Divided by Borders: Mexican Migrants and Their Children [Paperback]

Since 2000, approximately 440,000 Mexicans have migrated to the United States every year. Tens of thousands have left children behind in Mexico to do so. For these parents, migration is a sacrifice. What do parents expect to accomplish by dividing their families across borders? How do families manage when they are living apart? More importantly, do parents' relocations yield the intended results? Probing the experiences of migrant parents, children in Mexico, and their caregivers, Joanna Dreby offers an up-close and personal account of the lives of families divided by borders. What she finds is that the difficulties endured by transnational families make it nearly impossible for parents' sacrifices to result in the benefits they expect. Yet, paradoxically, these hardships reinforce family members' commitments to each other. A story both of adversity and the intensity of family ties,Divided by Bordersis an engaging and insightful investigation of the ways Mexican families struggle and ultimately persevere in a global economy.

Joanna Dreby is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Kent State University.

Preface: Ordinary Families, Extraordinary Families
Acknowledgments/Agradecimientos

1. Sacrifice
2. Ofelia and Germ?n Cruz: Migrant Time versus Child Time
3. Gender and Parenting from Afar
4. Armando L?pez on Fatherhood
5. Children and Power during Separation
6. Middlewomen
7. Cindy Rodr?guez between Two Worlds
8. Divided by Borders

Appendix A: Research Design
Appendix B: Family Descriptions
Notes
References
Index

Just a phone call away, but what anguish! As employers of migrants who care for our children, clean our houses, work in fast food restaurantsor on the shop floorwe are so often blind to the sacrifices made by parents who see no other choice but to leave their children back home in Mexico and come to the U.S. for work. With passion alóå