Borders & Belonging
Migration is a complex phenomenon – for individuals, it is a personal journey that can result in struggle or triumph depending on life circumstances; and for countries, it can be an economic driver, or a source of social tension or even conflict.
Host Maggie Perzyna, a researcher with the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration program at Toronto Metropolitan University, explores the complexity of migration with the help of leading academics and professionals working with migrants on the ground.
Season 4 of Borders & Belonging explores reflexivity: the practice of turning research back on itself to examine how we know what we know.
This season draws on the lived experiences of pioneering scholars whose work has transformed how we understand human movement across borders. We then ask each scholar to nominate an up-and-coming scholar they admire, whose research builds on, challenges, or complements their own. Join us as we trace the threads connecting scholarship across time, experience, and perspective.
For show notes and transcripts, visit: https://www.torontomu.ca/cerc-migration/borders-and-belonging/
Signal Award wins in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Borders & Belonging
The Migration Podcast: "Road families" en route to the Mexico-US border
Itzel Eguiluz speaks with Alejandra Díaz de León about how the journey of Central American migrants walking north, through Mexico, is about much more than just having practical strategies to survive the journey.
Solidarity, trust and social bonds that are formed along the way, can also be valuable elements of the experience. We hear about what Alejandra calls “road families” and how during their journeys, migrants form communities around their common understanding and experiences of crossing Mexico. She details this in her book “Walking Together: Central Americans and Transit Migration through Mexico”, which was published in 2023.
Alejandra would like to acknowledge Dr. Yasemin Soysal and Dr Carlos Gigoux for their contribution/support. Also, Alejandra's research benefitted from funding through the CONACyT scholarship and SLAS.
Alejandra Díaz de León is an assistant professor of migration and violence at the Center for Sociological Studies at the Colegio de Mexico, in Mexico City. She holds a PhD in Sociology and an MA in Human Rights from the University of Texas. Her research focuses on human rights, solidarity, and the creation of bonds, trust, and cooperation among strangers during contexts of violence and uncertainty, like the transit of Central Americans through Mexico and to the United States.
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