Sergio Chávez

Border Lives: Fronterizos, Transnational Migrants, and Commuters in Tijuana

S ergio Chávez’s Border Lives arrives in the thick of heated debates over immigration to the United States. While most contemporary political discussions of immigration bifurcate immigrants into simple “legal” and “illegal” categories (Donato and Armenta 2011), Chávez’s work complicates these groupings by documenting the experiences of “border commuters,” Mexican residents who regularly navigate back and forth across the Mexico-US border for work. Although some border commuters enter the United States with work authorization, others may do so with a tourist visa or border-crossing card (BCC) and without formal work authorization. These migrants, who live in Mexico but work in the United States, are often overlooked in the policy debates over immigration. Chávez’s book thus illuminates how federal immigration policy is often disconnected from the everyday reality of cross-border flows. Set in Tijuana, Mexico, a border city within walking distance of neighboring San Diego County, California, Chávez’s study draws on rich ethnographic and interview data among border commuters. Through interviews with 118 commuters and 40 non-commuters he met over the course of his study, he uncovers the everyday experiences of commuters and how they contrast with those of noncommuters. In particular, he explores how commuters, many of whom have left their rural communities of origin and settled in bustling Tijuana, “establish roots in the borderlands, find work in the United States and Mexico, develop family and friendship ties that aid in the settlement process, and cross the border using legal and extralegal means across distinct historical periods” (2). Chávez’s analysis highlights how different cohorts of commuters exhibit agency against the backdrop of an ever-restrictive set of immigration policies enabling or constraining their cross-border movements. To contextualize how immigration policy has impacted border commuters’ experiences, Chávez classifies his respondents into four cohorts that correspond to milestones in the historical evolution of Mexico-US migration flows (c.f. Garip 2012, 2016). The first consists of those migrants who crossed into the United States from 1942 to 1964, known as the Bracero period. These individuals mobilized in response to the eponymous program that brought 4.6 million

Gender migration and perceptions of HIV risk in Mexico.

Abstract This study examines the role that duty plays in men’s and women’s perceptions of HIV-related risk in Mexico, and how gender and migration influence these perceptions. We draw on qualitative data from the 2014 Study of Health and Migration in Mexico (SHMM), which included 24 in-depth interviews with migrant men and non-migrant women living in a medium-sized city in Guanajuato, Mexico. While men report migrating out of responsibility to provide for their families, this sense of duty also had implications for their sexual health behaviours. Duty permeates how residents in this migrant-sending community described their perceptions of HIV risk, with men and women drawing consistently on three aspects of duty: fidelity, gendered sexual expectations, and the burden of HIV prevention. We argue that a strong sense of duty can prompt gender role expansion for migrant men and limit gender role expansion for non-migrant women.

The mental well-being of Central American transmigrant men in Mexico

ABSTRACT To understand the mental health status of Central American migrant men travelling through Mexico to the U.S., we analysed the association between migration-related circumstances/stressors and psychological disorders. In-person interviews and a psychiatric assessment were conducted in 2010 and 2014 with 360 primarily Honduran transmigrant young adult males. The interviews were conducted at three Casas del Migrante (or migrant safe houses) in the migration-corridor cities of Monterrey, and Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon; and Saltillo, Coahuila. The results indicated high levels of migration-related stressors including abuse and a high prevalence of major depressive episodes (MDEs), alcohol dependency, and alcohol abuse. Nested logistic regression models were used to separately predict MDEs, alcohol dependency, and alcohol abuse, assessing their association with migration experiences and socio-demographic characteristics. Logistic regression models showed that characteristics surrounding migration (experiencing abuse, migration duration, and attempts) are predictive of depression. Alcohol dependency and abuse were both associated with marital status and having family/friends in the intended U.S. destination, while the number of migration attempts also predicted alcohol dependency. The results provide needed information on the association between transit migration through Mexico to the U.S. among unauthorised Central American men and major depressive disorder and alcohol abuse and dependency.

Modern Migrations: Gujarati Indian Networks in New York and London

Migration studies have repeatedly shown that poor, rural, and low-skilled migrants depend on social networks to move and to settle abroad. Ties to kin, friends, and community members provide crucial resources as migrants move from origin to destination. Having the right type of social ties is significant because it plays a critical role in defining the life chances of immigrants once they relocate to a new society. In Modern Migrations, Maritsa V. Poros argues that migration scholars have conceptualized migrant networks too narrowly by focusing mostly on what she refers to as ‘‘interpersonal ties’’: connections between kin, friends, and community. Through her study of Gujarati immigrants living in New York and London, Poros expands the understanding of migration flows and the labor market incorporation of immigrants by presenting readers with ‘‘different kinds of social ties’’ (which I discuss below) that shaped the life chances of the participants in her study. The book, which employs a qualitative approach, seeks to explain how social networks form through time, how they change, and how they help and hinder immigrants’ economic mobility. What unfolds is a dynamic view of the incorporation process for a group of immigrants we know very little about, but one from which students of migration can learn. Modern Migrations consists of six main chapters. Each chapter returns to key respondents to illustrate how their networks were formed across time and space and how they shaped the migration flows and economic opportunities. In Chapter One, Poros provides readers with a thorough overview of her theoretical and unique methodological approach to the study of networks. Here she outlines three main kinds of social ties. She finds that Gujarati immigrants draw not just on ‘‘interpersonal ties’’ (chains) to kin, friends, and community but also ‘‘organizational ties’’ (recruits) that provide people with a platform to become connected through organizations (such as workplaces) and institutions (such as government agencies). She also outlines that ‘‘composite ties’’ (trusties), which she defines as being a combination of interpersonal and organizational ties, require high rates of trust. Unlike most qualitative migration studies, which utilize a snowball sampling approach, Poros selected participants randomly in New York and London by picking common Gujarati names from telephone directories. To obtain more depth in her network study, she also asked respondents to recommend friends and coworkers to provide greater descriptions of how networks operate beyond the experiences of the individual. Chapter Two focuses on the question of selectivity. Here Poros presents an historical overview of the development of ties with a focus on the people most likely to move. She discusses India’s colonial relation to the British Empire and more generally the global interdependence that India has fostered with the British Empire, Africa, and the United States. Poros provides fascinating historical facts such as the role of American educational institutions in recruiting the urban educated middle-class Indians to Europe and the United States. In Chapter Three, she turns to the ‘‘first job’’ that Gujarati immigrants held in East Africa, London, and New York to emphasize the role of organizational and interpersonal ties in creating distinct types of migrations and labor market outcomes. Chapter Four provides an in-depth overview of the various occupations into which Gujarati immigrants have settled. She discusses the role of occupational, cultural, and religious organizations in shaping the labor market outcomes of immigrants. Here she provides readers with a network approach to understand why Indian immigrant doctors became widespread in U.S. and British Medical establishments; why and how Indian immigrants entered the diamond dealing business; why they dominate newsstands in Reviews 729