“Little pains” and endurance: health narratives and practices among migrants in transit through Mexico

Abstract

How do migrants in transit through Mexico interpret and manage the injuries and diseases they experience on their route? We argue that migrants in transit attempt to minimise their ill-health while at the same time engaging in health practices to keep moving to arrive at their destination. Through ethnographic research in migrant shelters in Mexico, we examine the reasons migrants give to minimise their injuries: 1) they believe pain is contingent to transit; 2) their tolerance to pain is informed by how they tolerated pain and disease in Central America; and 3) they choose temporary pain to avoid falling into more serious crises. At the same time, however, migrants are engaging in preventative care, self-medicating, in-group care, and accessing safe medical services in Mexico. We show the importance of noticing how different forms of suffering are naturalised while crossing Mexico and how the social sources of suffering are obscured.