Undocumented Mexican Research Articles

Living a Deportation Threat: Anticipatory Stressors Confronted by Undocumented Mexican Immigrant Women

Previous sociological research shows that exposure to stress varies by individuals’ social statuses and is a central mechanism in producing mental health disparities. This line of research suggests that ethnoracial groups are more exposed to racial discrimination, thus negatively impacting their mental health. There has also been a growing literature showing how legal status impacts the mental health of immigrants and their families. However, the sociology of mental health and migration literature has largely remained disparate. This paper bridges these literatures to highlight how living a deportation threat manifests itself as an anticipatory stressor that negatively impacts undocumented Mexican migrant women’s access to resources, social relationships, and social roles. Based on 30 semi-structured in-depth interviews with undocumented Mexican immigrant women from Houston, Texas, my findings reveal living a deportation threat is a perpetual anticipatory stressor that intensifies the effects of avoiding authorities, family fragmentation, and economic uncertainty. I argue this anticipatory stressor transforms into a chronic stressor that undocumented Mexican women confront daily. By situating this study within an anti-immigrant social context, it highlights the social processes and mechanisms that exacerbate the stressors undocumented Mexican immigrant women confront.

Informational returnees: deportation, digital media, and the making of a transnational cybertariat in the Mexican call center industry

In recent years, the US government has intensified the deportation of undocumented Mexican migrants, some of them with long life trajectories in the USA. With weak family networks in their communities of origin and sometimes none at all, many deportees choose to stay in cities along the US-Mexico border, joining the army of underpaid, low-skilled, and informal urban workers. Some take advantage of their transnational experience to earn a better income; within this context, the call center industry is an economic sector that profits from the language facility and sociocultural skills deported populations bring with them from their years spent living in the USA. This paper addresses the working conditions among call center workers in Mexico, with a focus in Tijuana City in the Mexican Northwest. In particular, I explore how migration, deportation, and call center labor produces what I call informational return, a process in which the convergence of culture, deportation, and digital media plays a key role in the constitution of a transnational digital worker.

The influence of social networks, social capital, and the ethnic community on the U.S. destination choices of Mexican migrant men

ABSTRACTCompared to the overwhelming emphasis on the causes of international migration, less attention has been paid to immigrant destination choice. Studies which have addressed destination outcomes are generally quantitative in nature and have focused on macro-level explanations. In this article, we adopt a qualitative approach to examine undocumented Mexican male migrants’ decision-making processes about the destination, demonstrating how the interplay between social networks, social capital, and individual circumstance influences their U.S. destination choices, both when migrating from Mexico and when relocating within the United States. Based on seventy semi-structured, in-depth interviews with primarily undocumented Mexican migrants residing in Colorado, we detail the specific mechanisms that guided them to particular destinations. Our findings illustrate the importance of the geographical diversity of social ties, the type of migration (international vs. internal), the kind and strength of ties, and the form of interpersonal interactions with ties, for respondents’ destination outcomes. In addition, our findings challenge the notion that the presence of a co-ethnic community is consistently viewed by migrants as a destination incentive.

End-of-Life Care for an Undocumented Mexican Immigrant: Resident Perspective.

The immigrant population in the United States has grown over the past years. Undocumented immigrants account for 14.6% of the uninsured population in the United States. Decisions about end-of-life treatment are often difficult to reach in the best of situations. We present a 43-year-old undocumented Mexican female immigrant with metastatic sarcomatoid squamous cell cervical cancer and discuss the barriers that she faced during her treatment. Limited English proficiency, living below the poverty line, low level of education, and lack access to Medicare, Medicaid, or other insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act are major causes of decreased health-care access and service utilization by the immigrant population. Latinos are less likely to be referred to hospice by oncologists, and nearly a third of hospice agencies offer limited or no services to undocumented immigrants. Undocumented immigrants with terminal diagnoses generally do not have access to comprehensive or multidisciplinary follow-up treatment. Instead, one of their few options is to return to their home countries without any long-term treatment. This article discusses the many barriers and proposes areas for reform.

Factors Influencing Physician Assistant Students' Attitudes Toward Deservingness of Care for Undocumented Mexicans.

