Is it simpler to leave or to stay put? Desired immobility in a Mexican village

This paper ethnographically explores particular ways of staying put in a Mexican village that builds upon a myriad of present and past mobilities. By doing so, the research contributes to open the black box of rural immobility. Three broad types of stayers are identified: desired, acquiescent, and involuntary stayers. The ethnographic material supports the explanatory power of breaking down the aspiration phase from the realisation one to understand the (mis)matching between desires and capacities for situations of permanence. The research particularly explores how villagers willing to remain, have managed to stay put in a context of high physical mobility, and how staying villagers perceive the desirability and feasibility of staying put compared with that of migrating. Staying put, similarly to migration, is often part of complex life strategies that involve changing mobility-immobility articulations. In the particular ethnographic context, staying put is ascribed an intrinsic positive value. Migration (whether internal or international) has an instrumental value as the means to be able to remain in the village.