Implications of water insecurity for food practices and health in contexts of migration and displacement: evidence from the US-Mexico borderlands.

INTRODUCTION: This article examines the interconnected burdens of food and water insecurity among migrant and displaced populations in North America, highlighting critical gaps in current research and policy. While extensive scholarship demonstrates that these populations disproportionately experience food insecurity-defined as limited access to nutritionally sufficient and culturally acceptable food-water insecurity, or unreliable access to safe water for consumption and household needs, as experienced by these populations has received comparatively less attention. Emerging evidence shows that water insecurity is increasingly prevalent in migrant-receiving regions of the global north and frequently overlaps with food insecurity, particularly among low- income communities.

METHODS: Through community-based collaborative research with transborder, migrant, and refugee populations in the borderlands region of southern Arizona, we co-coordinated pláticas-a Chicana/Latina feminist methodological approach of gathering to build conversation that validates experiential knowledge-with community partners to assess experiences of and perspectives on water insecurity.

RESULTS: Although the research activities were designed primarily to assess experiences of and perspectives on water insecurity, our findings underscore the need to consider food and water insecurity together in migratory and transborder settings to more fully understand barriers to household and community wellbeing.

DISCUSSION: The article concludes by calling for a coordinated research and policy agenda that addresses these mutually reinforcing resource insecurities and develops more effective, multi-scalar interventions to support the health and livelihoods of those in migratory contexts, particularly in the global north.