations. Crucially, it investigates the evolving asylum processing and receiving context in Mexico and Guatemala and interrogates claims that these states are 'safe third countries' for asylum-seekers who wish to come to the USA. It draws upon our previous work on the ways in which asylum governance and the infrastructure for humanitarian protection have been sub-contracted to neighbouring states and uses the insights gained from those studies to inform an investigation into the risks faced by asylum-seeking families and deported migrants in Guatemala and Mexico. Our ambition is for this first stage project to feed into and provide a secure basis for a major follow on research programme in Mexico, Guatemala and the neighbouring states.This first-phase study , carried out by the international team, will involve a multi-method approach including (i) desk-based research (combining policy analysis with key informant expert interviews); (ii) a series of rapid assessments involving analysis of crime statistics; observations of living conditions in Mexico and Guatemala; interviews with families sent to 'safe' third countries; and a gender impact study. These research activities will investigate the risks for asylum-seeking and migrant families; how families navigate these asylum and immigration systems and structures; and the impact of return on individuals and families; (iii) participatory arts-based research activities with children and young people living in a migrant shelter to better understand the impact of displacement and separation on them; and (iv) a policy synthesis of what has been learned from 'safe country and off-shore processing asylum systems in other global settings. Outputs from the study will include an advocacy tool-kit developed from the testimonies of asylum-seeking and migrant adults and children; a series of public engagement and policy events to share knowledge and learning from the work; and a proposal for a larger international collaborative body of research on migration and asylum governance across the region.