Border Lives: Fronterizos, Transnational Migrants, and Commuters in Tijuana
Sergio Chávez
Abstract
Based on observations and in-depth interviews, Border Lives tells the story of how diverse groups of individuals came to establish roots in Tijuana, beginning shortly after the termination of the Bracero Program (1942–64) and ending in the present. It describes how these different groups of migrants and residents adapt to a dynamic borderlands economy and draw on the border as a resource to construct their livelihoods. The book details the consequences of border-enforcement and immigration restrictions over several decades, documenting the ways in which policies create precarious situations fo ... More
Based on observations and in-depth interviews, Border Lives tells the story of how diverse groups of individuals came to establish roots in Tijuana, beginning shortly after the termination of the Bracero Program (1942–64) and ending in the present. It describes how these different groups of migrants and residents adapt to a dynamic borderlands economy and draw on the border as a resource to construct their livelihoods. The book details the consequences of border-enforcement and immigration restrictions over several decades, documenting the ways in which policies create precarious situations for those who cross the border and come in contact with them on a regular basis. The book shows how individuals have used the border as a resource in the past, and how current residents are forced to seek ways to access the opportunities that the border offers in the future. Yet for all of these border crossers—former, current, and future—the border itself figures significantly, not only in their livelihood strategy but also in their lifestyle, shaping their knowledge, action, and their relationships, controlling their time, and allowing them to convert US wages into a Mexican standard of living, without losing the social and cultural comforts of Tijuana-as-home.
Keywords:
border,
internal and international migration,
border commuters,
stepwise migration,
livelihood strategies,
structure versus agency,
social networks,
Tijuana
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199380572 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: April 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199380572.001.0001 |
