Maya K’iche’ Families and Intergenerational Migration Within and Across Borders: An Exploratory Study*


Abstract


Abstract

This research explores the lived experiences of transnational migrant sending families in one Mayan village in the Southern Quiché region of Guatemala.  It is part of a transnational partnership between university-based activist scholars in the northeastern U.S. and K’iche’ Maya and ladinx in Zacualpa and its villages. Reversing a trend in the much migration research that focuses on economic advantages of remittances for sending families, this study, part of a broader participatory and action research project, deployed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to unpack multiple diverse and conflicting effects of transnational migration on sending families. Analyses from 10 in-depth interviews with heads of households with at least one unauthorized migrant and a community-based survey with 137 village families found that despite families’ with transnational migrants being able to build larger homes and increase their material possessions, some reported overwhelming levels of migratory debt (up to $31,000 USD) that sometimes led to loss of homes or lands. Interviewees focused on family-level decisions favoring migration despite the harsh realities of the journey and life in the U.S.  Iteratively analyzed results document one local community’s experiences of transbordering family “from the bottom up”, and suggest that these Maya perform migration as civil disobedience and decolonization.

 

* This paper is dedicated to the memory and legacy of the student who collaborated in the data analysis reported herein while pursuing graduate studies at College. She was killed in an accident on (date), weeks before she was to travel to Guatemala to join the participatory action research team whose work is described herein.

 


DOI Code: 10.1285/i24212113v6i1p52

Keywords: migration; Maya K'iche'; sending families

References


Achiume, E.T. (2017). Re-imagining international law for global migration: Migration as decolonization? American Journal of International Law, 111, 142-146. doi:10.1017/aju.2017.48

Achiume, E.T. (2019). Migration as decolonization. Stanford Law Review, 71, 1509-1574. Retrieved from: https://www.stanfordlawreview.org/print/article/migration-as-decolonization/

Artico, C.I. (2003). Latino families broken by immigration: The adolescent's perceptions. New York, NY: LFB Scholarly Publishing.

Blitzer, J. (2019). The epidemic of debt plaguing Central American migrants. The New Yorker. Retrieved from: https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-epidemic-of-debt-plaguing-central-american-migrants

Brabeck, K., Lykes, M.B., & Hershberg, R. (2011). Framing immigration to and deportation from the United States: Guatemalan and Salvadoran families make meaning of their experiences. Community, Work, and Family, 14(3), 275-296. doi:10.1080/13668803.2010.520840

Brabeck, K., & Xu, Q. (2010). The impact of detention and deportation on Latino immigrant families: A quantitative exploration. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 32(3), 341-361. doi:10.1177/0739986310374053

Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory (2nd ed). London, UK: Sage Publications.

Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico. (1999). Reporte de la Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico. Memoria del Silencio [Online]. Guatemala, Guatemala: Author. Retrieved from: https://www.undp.org/content/dam/guatemala/docs/publications/ UNDP_gt_PrevyRecu_MemoriadelSilencio.pdf

Cortes, R. (2007). Children and women left behind in labor sending countries: An appraisal of social risks. Global Report on Migration and Children. A report submitted to UNICEF. Retrieved from: https://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Children_and_women_left_behind(3).pdf

Creswell, J.W., Klassen, A.C., Plano Clark, V.L., Smith, K.C., for the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. (2011). Best practices for mixed methods research in the health sciences. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academy.

Gathmann, C. (2004). Effects of enforcement on illegal markets: Evidence from migrant smuggling along the southwestern border. IZA Discussion Papers N°1004, Institute for the Study of Labor. Retrieved from: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/20239

Grandin, G., Levenson, D.T., & Oglesby, E. (2011). The Guatemala reader: History, culture, politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Hershberg, R.M., & Lykes, M.B. (2015). Transnational mixed-status families. In A. Sheuths & J. Lawston (Eds.), Living together, living apart: Mixed status families and U.S. immigration policy (pp. 37–53). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.

Instituto Nacional de Estadística. (2010). Anuario estadística ambiental: Demografía y pobreza. Guatemala, Guatemala: INE.

