Interregional Migration and Hybrid Media: From Postnational Imaginaries to National Contestation in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

Scholarship on migration and media in Latin America and the Caribbean has long emphasised how transnational connectivity sustains postnational imaginaries that unsettle the nation-state as the primary container of identity and belonging. This article argues that such frameworks now require significant revision. Contemporary migration across Latin America and the Caribbean increasingly connects South America, Central America, the Caribbean and North America through multidirectional corridors of transit, settlement and displacement. These developments are mediated through hybrid media environments that amplify xenophobic discourse, emotionally charged nationalism and the securitisation of borders. Drawing on recent empirical research, the article examines how states, commercial actors, migrant communities, and civil society organisations compete within these communicative landscapes. It shows that while solidaristic counter-narratives and practical support networks exist, digital connectivity increasingly operates alongside entrenched exclusionary mechanisms. Postnational imaginaries subsequently persist as contested possibilities within communicative environments shaped by national boundaries and struggles over belonging.