Digital Commons Network^™

Violencia En Tránsito: Exploring The Multiplicities Of Violence That Shape Central American Migrant Women's Experiences Through Mexico And The Role Of Albergue Abba, Esmeralda Cardona

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to analyze the forms of state and non-state violence that migrant women1 from the Northern Triangle of Central America experience during their migration into Mexico and the role of Albergue Abba in Celaya, Guanajuato in their transit. As migrant women venture northward, they are vulnerable to being coerced and kidnapped while encountering gender-based violence, including rape, sexual assault, and human trafficking. While migrants suffer a multiplicity of violence in this region, this research will focus on the role of smuggling and human trafficking in order to better understand the vulnerabilities women migrants experience in …

Los Zetas, Neoliberalism, And Popular Opposition: A Study In Linkages, Gina R. Lyle

Master's Theses

Los Zetas are considered by security analysts to be a transformative force within transnational criminal organizations (TCO), exporting their unique model throughout Mexico. Los Zetas’ idiosyncratic interventions include their diversification of criminal operations, professionalization of TCO security, sophisticated use of media and technology, extreme forms of violent coercion, and decentralized command structure. This project aims to complicate the narrative that Los Zetas emerged because of top leaders’ sadistic tendencies or due to an inherently violent culture in Mexico by reframing the group’s evolution within historical processes. Moving beyond Los Zetas, this project examines how persons affected by Los Zetas’ indiscriminate …

The Inter-American Human Rights System In The Context Of Migration: Us Immigration Policies, Maira E. Delgado Laurens

Master's Theses

International human rights laws are critical to ensuring a minimum protection level for those migrating to other nations across the globe. Despite intense efforts by the United States to sidestep such policies while misrepresenting their repeated violations of human rights now taking place at the U.S.-Mexico border, these policies remain in full force in the global governance community. The actions of the Trump administration and others clearly indicate the need for political intervention to ensure such rights are maintained. Using qualitative content analysis and participatory observation, this article reviews the effectiveness of thematic hearings, under the Inter-American Commission on Human …

A Migration System In The Making: Institutional And Experiential Dynamics Of Refugees And Asylum-Seekers In Mexico, Melissa Balliet

Master's Theses

This thesis argues that Mexico’s refugee regime - its institutions, its legal instruments and its norms - are under serious pressure and, as a result of that pressure, a new refugee regime is emerging in the country. This new refugee regime is based on the notion that the movement of refugees, asylum-seekers and irregular migrants should be effectively managed and strictly controlled. Such pressure, resulting in an aggressive border enforcement strategy implemented by the Mexican state, has come directly from the United States government. New policies and contractual agreements emerging from the United States and Mexico (2018-2019) have made it …

All Hail The Market: Immigration And Economics In A Post-Cold War Western Hemisphere, Jorge Ambriz

Master's Theses

The end of the Cold War lifted the United States to the role of the sole economic superpower, and an opportune moment to address hemispheric issues was presented to Washington policymakers. By the end of the 1980s, hemispheric forced migration was on the rise, with a large portion of those forced to flee from Central America. This moment coincided with the decade characterized by an increasingly connected world, where globalization in the form of economic linkages were being proposed in the Summit of the Americas, hemispheric meetings that began in the 1990s in hopes of addressing hemispheric issues. While the …

Terrorism And Organized Crime: An Analytical Study From An International Law Perspective, Leila Mejdoubi

Master's Theses

With the spread of terrorism and its growing risks since the start of the 21^st century, a wide range of reports and studies have emerged. This funding comes from a special relationship between terrorist organizations, organized crime syndicates, and their cooperation with each other, which has enabled terrorist organizations in particular to carry out recruitment efforts and operations alike. It has also fueled an international black market for smuggling and trade in drugs and arms. Under what conditions do violent terrorist groups driven by extreme Islamist ideology collaborate with organized criminal enterprises to generate the requisite resources to pursue …

On The Front Lines: Service Providers Respond To The Haitian Refugee Crisis, Karina Castro

Master's Theses

Haitian Refugees arrived in Tijuana in mass numbers in the fall of 2016, with the dream of receiving asylum in the United States. However, upon their arrival, U.S. immigration policy changed and Tijuana became their permanent home as it strived to absorb this new population. In this paper I will address how Tijuana service-providers responded to this humanitarian crisis and were affected by U.S. and Mexican policies in their ability to support the integration of Haitian refugees in their communities. The historical context of Haitian migration history will provide an overview of push factors via an analysis of the economic, …

