Join us for the online launch of Priscilla Solano’s new book Shelter on the Journey: Humanitarianism, Human Rights and Migration (Temple University Press, 2024). This powerful and vividly written book describes life in the very different shelters housing migrants during their journey across Mexico. Through rich description and close attention to those using their services, it complicates critiques of humanitarianism and its relation to the politics of migration. Priscilla will be in conversation with Sylvanna Falcón (University of California Santa Cruz) and MMB Director Bridget Anderson (University of Bristol).

Priscilla Solano is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Political Studies at the University of Malmö. She is a member of the Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM).

Sylvanna Falcón is Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz. She is the Director of the Human Rights Investigations Lab for the Americas.

Bridget Anderson is Professor of Migration, Mobilities and Citizenship at the University of Bristol and Director of the specialist research institute Migration Mobilities Bristol. She is also host of the podcast series 'Migration Unboxed'.

Please note: the Zoom link will be sent in a reminder email to all attendees one hour before the event.

About the book:

Migration journeys are arduous, with migrants tormented by risk, abuse, threats, and xenophobia. Shelters, staffed by humanitarian workers and volunteers, provide safe spaces for those in transit. Shelter on the Journey examines how these sites, often faith-based civil society associations, create solidarity and help politicize migrants, giving them a sense of themselves as an empowered, rights-holding people.

Solano, who volunteered at shelters in Mexico, chronicles the activity in three of the nearly 100 shelters along a unique humanitarian trail that many Central Americans take to reach the United States. She explores the politics of the shelters, their social world, and the dynamics of charity and solidarity, as well as the need for humanitarian assistance and advocacy for dignified and free transit migration.

Book launch: 'Shelter on the Journey' by Priscilla Solano