Lives in Transit - (California Public Anthropology) by Wendy A Vogt (Paperback)

About the Book

"Lives in Transit chronicles the dangerous journeys of Central American migrants in transit through Mexico. Drawing on fieldwork in humanitarian aid shelters and other key sites, the book examines the multiple forms of violence that migrants experience as their bodies, labor, and lives become implicated in global and local economies that profit from their mobility as racialized and gendered others. At the same time, it reveals new forms of intimacy, solidarity and activism that have emerged along transit routes over the past decade. Through the stories of migrants, shelter workers and local residents, Vogt encourages us to reimagine transit as both a site of violence and precarity as well as social struggle and resistance"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Lives in Transit chronicles the dangerous journeys of Central American migrants in transit through Mexico. Drawing on fieldwork in humanitarian aid shelters and other key sites, Wendy A. Vogt examines the multiple forms of violence that migrants experience as their bodies, labor, and lives become implicated in global and local economies that profit from their mobility as racialized and gendered others. She also reveals new forms of intimacy, solidarity, and activism that have emerged along transit routes over the past decade. Through the stories of migrants, shelter workers, and local residents, Vogt encourages us to reimagine transit as a site of both violence and precarity as well as social struggle and resistance.

From the Back Cover

"Vogt guides us through deeply inspiring and profoundly disturbing transit zones. Her exceptional research invites us to witness the bodily and emotional trauma experienced by migrants and the care and intimacy enacted by unlikely characters in unexpected places. Her powerful writing introduces us to migrants, shelter volunteers, human smugglers, and kidnappers embroiled in webs of violence and profit spun within hierarchies of gender and ethnicity. Her analysis helps us appreciate contradictions of violence, security, and humanitarian projects. This book leaves us heartened and haunted in a world increasingly touched by immigration and displacement."--Seth Holmes, author of Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies

"Lives in Transit is widely significant and far-reaching, yet also intimate and deeply humanizing. Students and scholars of migration will value Vogt's attention to socioeconomic relationships produced in spaces of clandestine migration, as well as her keen analyses of the ways in which gendered violence is perpetrated by actors across a spectrum of empowerment. Readers will also appreciate the book's powerful stories and engaging writing."--Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz, author of Becoming Legal

"By presenting an ethnography focused on movement itself, Vogt engages with but also extends scholarship on migration, transnationalism, and borders. This contributes to understandings of violence, in/security, and the risks of border crossings, while making a compelling argument about how violent spaces can also be spaces of possibility, connection, intimacy, and opportunity."--Deborah A. Boehm, professor of Anthropology and Women's Studies/Gender, Race, and Identity at the University of Nevada, Reno

Review Quotes

"Vogt is a storyteller at core, and Lives in Transit is an indelible piece of groundbreaking work that bears testament to the embodied violence, intimacy, and resistance of Central American migrants in Mexico."-- "Latino Studies"

About the Author

Wendy A. Vogt is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University--Purdue University Indianapolis.