Migrant caravans in the Northern Triangle of Central America during the Covid-19 pandemic: An overview of the causes, mechanisms and changes in U.S. immigration policy

Abstract

The economic and social conditions that are the main drivers of human mobility have deteriorated due to the Covid-19 pandemic. When states closed their borders and limited travel to essential purposes only, human mobility disappeared almost completely. Before the pandemic, the last few decades had brought a growing number of so-called migrant caravans heading from Central America to the United States with the intention of entering illegally. Some projections assumed that restrictions implemented by US border immigration policy during the pandemic would stop illegal crossings, at least in the short term. It is this idea that forms the core discussion of this article. Starting by outlining the characteristics of the most well-known caravan that left Honduras in 2018, and explaining the mechanisms that managed this phenomenon, the article seeks to analyse migration during the pandemic. Through investigation of the root causes of migration, operational aspects of forming caravans and changes in immigration policy, it achieves its main goal of finding an answer to the question of whether the pandemic affected migration and, if so, what has changed.