Forms of capital of migrants of the caravans

Abstract

From October 2018 Central American migrants began to move in caravans to defend themselves from the authorities and organized crime, and to free themselves from the clandestine migration industry. The objective of this article is to analyze the forms of capital used by migrants of the caravans to pay migrant smugglers’ fees who take them to the United States. This research is based in qualitative interviews with eighteen migrant smugglers conducted between 2019 y 2020. The following results were obtained: 1. Migrants of the caravans lack the economic resources to pay smugglers’ fees; 2. Smugglers use migrants’ social capital as a form of payment, and 3. Young and slender women are urged to use their erotic capital as a form of payment. It is concluded that most migrants lack economic resources; but they have other forms of capital that can transform into economic capital, mainly social capital, and erotic capital