Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: A Social Science Investigation of Violence along the Migrant Trail in Mexico

亚利桑那大学研究生温迪·沃格特在琳达·B·格林博士的建议下，将对通过墨西哥前往美国的中美洲移民经历的暴力进行研究。墨西哥已经成为希望抵达美国的中美洲移民的主要中转国。这些移民越来越多地发生暴力冲突，特别是危地马拉和墨西哥城之间的冲突。沃格特的研究将集中在是什么导致了这种暴力，以及为什么近年来这种暴力有所增加。沃格特将采用多种方法。她将使用墨西哥南部和墨西哥城的档案记录来记录政府对移民政策的变化，以及移民途经的社区最近经济模式的变化。除了档案部分，沃格特还将确定移民路线沿线的三个关键社区。在这些社区中，她将使用人种学方法，如参与者观察、结构化和半结构化访谈以及口述历史启发。这些数据将使Vogt一方面将当地经验与更大的国家和国际进程联系起来，另一方面确定这些外部因素是如何通过中美洲移民和墨西哥当地居民之间的日常社会关系在当地调解的。这项研究很重要，因为它将有助于社会科学理论，即国家和国际进程的变化如何与区域和当地生活联系起来。这项研究还可能有助于制定政策，保护移民和他们所经过的社区免受暴力升级的影响。最后，这项研究将有助于社会科学家的教育。人类学对这一旅程的关注将有助于更全面地了解移徙过程和暴力如何不仅影响移民，而且以有意义和物质的方式重塑多个行为者的生活。

University of Arizona graduate student Wendy Vogt, advised by Dr. Linda B. Green, will undertake research on the violence experienced by Central American migrants travelling through Mexico to the United States. Mexico has become a major transit country for Central American migrants hoping to reach the United States. Increasingly, these migrants have violent encounters, particularly between Guatemala and Mexico City. Vogt's research will be focused on what produces this violence and why it has increased in recent years.Vogt will employ a multi-methods approach. She will use archival records in southern Mexico and Mexico City to document changes in government policies towards immigrants as well as recent changes in economic patterns in the communities through which the migrants pass. In addition to the archival component, Vogt will identify three key communites along the migrant trail. In each of these communities she will employ ethnographic methods such as participant observation, structured and semi-structured interviews, and oral history elicitation. These data will allow Vogt to link local experiences with larger national and international processes, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to determine at how these external factors are mediated locally through everyday social relations between and among Central American migrants and local Mexican residents. This research is important in that it will contribute to social science theory about how changes in national and international processes connect with regional and local lives. The research also may contribute to developing policies for protecting both migrants and the communities through which they pass from escalating violence. Finally, the research will contribute to the education of a social scientist.An anthropological focus on the journey will contribute to a more complete understanding of how migration processes and violence impact not only migrants, but reshape the lives of multiple actors in meaningful and material ways.