Migration at the Encruzilhada: The Darién as the Crossroads of the Americas

Abstract

Human migration scholars increasingly question the use of binary frameworks that currently define migration, and categorize it into two opposing and mutually exclusive categories (forced vs voluntary). Reflecting on this, I look at the situation of people crossing the Darién Gap, the border between Colombia and Panamá, from the perspective of the encruzilhada, or crossroads. A Yoruba and Afro-Brazilian concept, it centres on the availability of numerous pathways and their ambiguities. This concept of the Darién as an encruzilhada highlights the inherent ambiguities of the governance of people on the move, and the chaotic, unruly, nature of migration itself, incompatible with existing binary schemes that do not capture its complexity. By focusing on the crossroads framework, I invite us to imagine a world – and a new epistemological grammar – in which people on the move do not go through the current indignities of migration.