Cuerpos migrantes en disputa o como las “fronteras se hacen cuerpo”

Abstract

This article analyzes the production and regulation of migrant bodies based on experiences at the borders —rejections, crossings, and circulations— in the convergence zone among Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia. This study is supported by field notes and interviews conducted in border regions between 2021 and 2023. Through interpreting the collected data, we construct three axes to understand how migrant bodies are produced and regulated, namely: criminalizable/-ized, disposable, and victimizable/-ized. The use of the suffixes -able and -ized highlights the flexibility of these attributions, capturing both their potentiality and the resulting state after being subjected to specific actions, practices, or discourses. Based on these interpretations, we argue that, first, subjectivities are constituted, in part, through bodies (materiality). Second, the experiences can be interpreted as “borders embodied.” Lastly, migrant bodies exist in a constant life-death dispute.