Alter(n) im transnationalen Raum: (Re-)Migrationsprozesse zwischen Mexiko und den USA.
Final Report Abstract
In this project we investigated intentions of return migration upon retirement of elderly Mexicans (aged 55 and above) living in Chicago. Based on the assumptions that the intention to go back to one’s home country (1) constitutes a guiding principle for most migrants and (2) becomes concrete when work as the pivotal factor motivating migration vanishes we pursued a twofold objective: First we sought two explore where the migrants planned to reside after retiring. Second we examined the motives the migrants invoked as reasons for their considerations and sought to analyze which factors were pivotal for their future residence intentions. The study was based on ethnographic fieldwork in San Antonio, Mexico (July – September 2010) and Chicago, U.S. (September 2010 – August 2011). While we originally intended to get a transnational picture of one Mexican community, particularly its elderly members, spanning the border between Mexico and the U.S., we had to modify the research design during fieldwork and decided to include people from other regions in Mexico in the sample. Our results comprise three main findings: First we learned that the majority of the correspondents did, in contrast their original intentions, no longer entertain the idea of entirely returning to Mexico, but envisioned a future either exclusively in Chicago or going back-and-forth between Chicago and Mexico. Permanent returns to Mexico were only rarely planned. Second, when analyzing the motivations that played a role for this decision-making it turned out that pragmatic factors (such as economic motives or the legal status) hardly exerted influence on people’s considerations, whereas emotional and relationship based aspects featured prominently. We therefore identified “belonging” as a key to comprehend the migrants’ return considerations. Third, we found that the migrants highlighted the emergence and transformations of attachments to and detachments from people, places and culture over time when configuring their belonging. These narratives of experiences shed light on the emergence of and changes in their socio-cultural embeddedness as related to key experiences and circumstances they engaged with. The narratives also illuminated how the migrants reconfigured their belonging while relating to and recounting these past experiences. Collectively shared discourses (master narratives) structuring the narratives and experiential tropes of engaging with the various contexts encountered in Mexico and Chicago (context engagements) showed that the migrants largely framed their migratory projects as success stories, while individual key experiences (anchoring points) created more nuanced and ambiguous sentiments of belonging.
Publications
- 2013. Ältere MigrantInnen in Hamburg. Sprachliche und kulturelle Diversität in Senioreneinrichtungen und anderen Alter(n)swelten. IN Redder, A., J. Pauli, R. Kießling, K. Bührig, B. Brehmer, I. Breckner & J. Androutsopoulos (Hg.) Mehrsprachige Kommunikation in der Stadt. Das Beispiel Hamburg. Münster: Waxmann Verlag: 29-54
Pauli, J., L. Egetmeyer, R. Meisel & S.L. Radt
- 2013. ‘Sharing Made Us Sisters’: Sisterhood, Migration and Household Dynamics in Mexico and Namibia. IN E. Alber, C. Coe and T. Thelen (Hg.) The Anthropology of Sibling Relations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 29-50
Pauli, J.
- PhD thesis. Sweet home Chicago? Mexican migrants considering return and reconfiguring belonging upon retirement. Universität Hamburg
Bedorf, F.
- From ultimogeniture to senior club: Negotiating certainties and uncertainties of growing older between rural Mexico and urban Chicago. IN: A. Wonneberger, M. Gandelsmann-Trier und H. Dorsch (Hg.), Migration - Networks - Skills: Anthropological Perspectives on Mobility and Transformation, Festschrift in honour of Waltraud Kokot. S. 47-66. Bielefeld, transcript Verlag, 2016. 9783837633641
Pauli, J. und F. Bedorf
