Migration and emotional entrapment: narratives about emotions and life projects on the northern border

This paper presents the results of my master's research, which focuses on the role of emotions in the migration experience of asylum seekers in the border city of Tijuana.The fieldwork was conducted in the summer of 2022 at a local shelter, combining in-depth interviews and art therapy workshops as tools for narrative and symbolic exploration of the migration experience.From this process, an inventory of emotions was constructed covering three key moments: 1. before leaving the place of origin, 2. during the journey to the northern border of Mexico, and 3. while waiting for the resolution of the asylum application in the United States.The narratives and artistic productions recovered made it possible to document the emotions experienced, as well as the transformations they undergo throughout the migration process.In this research, emotions are not conceived solely as individual, but as collective and relational, mediating decision-making, everyday interactions, and the capacity for agency in contexts of forced mobility.In this framework, the category of "emotional entrapment" is proposed to describe a prolonged state of emotional exhaustion produced by forced waiting, legal uncertainty, and technological dependence-particularly through the CBP One digital application-which limits the possibility of projecting oneself into the future.The analysis reveals that emotions, in their transformative and conditioning nature, directly influence the construction, reconfiguration, or suspension of life projects.