Attitudes regarding health-related deservingness of care for vulnerable patient populations can impact the quality of services provided. This study was aimed at identifying the influences that shape these attitudes among physician assistant (PA) students. The study focused on PA students' perspectives toward care for a particularly vulnerable population, undocumented Mexican immigrants. An in-person survey was administered to first- and second-year PA students (n = 75). Multiple regression was used to assess whether familiarity, stereotyping, language skills, cultural preparedness, societal views, and background characteristics of PA students influenced attitudes toward deservingness of care. Results suggested that cultural preparedness among PA students was associated with positive views toward deservingness of both emergency services (β = 0.38, p < .001) and primary care (β = -0.211, p = .05) for undocumented Mexicans. Negative societal views toward this population predicted an unwillingness to endorse emergency care (β = -0.43, p < .001) and primary care (β = -0.45, p < .001). Demographic projections indicate continued trends toward increasingly diverse patient populations, with dramatic growth among Hispanics. The findings of this study suggest that greater cultural preparedness is needed for future PAs. Furthermore, strategies for increasing PA students' self-awareness of how their broader societal views shape service delivery are warranted to ensure equitable care.

Craniofacial asymmetry as a marker of socioeconomic status among undocumented Mexican immigrants in the United States

This study examines levels of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) in Mexican residents, U.S. residents, and undocumented border crossers (UBCs) from Mexico to the United States. Craniofacial structures develop symmetrically under ideal circumstances; however, during periods of developmental stress random deviations from perfect symmetry, or FA, can occur. It is hypothesized that the UBC sample would represent individuals of a lower socioeconomic status (SES) who experienced higher stress levels during development, and that these individuals would consequently have higher levels of FA. Three-dimensional cranial landmarks were collected from 509 individuals representing the three resident groups. Geometric morphometric methods were used to calculate an FA score for each individual. The FA score provides a distance measure that is a scalar measure of the magnitude of FA in each individual. The results show that the difference in the means of the FA scores between UBCs and U.S. residents is 0.43 (p = 0.02), with UBCs showing significantly higher levels of FA compared to U.S. residents. Moreover, Mexican residents’ FA levels are intermediate between and not significantly different from the other two samples. These results suggest that levels of FA may prove useful for reconstructing individuals’ social and economic circumstances, and that craniofacial asymmetry provides a suitable biological marker for analyzing differences in SES among different groups.

“It Was Kind of a Dream Come True”: Undocumented College Students’ Testimonios of Cultural Wealth in the College Choice Process

Using community cultural wealth as a theoretical framework, this qualitative study examined the college choice process of eight undocumented Mexican college graduates. Through interviews, participants shared their testimonios revealing the development of their college aspirations and challenges encountered related to their undocumented status. They described the processes, resources, and networks they utilized to overcome obstacles and access a research university. Recommendations for practice and future research are offered.

