Orientation to homeland: Mexican migrant mothers who long for home but settle abroad
Item
-
Title
-
Orientation to homeland: Mexican migrant mothers who long for home but settle abroad
-
Identifier
-
d_2009_2013:ffa5aa8f02b7:11590
-
identifier
-
12059
-
Creator
-
Ruiz-Navarro, Patricia,
-
Contributor
-
Kay Deaux
-
Date
-
2012
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Social psychology | Latin American studies | Individual & family studies | Womens studies | Ethnic studies | Public policy | Families | Mexican Migration | Mixed-methods | Return Migration
-
Abstract
-
This dissertation explores the extent to which the intention to return to one's home country and the existing transnational participation of Mexican female migrants changes with the birth of their U.S.-born children. Through this study I explored how selected demographic characteristics, social support and perceptions of financial well-being, public assistance and schools in the United States influenced first-generation migrant mothers' orientation to homeland (OTH). I conceptualize OTH as these two sets of behaviors: immigrant parents decisions' to return to their home country or engage in transnational practices.;Mothers of newborn children were recruited at maternity wards in New York City hospitals as part of an ongoing longitudinal study aimed at determining how living conditions and family environment of low-income families affect children from birth to 36 months, A subsample of Mexican mothers (N=97) comprised the sample of the present study. Data for this study consisted of survey questionnaires, in-depth interviews and ethnographic field notes. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze survey data. A narrative analysis using a categorical and content approach was used with the qualitative data of four case studies that represented two views of return migration.;Results of the study showed how migrant mothers who had stayed longer in the United States had weaker intentions to return to their home country. Statistical results of this study did not show that age, education, nor social support or perceptions of financial well-being had contributed to OTH. Meanwhile, participants in this study seemed more interested in public assistance intended to pay for the health and care of their children. In the qualitative analysis, a shared expectation of migrant mothers was to offer a safe and healthy environment for children.;This study was not designed as a study of undocumented women, however survey and interview data revealed legal status to be an important filter of participants' perceptions of life and opportunity in the United States.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
2009_2013.csv
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
-
Program
-
Psychology
