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“Once You Arrive, Se Te Sala Todo” (Everything Is Salted): Latina Migrants’ Search For “Dignity And A Right To Life” In Canada, Rupaleem Bhuyan, Bethany Osborne, Janet Flor Juanico Cruz

Publications and Scholarship

This study explores how Latina women fleeing gender-related violence seek protection for themselves and their children under Canada's humanitarian laws. Rising emphasis on border control contributes to a growing number of forced migrants whose transnational movement is constructed as “illegal.” Migrants who fall outside legal migration channels are exposed to precarious conditions that can lead to further violence. Through interpretive analysis of in-depth interviews with women from Mexico and Central America, we explore how immigration policies produce gendered forms of “illegality.” We also highlight how women's migration in search for rights and protection represents a form of substantive citizenship.