The Rise Of The Maquiladoras And Crimes In Mexico, Christelle K. Bamona

Master's Theses

While it is generally argued that a stronger labor market is negatively associated with crime, there exists a “consensus of doubt” around the relationship between employment and crime. This paper examines the impact of the rise of female labor participation in manufacturing on various types of crimes in Mexico from 1998 to 2012. A fixed effects specification and an instrumental variable approach with regional and time fixed effects are employed to compare the crime rates in municipalities that were heavily exposed to local factory openings to municipalities that did not receive a labor shock of the same magnitude. By introducing …

State Failure In Venezuela, Marcus Littman

Master's Theses

The role of the state is to provide political goods such as security and an environment conducive to economic growth. The Venezuelan state is failing to provide both security and conditions capable of producing economic growth. The government has exacerbated both by enacting failed policies. I measure the economic crisis in Venezuela based on the rates of inflation, falling foreign currency reserves, the food and medical supply shortage, falling government spending, and negative GDP growth. I measure the security crisis based on the escalating rate of kidnapping, human trafficking, drug sales, smuggling, theft, gun distribution, and homicide. In this thesis, …

Emigration, Repatriation And The Reality Of Returned Youth In El Salvador, Isabel C. Duarte Vasquez

Master's Theses

According to US Customs and Border Protection, over 59 thousand unaccompanied minors from the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) have been detained at the US border, of those 59 thousand, 17 thousand are from El Salvador. El Salvador is home to some of the most dangerous and ruthless gangs of the twenty-first century. Their ruthlessness comes from 1980s guerrilla warfare experience. In addition, El Salvador serves as a transshipment point for illicit substances from South America into Mexico. These dynamics fuel the homicide rate of the region as local gang members must protect their territory by any means …

Global Human Trafficking: New Insights On An Old Crime, Joanna Surma

Master's Theses

Thousands of men, women, and children become victims to human trafficking each year. Almost every country in the world is affected by this heinous crime. Human trafficking exists in many different forms including sexual exploitation, slavery, forced labor or servitude, the removal of organs, child soldiers, etc. Despite the age-old practice being traced back to the 13th century, it continues to exist and even grow today. Unfortunately, not much research is available on the topic. Combating human trafficking is a growing priority for many governments; however, certain obstacles to data collection and analysis continue to exist. Recently, a new study …

Between Mobility And Stability: Immigration, Free Trade, And Human Rights In The Context Of The Latino Immigrant, Joseph M. Stosberg

Master's Theses

This work takes a multi-dimensional approach to understanding human rights abuse toward Latino immigrants. It is argued here that the opening up of Mexico and Central American countries to free trade, and the restricted movement across borders has increased human rights abuse toward immigrants. In order to investigate these issues this research looks at: the opening up of Mexico and Central American countries to free trade; a pervasive narrative that portrays the Latino immigrant as a threat; and U.S. immigration policy. I use these respective bodies of literature to guide the discussion of the Latino immigrant experience, from the decision …

A Case Study Of Sex Trafficking In Romania, Iulia Badea Caramello

Master's Theses

Romania is undergoing a severe crisis. The country is confronted with a transnational issue of dramatic proportions. Romania has become what experts in the sex trafficking field call “a global center for human trafficking” (Batstone, Romania a Global Center for Human Trafficking, 2011, February 17th). It is a source, transit, and destination country for women, children, and even men subjected to sex trafficking. Romania is one of the biggest exporters of human flesh to Western European and Middle Eastern societies.

This research paper will analyze the historical context of modern-day slavery in Romania as well as the economic background and …

Gender Inequality And Countries' Responsiveness To Enforcing Human Trafficking Laws: A Cross National Study, Christina Rose Fiorito

Master's Theses

In recent years, government agencies, advocacy groups, and academics have made attempts to address and understand the problem of human trafficking through raising awareness, conducting research and implementing prevention and intervention programs. This study tested whether gender inequality measures, which capture aspects of a country's social and political operations, are related to less governmental efforts to enforce laws against human trafficking, after controlling for other possible explanations for lax enforcement such as poverty, government corruption, political instability and increase of general violence, educational achievement, net migration, and the percent of the country's population living in urban areas.

The data were …

Urban Crime In Latin America: A Case Study From Medellín, Colombia, Brian Kenneth Blickenstaff

Master's Theses

Medellín, Colombia, once among the most dangerous cities in the world has seen a sharp decrease in homicides since 2002. This thesis explores the geography of violence in Medellín from 2001 through 2005 with specific emphasis on two factors thought to have contributed to the city's drop in violence: Operación Orión, a police and military response to the bloodshed, and the 2003 disarmament and demobilization of the Bloque Cacique Nutibara paramilitary organization. A series of Paired Sample T-Tests show that Operación Orión and the paramilitary demobilization seem to have contributed to falling human rights abuses and homicides, respectively. Additionally, …

A Psycho-Spiritual Approach To Mental Health For The Poor In Peru, Aida Esperanza Segura Alarcon

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.