Border Externalisation and Violence Along Migration Routes in “Remain in Mexico”

Development summary

Elena Barham and Marco Alcocer’s preprint investigates the security consequences of border externalisation—by which destination states press transit countries to intensify migration enforcement—through the 2019 Migrant Protection Protocols (“Remain in Mexico”). Drawing on original data on migration routes, it finds that the Protocols pushed Mexico to tighten migration enforcement at its southern border, increasing homicides along migrant routes and being associated with greater cartel presence and exploitation of migrants.