Mujeres en el Cruce: Mapping Family Separation/Reunification at a Time of Border (In)Security
Affiliation
University of Arizona, Mexican American Studies and Research CenterIssue Date
2007Keywords
United States. -- Immigration Border Patrol -- Officials and employees -- Mexican-American Border RegionImmigrants -- Mexican-American Border Region
Women migrant labor -- Mexican-American Border Region
Families -- Mexican-American Border Region
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The MASRC Working Paper Series © The Arizona Board of RegentsCollection Information
The goal of the Mexican American Studies & Research Center's Working Paper Series is to disseminate recent research on the Mexican American experience. The Center welcomes papers from the social sciences, public policy fields, and the humanities. Areas of particular interest include economic and political participation of Mexican Americans, health, immigration, and education. The Mexican American Studies & Research Center assumes no responsibility for statements or opinions of contributors to its Working Paper Series.Abstract
In this paper I discuss some of the findings in my study of the encounters between female migrants and immigration enforcement authorities along the U.S.-Mexico border. An objective of the research is to ascertain a more accurate picture of women temporarily suspended in the “intersection” of diametrically opposed processes: immigration enforcement and transnational mobility. Of the many issues that have emerged from this research, family separation is most palpable. This suggests a deeply entrenched relationship between immigration enforcement and the transnationalization of family ties. While this relationship may at first not be obvious, women’s accounts of family separation and family reunification show how, in reconciling these contradictory tendencies, migrant mobility is strengthened, which in turn challenges enforcement measures. In this way, the intersection not only sheds light on how opposing forces (enforcement and mobility) converge but also how each is contingent on the other. This analysis is possible in part through the use of a conceptual intersection of diametrically opposed forces, border enforcement and transnational movement, and thus proves useful in examining the transformative nature of globalized spaces.Identifiers
0732-7749http://hdl.handle.net/10150/219214
793455574
Series/Report no.
MASRC Working Paper Series; 34Additional Links
http://mas.arizona.edu/node/658Collections
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