Migrant shelters as transit infrastructures

Abstract (English)

This article aims to reflect on the multiple roles that migrant shelters play in migration transit toward the USA and Canada using the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo, Brazil as a possible step to reach that goal. Based on the intersection between mobility and infrastructure studies we focus on how shelters in the city have been used as “mobility infrastructures” (Jung and Buhr, 2021) by migrants from Southeast Asia and Africa; not only operating as an accommodation mechanism to stay in Brazil but also as infrastructures that can enhance mobility and enable the beginning or the continuity of transit towards the north of the continent. Collyer (2007) argues as migration controls become more sophisticated, routes become more fragmented and multiple in their temporal and spatial dimensions. Based on this reference, the argument is that even cities and infrastructures that are far from State borders can play a fundamental role in the composition of migratory routes, connecting many countries, cities, and actors in and beyond the Americas. Methodologically, our study is based on semi-structured interviews with migrants in São Paulo and with volunteers and employees of shelters for migrants in the city. For this study, we analyzed the specificities of three shelters which are characterized by distinct purposes, institutional arrangements, and actors. The results highlight: conflicts between the perspective of permanence and transit, materialized in these infrastructures; different predominant migratory groups depending on the location and the relationships established with migratory policies; connections with other shelters in the Americas; discursive framings of provisionality and emergency that materialize in the design and management of the shelters.