Semester of Graduation

Summer 2025

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Geography and Anthropology

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The Missing Migrants Project reports that in the past 11 years, 11,138 missing migrants have been recorded in the Americas, with 6,512 of those migrants situated at the México-United States (US) border (Migration Within the Americas, n.d.). The crisis of missing and unidentified migrants at the México-US border is a topic of great discussion in the field of anthropology, and specifically in discourses of humanitarian forensic anthropological work. This research addresses the crisis at the border, expanding on the scholarship of family agency and language barriers between Spanish-speaking communities and medicolegal actors by investigating the role of anthropologists in networks of communication at the border. By conceptualizing anthropology as a culture and fronteras (border, frontier, limit) as barriers to communication, this research attempts to combine theories of communication and care to frame interviews with anthropologists working on the border. The goals of this research are to understand the networks of communication present in the medicolegal system at the border, the roles anthropologists occupy in these networks, and how communication as care is employed. The construction of pathways for information flow is complex and requires consideration of all involved stakeholders, the real and various barriers to communication, and the ways anthropological expertise can be used to navigate these pathways. Analysis of the interviews conducted, and observations made in this study suggest that extensive fronteras to communication exist, including language barriers, inequitable access to funding to ensure migrant representation in databases, a need for more time and resources for each step of the investigatory process, intentional miscommunication, and inconsistent data-sharing practices due to decentralization of data and/or unshared centralized data. Anthropologists working with migrant communities navigate such fronteras utilizing their expertise and training, forming strategic and holistic relationships, and practicing intentional acts of care. This thesis concludes that theories of communication networks and care offer an avenue for analysis and the formation of effective, sustainable tools for clear and accessible communication across fronteras.

Date

5-27-2025

Committee Chair

Listi, Ginesse

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