ABSTRACT
Montes 0000-0002-0702-2048
Padilla 0000-0002-2359-3369
Busse 0000-0001-6490-5122
The COVID-19 pandemic has put into evidence the stark inequalities that grieve unauthorized immigrants. We argue that, due to their permanent sense of crisis, these immigrants experience the COVID-19 pandemic as yet another crisis, leading to rearticulating their “migrant capital”. Empirically, we draw on ongoing collaborative ethnographic research carried out since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, in partnership with the New Sanctuary Movement, that combines semi-structured virtual interviews, virtual participant and non-participant observation as volunteers, and virtual weekly self-reflection meetings among the three researchers. We analyze the agency exerted by Latinas at the intersection of poverty, precarious immigration status, and a health crisis. Through the stories of three Latina immigrant women, we illustrate such agency and develop the concept of “collective rebusque”, that is a habitus and a set of strategies deployed to face a crisis for the benefit of the community.
