Journal ArticleDOI
Temporal Patterns of Mexican Migrant Genetic Ancestry: Implications for Identification
Cris E. Hughes,Bridget F. B. Algee-Hewitt,Robin Reineke,Elizabeth S Clausing,Bruce E. Anderson +4 more
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TLDR
In this article, structural vulnerabilities linked to ethnicity impact the success of identifying deceased migrants, showing that Mexican migrants with more European ancestry are more often successfully identified in recent years, attributing this bias in identification to the layers of structural vulnerability that uniquely affect indigenous Mexican migrants.Abstract:
Motivated by the humanitarian crisis along the US–Mexico border and the need for more integrative approaches to migrant death investigations, we employ both biological and cultural anthropology perspectives to provide insight into these deaths and the forensic identification process. We propose that structural vulnerabilities linked to ethnicity impact the success of identifying deceased migrants. Using forensic genetic data, we examine the relationships among identification status, case year, and ancestry, demonstrating how Native American and European ancestry proportions differ between identified and unidentified migrant fatalities, revealing an otherwise unrecognized identification bias. We find that Mexican migrants with more European ancestry are more often successfully identified in recent years. We attribute this bias in identification to the layers of structural vulnerability that uniquely affect indigenous Mexican migrants. By demonstrating the impact that social processes like structural violence can have on the relative success of forensic casework along the US–Mexico border, our work underscores the fact that forensic casework is itself a social process. Research undertaken with the intent to improve forensic identification protocols should consider social context, a factor that could significantly impact identification rates. This study shows the need for collaboration between forensic practitioners and those working closely with affected communities. [US–Mexico border, forensic anthropology, migration, admixture, DNA]read more
Citations
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Reframing Mexican Migration as a Multi-Ethnic Process
TL;DR: This paper explored implications of the indigenous Mexican migrant experience for understanding collective identity formation, including the social construction of community member ship, regional and pan-ethnic identities, territory, and transnational communities.
Posted Content
Violence and Migration on the Arizona Sonora Border
Jeremy Slack,Scott Whiteford +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose the conceptualization of post structural violence as a manner of enhancing the discussion of agency within and as a reaction to the structural conditions generated by border security and immigration policy.
Journal ArticleDOI
Commentary on: Bethard JD, DiGangi EA. Letter to the Editor—Moving beyond a lost cause: Forensic anthropology and ancestry estimates in the United States. J Forensic Sci. 2020;65(5):1791–2. doi: 10.1111/1556‐4029.14513.
Kyra E. Stull,Kyra E. Stull,Eric J. Bartelink,Alexandra R. Klales,Gregory E. Berg,Michael W. Kenyhercz,Ericka Noelle L'Abbe,Matthew C Go,Kyle A. McCormick,Carlos Mariscal +9 more
Journal ArticleDOI
The macromorphoscopic databank.
TL;DR: The Macromorphoscopic Databank develops through data collection efforts and contributions from the field, its utility as a research and teaching tool will also mature, in turn creating a vital resource for forensic anthropologists for future generations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Skeletal evidence of structural violence among undocumented migrants from Mexico and Central America
TL;DR: In this article, the prevalence and sociodemographic risk factors of skeletal indicators of stress in forensic samples of undocumented migrants from Mexico and Central America were examined for porotic hyperostosis (PH), cribra orbitalia (CO), and linear enamel hypoplasias (LEH).
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Principal components analysis corrects for stratification in genome-wide association studies
Alkes L. Price,Alkes L. Price,Nick Patterson,Robert M. Plenge,Robert M. Plenge,Michael E. Weinblatt,Nancy A. Shadick,David Reich,David Reich +8 more
TL;DR: This work describes a method that enables explicit detection and correction of population stratification on a genome-wide scale and uses principal components analysis to explicitly model ancestry differences between cases and controls.
Journal ArticleDOI
Genes mirror geography within Europe.
John Novembre,Toby Johnson,Toby Johnson,Katarzyna Bryc,Zoltán Kutalik,Adam R. Boyko,Adam Auton,Amit Indap,Karen S. King,Sven Bergmann,Matthew R. Nelson,Matthew Stephens,Carlos Bustamante +12 more
TL;DR: Despite low average levels of genetic differentiation among Europeans, there is a close correspondence between genetic and geographic distances; indeed, a geographical map of Europe arises naturally as an efficient two-dimensional summary of genetic variation in Europeans.
Journal ArticleDOI
Structural Vulnerability and Health: Latino Migrant Laborers in the United States
TL;DR: In this article, structural vulnerability is defined as a positionality that imposes physical/emotional suffering on specific population groups and individuals in patterned ways, a product of class-based economic exploitation and cultural, gender/sexual, and racialized discrimination, as well as complementary processes of depreciated subjectivity formation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Death at the Border: Efficacy and Unintended Consequences of US Immigration Control Policy
TL;DR: The authors assesses the efficacy of the strategy of immigration control implemented by the US government since 1993 in reducing illegal entry attempts, and documents some of the unintended consequences of this strategy, especially a sharp increase in mortality among unauthorized migrants along certain segments of the Mexico-US border.
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Genome-wide patterns of population structure and admixture in West Africans and African Americans
Katarzyna Bryc,Adam Auton,Matthew R. Nelson,Jorge R. Oksenberg,Stephen L. Hauser,Scott M. Williams,Alain Froment,Jean-Marie Bodo,Charles Wambebe,Sarah A. Tishkoff,Carlos Bustamante +10 more
TL;DR: This paper analyzed Affymetrix GeneChip 500k genotype data from African Americans and individuals with ancestry from West Africa (n = 203 from 12 populations) and Europe (n= 400 from 42 countries) to obtain a fine-scale genome-wide perspective of ancestry.