Waiting in non-places: the spatialization of discourses in Mexico’s migrant integration centres

Abstract

Over the last few decades, the process of labelling migrants and refugees has become increasingly politicized. And yet, these labels imply access (or lack thereof) to resources, rights and protections that can mean the difference between life and death for the recipients. This thesis focuses on the effects of this dilemma on the built environment. The case study of Mexico’s Migrant Integration Centres, established as a result of a series of changes to the US’ asylum policies, provides an opportunity to assess how the different politics around displacement manifest in physical spaces, and how the labelling of displacement as migration affects the lives and opportunities of the displaced. Through discourse and spatial analyses of primary and secondary sources, this research shows how the contradictions between migration discourses and policies materialize in the built environment. Furthermore, the concept of “waiting” as a state of being emerges as a significant part of the migrants' narratives and experiences. Thus, waiting too becomes spatialized, revealing the MICs as non-places that reflect transience and rejection, exacerbating the negative experiences of the vulnerable groups they contain.