THERE AND BACK AGAIN: NAVIGATING IMMIGRATION INSTITUTIONS AS AN INSIDER RESEARCHER

The study of immigration institutions has mainly focused on the effects these entities have on migrants and refugees' lives. Much less research has been produced from the unique perspective of the people who comprise these institutions. Drawing from work experiences and ethnographic research on the operation of detention centers for migrant and refugee children in southern Mexico, this article reflects on the daily work in these centers and on the personnel who reproduce the government and execute immigration policy. The article builds on feminist postcolonial perspective by focusing on the uniqueness of the bureaucrat-ethnographer viewpoint. Keypoints of this article are how axes of race, gender, and nationality hinder and/or favor access to these institutions either for work or study, and how this contributes to global inequalities in knowledge production.