Inter-American Dialogue. (2019). Fact sheet: Family remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean. Retrieved from: https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/fact-sheet-family-remittances-to-latin-america-and-the-caribbean-in-2018/

International Organization for Migration. (2003). World migration report: Managing migration, challenges and responses for people on the move. Geneva, Switzerland: Organization for Migration.

Johnson, R.L., & Woodhouse, M. (2018). Securing the return: How enhanced US border enforcement Fuels Cycles of Debt Migration. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 50(4), 976-996. doi:10.1111/anti.12386

Kanstroom, D. (2007). Deportation nation: Outsiders in American history. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Keeley, B. (2009). International migration: The human face of globalisation. Paris, France: OECD.

Lesser, G., & Batalova, J. (2017). Central American immigrants in the United States. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved from: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/central-american-immigrants-united-states

Lykes, M.B., & Crosby, A. (2015). Participatory action research as a resource for community regeneration in post-conflict contexts. In D. Bretherton & S.F. Law (Eds.), Methodologies in Peace Psychology: Peace Research by Peaceful Means (pp. 237-254). New York, NY: Springer.

Lykes, M.B., McDonald, E., & Boc, C. (2012). The post-deportation human rights project: Participatory action research with the Mayan community. Practicing Anthropology 34(1), 22-26.

Lykes, M.B., & Sibley, E. (2013). Exploring meaning making with adolescents “left behind” by migration. Educational Action Research, 21(4), 565-581. doi:10.1080/09650792.2013. 832346.

Lykes, M.B., Sibley, E., Brabeck, K.M., Hunter, C., & Johansen, Y. (2015). Participatory action research with transnational and mixed status families: Understanding and responding to post-9/11 threats to migrants. In D. Kanstroon & M.B. Lykes (Eds.), The new deportations delirium: Interdisciplinary responses (pp. 193-226). New York, NY: New York University Press.

Lykes, M.B., Sibley, E., Thomas, M., Álvarez López, A.M., & Chich González, J.D. (2016). Documenting the lives of 21st century Mayan families “on the move” Zacualpa, Guatemala. Retrieved from: https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/bc1/schools/lsoe/sites/human-rights/documents/zacualpa-census-final-english.pdf

Maguire, P. (1987). Doing participatory action research: A feminist approach. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Moran-Taylor, M. (2008). When mothers and fathers migrate north. Latin American Perspectives, 35(4), 79-95. doi:10.1177/0094582X08318980

Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R.G. (1996). Immigrant America: A portrait. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Ratha, D., Mohapatra, S., & Silwal, A. (2011). Migration and remittances factbook 2011. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Rocha, J.L. (2017). La desobediencia de las masas: La migración no autorizada de Centroamericanos a Estados Unidos como Desobediencia Civil. San Salvador, El Salvador: UCA Editores.

Sánchez Ares, R., & Lykes, M.B. (2016). Mayan young women and photovoice: Exposing state violence(s) and gendered migration in rural Guatemala. Community Psychology in Global Perspective 2(2), 56-78. doi: 10.1285/i24212113v2i2p56

Schmalzbauer, L. (2005). Striving and surviving: A daily life analysis of Honduran transnational families. New York, NY: Routledge.

Schmalzbauer, L. (2008). Family divided: The class formation of Honduran transnational families. Global Networks, 8, 329-46. doi:10.1111/j.1471-0374.2008.00198.x

Taylor, M., Moran-Taylor, M., & Ruiz, D.R. (2006). Land, ethnic, and gender change: Transnational migration and its effects on Guatemalan lives and landscapes. Geoforum, 37, 41-61. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2004.12.002

Tuck, E., & Yang, K.W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, education & society, 1(1), 1-40. Retrieved from: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/18630

Watkins, M. (2019). Mutual accompaniment and the creation of the commons. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Zong, J., Batalova, J., & Burrows, M. (2019). Frequently requested statistics on immigrants and immigration in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Migration Polic


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
کاغذ a4

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.