Article: Infrastructuring pathways: traversing the legal infrastructure of mobility in South America Journal: International Journal of Migration and Border Studies (IJMBS) 2026 Vol.9 No.6 pp.7 - 26 Abstract: Human mobility is as complex as the legal regimes that govern it. This requires an approach that goes beyond migration and refugee law to incorporate the temporary, pendular and extra-legal dynamics of movement. Adopting an infrastructural perspective, this paper analyses the processes surrounding mobility law in South America. Using doctrinal and empirical methods, it maps the variety of legal sources across distinct 'mobility pathways' and examines how opportunities, obstacles, and practices shape them. Based on fieldwork conducted in Brazil, Chile and Colombia between 2023 and 2024, involving interviews and observations of border crossings and legal aid sessions, three key mobility pathways are examined: residence as permanence, tourism as entry, and cross-border pendularity. The analysis reveals that the interaction of multiple regimes with movement continuously (re)configures a legal infrastructure that both enables and constrains mobility. This demonstrates how law shapes mobility, and how mobility reshapes law in turn. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Infrastructuring pathways: traversing the legal infrastructure of mobility in South America

Authors: Andrea Jiménez Laurence

Addresses: MOBILE, Center of Excellence for Global Mobility Law, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixens Plads 16, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark

Abstract: Human mobility is as complex as the legal regimes that govern it. This requires an approach that goes beyond migration and refugee law to incorporate the temporary, pendular and extra-legal dynamics of movement. Adopting an infrastructural perspective, this paper analyses the processes surrounding mobility law in South America. Using doctrinal and empirical methods, it maps the variety of legal sources across distinct 'mobility pathways' and examines how opportunities, obstacles, and practices shape them. Based on fieldwork conducted in Brazil, Chile and Colombia between 2023 and 2024, involving interviews and observations of border crossings and legal aid sessions, three key mobility pathways are examined: residence as permanence, tourism as entry, and cross-border pendularity. The analysis reveals that the interaction of multiple regimes with movement continuously (re)configures a legal infrastructure that both enables and constrains mobility. This demonstrates how law shapes mobility, and how mobility reshapes law in turn.

Keywords: human mobility; legal infrastructures; South America; migration studies; intra-regional mobility; borders; pendular movement; Venezuelan displacement; Mercosur; mobility law.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMBS.2026.156398

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 2026 Vol.9 No.6, pp.7 - 26

Received: 29 Aug 2025
Accepted: 27 May 2026
Published online: 16 Sep 2026 *

Title: Infrastructuring pathways: traversing the legal infrastructure of mobility in South America

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