ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors draw on a small community-based pilot project with migrant women from Central America in southern Mexico. Their examination of transnational social policies and practices is from and through the standpoint of Central American migrant women who provide for themselves and their families through tactical mobility and borderwork. In considering the 'choices' that are available to and made by migrant women from Central America, the Mexico-Guatemala border plays a productive and paradoxical role. The Mexico-Guatemala border defines and circumscribes the social, political, and economic contexts through which everyday life unfolds: it is difficult to escape its presence and power. As the flow of Central American migrants into the US increased in the 1990s, the US government pressured the Mexican government to focus resources on policing its southern border. Internal immigration checkpoints are part of how the Mexican state has responded to US pressure to increase its border security measures.
