Families on the Frontier“…US labor demand,

immigration restrictions, and cultural transformations have encouraged the emergence of new transnational family forms among Central American and Mexican immigrant women.”

Families on the Frontier“Many of these women, because

of occupational constraints—and, in some cases, specific restrictionist contract labor policies—must live and work apart from their families.”

Families on the Frontier“...focuses on private paid domestic

work,…not formally negotiated labor contract, but rather informal occupational constraints, as well as legal status, mandate the long term spacial and temporal separation of these women from their families and children.”

Families on the Frontier“…new international divisions of

social reproductive labor have brought about transnational family forms and new meanings to family and motherhood. ...entered a new era of dependency on braceras.”

Families on the Frontier“…note prompted by the Bracero

Program parallels between family migration patterns and long term male sojourning, when many women sought to follow their husbands to the US, and the situations today, when many children and youth, …traveling north, …being reunited with their mothers.”

Families on the Frontier“…jobs have been re-gendered

and re-racialized so that jobs previously held by US-born white and black men are now increasingly held by Latina immigrant women.”

Families on the Frontier“Social reproduction [labor] consists

of those activities that are necessary to maintain human life, daily and intergenerational. …how we take care of ourselves, our children and elderly, and our homes.”

Families on the Frontier“…constitute the new `bracerras’.

They are literally a `pair of arms’ disembodied and dislocated from their families and communities of origin, and yet, they are not temporary sojourners.”

Families on the Frontier“`Transnational motherhood’:--under the table occupation

--75% of Latina domestic

workers had children of their own and 40% had at least one child in country of origin

--separation from children is temporary

Families on the Frontier“Women such as Carmen

sacrifice to provide for a better life for their children, but in the process, they may lose family life with their children.”

Families on the Frontier“Nazarrio believes that the number

of unaccompanied minors migrating to the US from Central America & Mexico each year may be as high as 40 to 50,000--and she estimates that about half are coming to be reunited with their mothers.”

Families on the Frontier“What happens when children

are reunited with mother? …long periods of discord typically follow. …feel neglected and rejected by family in the US.”

Review Questions1.) Why have immigrant women taken over much of

the domestic work in the US?

2.) Do women generally return to the home countries? Why, why not?

3.) What are the parallels between the bracerro program and current domestic workers?

4.) What are some of the characteristics of transnational motherhood?

5.) What is meant by “social reproduction” work?

6.) What happens to children after reuniting with mothers?