Between 2019 and 2024, more than 13.4 million undocumented migrants were registered on Mexican territory (INM 2024). In 2023 alone, more than 700,000 displaced refugees, asylum seekers and people in need of international protection in a situation of northward mobility were registered in Mexico, exceeding by 77% the record number registered in 2022 (IOM 2024, 3). Added to this is the growing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to conflict and violence or disasters - over 11,000 and over 196,000 respectively in 2023 (Global Migration Data Portal 2025).
Approximately 31% of undocumented migrants travelling north through Mexico are women and girls (IOM 2024, 3). While all types of people are exposed to violent dynamics during their journeys through Mexico, women experience specific forms of violence and gendered discrimination at the hands of multiple actors, including migration guards (popularly known as migra), workers in state detention centres and migrant shelters, and bureaucrats in the INM, among others, who are mostly men (López et al. 2024; Estévez 2017; Fernández de la Reguera 2020).
The slow and changing bureaucracy, combined with the negligence and hostility of state officials, exacerbates women’s sense of entrapment and hopelessness. Without resources and driven by a sense of urgency to reach their destination, many women make decisions that endanger their lives and those of the children travelling with them (López et al. 2024). State violence and neglect therefore increase the dangers women face on their journey and reduce their chances of overcoming the male chauvinist values they have learnt.
In April 2025, Professor María López presented her research on the dynamics of violence against undocumented migrant women on their journey north through Mexico at the SLAS Annual Conference, organised this year by the Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at the University of Bristol.
María presented on the well-attended panel "Women and Violence(s) in Mexico: Entangled Histories and Alternative Futures" with Dr Karina Karilú García Reyes (UWE) and Dr Gema Kloppe-Santamaría (UCC), who chaired the panel, and Prof. Jenny Pearce (LSE), who provided relevant commentary.
The panel reflected on the current crisis of femicides and disappearances in Mexico from a historical, critical, and interdisciplinary perspective. In Mexico, where 11 women are killed every day and over 100,000 people have disappeared, academics, members of civil society and the arts are articulating alternative narratives of violence against women. This panel critically reflected on some of these narratives and alternatives in order to develop effective mechanisms of resistance in the region.
Image: Dr Gema Kloppe-Santamaría, Prof. María Lopez, Prof. Jenny Pearce, Dr Karina Karilú García Reyes.