Hardening the Border

Hardening the Border Stefano Bloch The frontier between the united States and Mexico has been hardening since 1848. More than forty pillars were constructed at regular intervals along the U.S.-Mexico border, starting with markers placed at the Pacific Ocean in California, at the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers in Arizona, and on through New Mexico until surveyors reached the mouth of the Rio Grande, where the angular line became a river in Texas. These modest stone structures were built to be seen from across the desert floor, to physically demarcate and concretize a long-standing political concept of state-hood and legal division brought about by war, justified through legal treaty, and upheld through threats of violence, both physical and economic. The hardening of the border has continued for more than 150 years, manifesting as makeshift gates, imposing signage, and corrugated metal fences. But in recent years the border has managed to get even harder. This hardening is not just a result of concrete walls or bollard fencing, and it is not just the result of increased military presence or enhanced surveillance technology. Rather, the hardening of the border has been accomplished through a hardening of rhetoric and terminology concerning who crosses the line. The language of border (in)security not only acts as a deterrent for those who might cross, but it works to harden those who do. A hardened border suggests that only hardcore migrants and hardcore smugglers will take such hardcore chances. And it is these hardened humans who will suffer hard deaths under the hot sun of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. Those who do survive to make it into U.S. cities and suburban communities are ontologically transformed by the rhetoric of border (in)security into “hardcore gang bangers” upon arrival. Even those who crossed as children cannot lose their hard edge and are therefore denied the protections and respect [End Page 264] that their hard-working counterparts once received. The creation of the less-than-human gang banger helps fuel the need for a fictional narrative that tells a story about 2,000 miles of impenetrable border wall that only monsters can traverse. The misapplication of the “gang member” label reveals its absurdity when applied to those who, as children, managed to cross that physical behemoth before being entered into gang databases and later denied DACA protections as “priority one threats to national security.” Once denied such currently fleeting protections, these kids are slated for deportation as much for being illegal as for being so-called gang bangers. In fact, according to an audit of the California State Gang Database known as CalGang, of the 150,000 identified gang members in the state, a disproportionate number are undocumented Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Salvadorans, thousands of whom are under the age of eighteen, and hundreds under the age of one. Of those infants entered in the gang database by local law enforcement in so-called sanctuary cities across California, dozens of them are purported to have “admitted to being gang members,” according to the California State Auditor (2016). The renewed application and use of the gang label has become part of the renewed rhetoric about border (in)security and the stepped-up fight against illegal immigrants. Although street gang membership has been on a steady decline for two decades, just as crime rates in the U.S. have plummeted from their all-time high during the early 1990s, gangs such as 18th Street and MS13, which started on the west side of downtown Los Angeles during the 1960s and 1980s, respectively, are being seen as Latin America’s most sinister and growing imports, which only a high and powerful wall can stop. Many so-called gang members are categorized as such without actual gang membership, let alone violent criminality, but based on superficial indicators, including what law enforcement perceives to be gang-related gait, argot, fashion sense, address, pheno-type, place of birth, and of course, immigration status. Like the prototypical gang member, the border wall prototypes currently sitting outside of Otay Mesa, California, need never do more than exist symbolically to provide the requisite level of (in)security. The...

Sociocultural Constructs in the Conceptualization of Adjustment Disorder in an Undocumented Mexican Female

Sociocultural Constructs in the Conceptualization of Adjustment Disorder in an Undocumented Mexican Female

Border Brokers: Teachers and Undocumented Mexican Students in Search of Acompañamiento

ABSTRACTThis article examines the deployment of border conocimiento and the subsequent cultural production of third spaces for transnational Mexican youth by Chicano educators who I call “border brokers” at a northern California high school. It examines the micro-level insurgent actions on the part of a small group of educators at Bosque High to engage Mexican migrant youth through a different educational vision and narrative—a vision based on communal notions of learning and belonging and border epistemology, what I call Acompañamiento, where the meaning and scope of membership in the community in which one lives are addressed. Demonstrating a border epistemology, border teachers understood intimately the need to go beyond narrow constructions of academic success to join in the struggle for full realization of their students’ humanity and need to be in community. Using ethnographic data from a year-long study at a northern California high school and town, this paper examines the different ways that educators came together to claim space and create place for displaced transmigrants in what I call acts of acompañamiento—a fluid cultural practice of solidarity, advocacy, and relationship/community building based on cultural knowledge situated in border zones.

Duration of migratory trips of undocumented Mexicans in the United States under the border enforcement policy

espanolEl articulo estudia el efecto que tiene la politica de reforzamiento de la frontera sobre la duracion de los viajes migratorios de los migrantes mexicanos indocumentados. En particular interesa analizar como el incremento de los riesgos y costos de cruce fronterizo clandestino, que surgen de esta politica migratoria, afectan al tiempo de permanencia de los migrantes indocumentados en Estados Unidos. Para ello, se estimo un modelo probabilistico de riesgo en tiempo discreto logit, el cual permite determinar cambios en las probabilidades de retorno y, por lo tanto, cam-bios en las tendencias de las duraciones de los viajes migratorios. La base de datos empleada fue la Mexican Migration Proyect (MMP). El modelo arrojo coeficientes negativos en los costos y riesgos de cruce fronterizo clandestino en relacion a la probabilidad de retorno. EnglishThis article studies the effect of political border enforcement on the duration of the migratory journeys of undocumented Mexican migrants. In particular we analyze the effect of increase of the risks and costs of illegal border crossing that arise from this migration policy over the trip duration of undocumented migrants in the United States. For this purpose a logit model (Dis-crete-Time Hazard Model) was fit, which allows to determine changes in the odds of return and, therefore changes in trends in migratory journeys durations. The database used is the survey Mexican Migration Project (MMP). The model has negative coefficients on the variables costs and risks of clandestine border crossing in regard to the probability of return

"One Scar Too Many:" The Associations Between Traumatic Events and Psychological Distress Among Undocumented Mexican Immigrants.

