Motherhood Across Borders - by Gabrielle Oliveira (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Winner, 2019 Inaugural Outstanding Ethnography Book Award, given by the Ethnography in Education Research Forum

Winner, 2019 Outstanding Book Award, given by the Council on Anthropology and Education

The stories of Mexican migrant women who parent from afar, and how their transnational families stay together

While we have an incredible amount of statistical information about immigrants coming in and out of the United States, we know very little about how migrant families stay together and raise their children. Beyond the numbers, what are the everyday experiences of families with members on both sides of the border?

Focusing on Mexican women who migrate to New York City and leave children behind, Motherhood across Borders examines parenting from afar, as well as the ways in which separated siblings cope with different experiences across borders. Drawing on more than three years of ethnographic research, Gabrielle Oliveira offers a unique focus on the many consequences of maternal migration.

Oliveira illuminates the life trajectories of separated siblings, including their divergent educational paths, and the everyday struggles that undocumented mothers go through in order to figure out how to be a good parent to all of their children, no matter where they live. Despite these efforts, the book uncovers the far-reaching effects of maternal migration that influences both the children who accompany their mothers to New York City, and those who remain in Mexico.

With more mothers migrating without their children in search of jobs, opportunities, and the hope of creating a better life for their families, Motherhood across Borders is an invaluable resource for scholars, educators, and anyone with an interest in the current dynamics of U.S immigration.

Review Quotes

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"In this astute and sensitive ethnography, Oliveira does a remarkable job of capturing the poignant, mundane, tragic, and frustrating aspects of mothering from afar. The Mexican migrant women in her book spend their lives caring-- for children and other family members back home, family members in New York City, and often other peoples children, too--but all of their caring is not capable of fully bridging the distance or healing family ties broken by cruel immigration policies. If early studies of transnationalism made us optimistic that technology could link diasporic communities, this book reminds us that even in an era of Facetime and Facebook, migration involves separation. The difficult negotiations between mothers, other caregivers, and children, as well as between children (often siblings who have never met), are portrayed with compassion and sensitivity.

"--Alyshia Gálvez, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at Lehman College/CUNY

"In five well-written, well-researched chapters, Oliveira focuses on the tensions and expectations immigrant mothers face, on the participation of these mothers in the education of their children in both Mexico and in the US, and on the ways children maintain bonds with mothers and siblings across two nations and cultures. She also notes the distinctive gender differences and educational achievements among these children. This book will be useful to anyone interested in the contours of transnational parenting in the 21st century."--CHOICE

"Motherhood across Borders is a vivid and engaging ethnography about how mothers, grandmothers, caregivers, and children fare when they are divided by, but also connected despite, the U.S.-Mexico border. Focusing on the voices of those directly impactedpeople of all ages, across generations, and in both Mexico and the United StatesOliveira provides an intimate portrayal of the ways that motherhood, and caregiving more generally, is shifting in transnational context."--Deborah A. Boehm, author of Returned: Going and Coming in an Age of Deportation

"Redolent with themes and experiences that are shared by millions of families around the globe. ... Blazes a pathway toward a richer understanding of how senses of belonging shift across the multiple affiliations maintained by these mobile populations: to their family networks, to their communities, and to more than one nation-state."-- "Political and Legal Anthropology Review"

About the Author

Gabrielle Oliveira is Assistant Professor at Boston College Lynch School of Education.