Forced Migration and Strategies for Navigating Risks and Threats in Violence-Ridden Rural Contexts. Empirical Evidence from Northern Mexico.

Migration associated with violence is a global and proven phenomenon, yet little evidence-based research has been generated on how victims cope daily with violence, and what strategies they follow -to flee or to resist - while facing the same risky situations. This presentation aims to present the progress of my PhD research, which investigates the complex and intertwined reasons behind forced mobility and immobility, through the lens of "agency" – the resources and strategies employed by individuals.

The objective of this study is to compare the experiences and motivations of those who have been displaced and those who have remained in their communities despite the violence perpetrated by armed groups in Sierra Tarahumara, a rural area in Northern Mexico. Grounded in the theoretical and analytical framework of agency, forced mobility and immobility, and social capital, this study will employ in-depth interviews to explore the trajectories, survival strategies, and decision-making processes of displaced and non-displaced people by a life-course approach to answer the question: What are the resources and strategies that differentiate the manner in which displaced and non-displaced people in Sierra Tarahumara exercise agency to face violence?

Research on displacement and forced mobility-immobility has the potential to enrich definitions of agency and the agency-structure debate by understanding how people decide to flee or remain in their communities in a socio-structural inequal and violent context.

While we know that violence is one of the most frequent factors of expulsion today, knowing the strategies of those who are displaced and non-displaced people allows us to reflect on the tension between the influence of structural factors -such as the presence of organized crime groups- and individual, family, and collective strategies to flee and survive in these contexts.