Undocumented immigration often presents with multiple stressors and contextual challenges, which may diminish mental health. This study is the first to provide population-based estimates for the prevalence of traumatic events and its association to clinically significant psychological distress among undocumented Mexican immigrants in the United States. This cross-sectional study used respondent-driven sampling to obtain and analyze data from clinical interviews with 248 undocumented Mexican immigrants residing in high-risk neighborhoods near the California-Mexico border. Overall, 82.7% of participants reported a history of traumatic events, with 47.0% of these meeting the criteria for clinically significant psychological distress. After controlling for relevant covariates, having experienced material deprivation, odds ratio (OR) = 2.26, 95% CI [1.18, 4.31], p = .013, and bodily injury, OR = 2.96, 95% CI [1.50, 5.83], p = .002, and not having a history of deportation, OR = 0.36, 95% CI [0.17, 0.79], p = .011, were associated with clinically significant psychological distress. These results support the need to revisit health and immigration policies and to devise solutions grounded in empirical evidence aimed at preventing the negative effects of trauma and psychological distress in this population.

Mental disorders among undocumented Mexican immigrants in high-risk neighborhoods: Prevalence, comorbidity, and vulnerabilities.

This study aimed to: (a) provide population-based estimates for the prevalence of mental disorders, including substance use, among undocumented Mexican immigrants; (b) assess for relevant comorbidities; and (c) identify sociodemographic, immigration and contextual vulnerabilities associated with meeting criteria for a disorder. This cross-sectional study used Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) to collect and analyze data from clinical interviews with 248 undocumented Mexican immigrants residing near the California-Mexico border. The M.I.N.I. Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used as the primary outcome of interest. For all analyses, inferential statistics accounted for design effects and sample weights to produce weighted estimates. Logistic regression was used in multivariate analyses. Overall, 23% of participants met criteria for a disorder (95% CI = 17.1; 29.0). The most prevalent disorders were Major Depressive Disorder (14%, 95% CI = 10.2; 18.6), Panic Disorder (8%, 95% CI = 5.0; 11.9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (7%, 95% CI = 3.4; 9.8). Approximately 4% of participants met criteria for a substance use disorder (95% CI = 1.2; 6.1). After controlling for covariates, being 18 to 25 years and experiencing distress from postmigration living difficulties were significantly associated with meeting criteria for a disorder. Undocumented Mexican immigrants are an at-risk population for mental disorders, particularly depression and anxiety disorders. Given that distress from postmigration living difficulties is associated with meeting criteria for a disorder, revisiting policies and developing new alternatives to facilitate access and provision of context-sensitive mental health services for this population is necessary to protect the human rights of these immigrants and that of their U.S. families. (PsycINFO Database Record

Social Security Options for Undocumented Mexican Immigrants Living and Working in the United States

This paper explores the issue of social security in the context of undocumented immigrants from Mexico in the United States and examines self-help options Mexican immigrants have at their disposal until policy-makers come up with a genuine alternative. The case of Mexican migrants to the United States is unique because of historical and trade relationships between the two countries.

Crossing Borders: Narrative Therapy With Undocumented Mexican Women on a Journey Beyond Abuse and Violence

Many undocumented Mexican women in the United States are harmed by sexual and physical violence and limited opportunities. Often living in fear of deportation and without recourse to a legal system that would ensure their safety, they are further isolated, paralyzed, and feel they have no safe place to turn. This article describes the application of narrative therapy to address the mental health needs of undocumented Mexican women subjected to domestic violence. Identifying implicit themes in crossing narratives that relate to identity and relationships before and after a domestic violence experience are explored. This exploration in therapy creates a context for undocumented Mexican women to notice resiliency in their experiences and develop their preferred life narratives. A summary of the “absent but implicit” approach with one case example illustrates the effects and possibilities of narrative therapy within this unique therapeutic context.

Processes of Belonging for Citizen-Children of Undocumented Mexican Immigrants.

