Gendered Repatriation: The Role of Gender and the Family on Further Migration Intentions following Repatriation

• Main Author: Molina, Paola Andrea
• Other Authors: Roth, Louise
• Language: en
• Published: The University of Arizona. 2011
• Subjects: Migration; Repatriation; Sociology; Family; Gender
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/203436

Every day, thousands of unauthorized migrants are repatriated from the United States to Mexican cities along the U.S.-Mexico border. Suspended at the border, unauthorized migrants must make a quick decision: attempt another clandestine border crossing, return to their hometown in Mexico, or choose some other alternative such as stay in the city where they have been repatriated. In this research, I seek to better understand the decision-making process behind these intentions to further migrate following repatriation. I ask several interrelated questions: What are the factors that lead some repatriated migrants to state that they will attempt another crossing of the U.S.-Mexico border? Others to state that they will return to their hometowns in Mexico? And still others to state that they do not know what they will do? As gender is a constitutive aspect of migration and social reality more generally, I also pay special attention to how gender and family constraints help shape the decision-making process behind further migration intentions. For one year, I conducted 70 in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews with repatriated migrants at a migrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora (Mexico), interviewing roughly equal shares of women and men (37 women, 33 men). When I was not interviewing, I also engaged in direct and participant observation at the shelter that I documented as field notes. I asked respondents to share their experiences with me from their clandestine crossing of the Arizona-Sonora border, to their apprehension experience with the Border Patrol or other U.S. authorities, and finally to their experiences following repatriation to Nogales, Sonora. Through this research, I found that both gender and the family played central roles in migration- and repatriation-related activities in different and complex ways. Gender intrinsically shaped respondents' experiences in their journey in the semi-arid Arizona-Sonora desert, their interactions with Border Patrol agents and other U.S. authorities, and the decision-making process following repatriation. Further, family constraints, such as dependent children in the U.S., critically affected further migration intentions in gendered ways. As part of my work, I provide several policy recommendations regarding the repatriation of unauthorized migrants to border cities such as Nogales, Sonora.