Abstract

SANCHEZ JIMENEZ, Bulmaro. Ethnography of Returning Migrants in Chamula, Chiapas: The Experiences of Undocumented Migrants who Returned Home as a Result of Unemployment in the United States, 2006-2011. LiminaR [online]. 2023, vol.21, n.1, e952.  Epub Jan 20, 2023. ISSN 2007-8900.  https://doi.org/10.29043/liminar.v21i1.952.

This essay explores the experiences of Tsotsil-speaking migrants from Chamula, Chiapas, who returned to their communities following the complicated hardships they experienced as undocumented migrants in the United States. It recounts the daring acts they had to undertake to find work during an economic crisis that began in the summer of 2006, the challenges they had to face, first with money-lenders who financed their trips, and their experiences with a network of migrant smugglers that extends from their home communities to their destination in the U.S. Migrants described the difficulties they encountered trying to reestablish and find work in their home communities. The research methodology consisted of in-depth interviews based on a semi-structured questionnaire as well as participant observation.

Keywords : international migration; undocumented migration; return migration; socio-occupational reintegration.

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