In this article, we focus on the developmental contexts of middle childhood and early adolescence to explore the lives of citizen-children living with undocumented Mexican parents. We draw on the concept of belonging to highlight the distinct situation of citizen-children and the ways in which they come to understand their place in a world. To capture the experiences of citizen-children born to undocumented Mexican immigrant parents and their sense of belonging to place and community, we conducted in-depth interviews with 83 citizen-children in late childhood and early adolescence in three groups. One group of citizen-children lived in Mexico after their parents' deportation. Another group remained in the U.S. after parents were detained or deported. The third group did not have a parent in deportation proceedings. Qualitative analyses of children's recorded interviews revealed their experiences of discovery of parents' undocumented status; political, social and material exclusion; and rupture of family ties. Children were keenly aware that birthright citizenship afforded them numerous privileges unavailable to their parents, but that it did not extend to the very privilege, they valued most: an intact family. The loss of parents through detention or deportation forced some children to consider existential questions about who they were and where they belonged, sometimes pitting family members against one another. Our findings suggest that belonging is intimately tied to broader forces of legal persecution that go beyond individualized notions of illegality and have deep, possibly lasting psychological effects.

Creating Social Justice: A Conversation with Julia Álvarez

In this interview, Julia Álvarez shares her insights on the power of storytelling to overturn political injustices, such as the one suffered by the Dominican people, and in particular by the Mirabal sisters, under General Rafael Trujillo’s thirty–one years of dictatorship. The writer also offers a compelling vision of community engagement through the creation of a literary space in which issues affecting the Latino population in the United States can be explored. Álvarez reveals the importance of the imagination in envisioning a distinct narrative space where the effects of NAFTA on undocumented Mexican farmer workers or the challenges faced by the children of undocumented immigrants are brought to life through the singularity of her characters. She particularly stresses her commitment to creating a multiplicity of voices and approaches in order to provoke an independent but well-rounded discussion of the conflicting perspectives on these issues.

Creating Social Justice: A Conversation with Julia Álvarez

In this interview, Julia Álvarez shares her insights on the power of storytelling to overturn political injustices, such as the one suffered by the Dominican people, and in particular by the Mirabal sisters, under General Rafael Trujillo’s thirty–one years of dictatorship. The writer also offers a compelling vision of community engagement through the creation of a literary space in which issues affecting the Latino population in the United States can be explored. Álvarez reveals the importance of the imagination in envisioning a distinct narrative space where the effects of NAFTA on undocumented Mexican farmer workers or the challenges faced by the children of undocumented immigrants are brought to life through the singularity of her characters. She particularly stresses her commitment to creating a multiplicity of voices and approaches in order to provoke an independent but well-rounded discussion of the conflicting perspectives on these issues.

Shifting from Village-Based Networks to Locally Generated Networks: Undocumented Mexican Agricultural Workers Who Use/Used Hard Drugs

Hardships that face transmigrants working in agriculture include the potential for drug use. Reliant on village-based networks that facilitate border crossing and developing a plan for a destination within this country, transmigrants who try new drugs/alcohol and/or continue on accustomed drugs/alcohol are facilitated in these endeavors through locally generated networks as alternative forms of access and support. Seven cases of undocumented men from Mexico are reviewed to show how use of illicit drugs is minimally affected by economic success and time in the United States, or village-based networks that first facilitated entry into this country. Prior conditions, especially childhood difficulties and search for socioeconomic autonomy, precipitate new and/or continuing drug use within the United States on this side of the border, where both forms of drug use are facilitated by locally generated networks.

Intimate attachments and migrant deportability: lessons from undocumented mothers seeking benefits for citizen children

ABSTRACTNicholas De Genova (2002) suggests that undocumented status is primarily experienced through consciousness of being deportable. Interviews with undocumented Mexican migrant women living in Arizona show that they experience deportability not just in workplaces, which have been the focus of much scholarship, but also when seeking healthcare benefits for their U.S. citizen children. This article therefore expands the scholarship on deportability by exploring how state strategies for constituting migrants as deportable work through, and reconfigure, intimate ties, in this case, ties to children. Furthermore, it shows that migrant mothers draw on diverse intimate ties, beyond those that are recognized by the state, to manage the impact of their deportability. The article concludes by calling for expanded scholarly engagement with the complex relationship between state regulation, intimate ties, migrant lives, and political possibilities.