Paper short abstract:

This contribution discusses how prolonged waiting is a necropolitical tool that increases the vulnerabilities of migrant women transiting Mexico. It discusses how becoming a mother en route expands the structural violence against migrant women, forcing them to return to their origin countries.

Paper long abstract:

Through an ethnographic study (2014-2016) at the Mexican-Guatemalan Border and the methodology of the extended case method (in Mexico, the U.S., and Honduras), I explore the biographies of five Honduran women who, having become mothers en route, faced systemic and structural violence that forced them to return to their country.

In this contribution I argue that Honduran migrant women escaping violence from their country face even more violent social, political and cultural structures in Mexico when becoming pregnant en route. Motherhood then becomes a burden that force migrant women to return to their countries in search for support networks to face their new status. Nevertheless, in Honduras they face moral and social judgment and discrimination, even worse as when they abandoned their country in search for a better life. This study shows how structural violence is encountered in the origin, transit, and destination countries due to reproductive decisions.