Border Lives: Fronterizos, Transnational Migrants, and Commuters in Tijuana

ISBN-13: 9780199380589 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 222 str.

Sergio R. Chaavez; Sergio Chavez

Opis

In Border Lives, Sergio Chavez moves past Tijuana's notorious image as a hub of sex, drugs, and crime to tell the story of the diverse group of individuals who use both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border as a resource to construct their livelihoods. Based on ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews, Chavez explores the complex and often contradictory ways in which the border influences the livelihood strategies and lifestyles of border crossers. The border shapes respondents' knowledge and relationships, controls their time, and allows them to convert U.S. wages into a Mexican standard of living without losing the social and cultural comforts of Tijuana-as-home. A substantial contribution to migration and labor studies, Border Lives provides empirical grounding to theories of how geographical borders shape human action.

Recenzje

This kind of special insight, of waiting in line, for example, demonstrates the biggest strength of Border Lives: its rigorous ethnographic approach... I appreciated how, in addition to spending time with respondents in their homes and personal networks, Chávez conducted observations at the San Ysidro port every morning for a year, and even crossed the border with a coyote. The Epilogue offers an update on the lives of research participants, and the reader is able to find closure with people you have developed a connection to throughout the book. I think this emotional connection speaks to the power of this study's methodology.

O autorze

Sergio Chávez is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rice University