Introduction

In the context of the crisis of care in the global south and north and of the institutional factors that define the attraction dynamics of transmigrant work in the United States (US), this article analyzes the cross-border work trajectories of Mexican women residing in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, Baja California, whose work involves caring for children and the elderly in San Diego, California. This type of paid care work is part of the informal sector of domestic work in the US.

While the majority of studies on paid care work in the US refer to migrant women from a transnational perspective, this article emphasizes the cross-border nature of the activity. Thanks to its geographical proximity, the US-Mexico border area allows workers to earn a better salary in the neighboring country while still residing in Mexico where the cost of living is lower. In addition, the workers have the possibility of studying and/or working in their home country while caring for their families. This is shown by the narratives of a group of workers who were interviewed and who constitute the main basis of the analysis, which is complemented with some information from the Mexican census.

The work trajectories and cross-border mobility of the care workers allow us to analyze their beginnings in this job, the changes in their working arrangements, and their trajectories as a result of the transformations in the dynamics of transit, family responsibilities, and individual factors such as age, education, and work experience.

In light of the specialized literature, the first part of this article discusses the concepts of care and the work activities of care. In the broader global context of care, the second section reviews studies on care work in cross-border areas, and from the concept of transmigration, we propose the category of cross-border care work, as is the cross-border work trajectory. The third section presents the methodological aspects, highlighting the use of trajectories as a tool for the analysis of case studies. The fourth section, based on census information on the transmigrant population, analyzes some sociodemographic characteristics of the care workers, as well as the profiles of those interviewed for this study. The fifth section focuses on the analysis of cross-border care trajectories, and the conclusions summarize the main findings of this work.

Care as Work

The concept of care has been the subject of discussion in the social sciences in the last two decades. In particular, the crisis of care has stimulated discussion about its definition (^{Carrasquer, 2013}). From a sociological perspective, is the definition of ^{Daly and Lewis (2000}), who propose the concept of social care as an activity and a set of relationships between different social actors, since it combines an analysis of the women’s lives, their states of well-being, and their transformations. Carrasquer (2013, p. 99) indicates that Daly and Lewis’s proposal takes the “woman” out of the analysis of care, guiding the discussion instead towards one of analyzing needs and the provision of well-being. From this perspective, Carrasquer argues that care is seen as socially organized work as groups and institutions participate in different social spaces, and care is coordinated and distributed following specific socio-cultural and economic patterns. According to the author, women’s work is the articulating element of the social organization of care that is integrated by the family, the market, and the state, and that shapes care regimes. In this sense, Carrasquer (2013, p. 100) emphasizes the importance of the women’s daily lives and the lives that they participate in, so we organize care work among the different actors and institutions in which this work takes place.

Thus, from the perspective of the social organization of care, we focus here on paid care work, whose contribution is central to maintaining the workforce and social development (^{Colen, 1995}; ^{Kofman & Raghuram, 2012}; ^{Razavi & Staab, 2010}). This work involves a wide range of activities that are carried out in hospitals and retirement homes, as well as in educational institutions and service professions, in addition to reproductive labor such as domestic work and informal care for older adults and children (^{Alber & Drotbohm, 2015}). In particular, we focus on the concept of care as paid work that Mexican transmigrant women carry out for families in the US, and that is carried out in the home environment.

In this study we define care work as the remunerated provision of personal services for the care of children and seniors and/or patients in the employer’s home. These activities are mainly carried out by women, and include the physical, social, and emotional care that the care worker provides to people who require their services at different stages of life. Besides, care demands time and has a relational character between the person who cares and the one who receives their care (^{Batthyány, 2010}).

The Global Crisis of Care: from Transnational Migration to Transmigration

The systemic crisis that privileges capital over the wellbeing of people with impacts in different parts of the world has resulted in a crisis of social reproduction in both the global north and the global south (^{Benería, 2008}; ^{Pérez-Orozco, 2014}). While in northern countries there is a demand for unskilled care and domestic service due to the greater economic participation of professional women, who have to balance the demands of work and family, as well as the growth of the elderly population and the lack of such state services; in southern countries the crisis of social reproduction has its origin in poverty and unemployment, as well as in demographic dynamics that mobilize women to migrate and work as domestic workers and caregivers in the northern countries (Benería, 2008; ^{Hochschild, 2000}; ^{Sassen, 2003}).

The crisis of care and its attraction dynamics have created an international division of reproductive work that is transformed over time, producing inequalities in the intersection of migration, gender, and ethnicity at different levels and dimensions (^{Parella, Petroff & Solé, 2013}; ^{Pérez-Orozco, 2014}). At the structural level, migratory laws and welfare systems produce inequalities affecting the migratory status and the quality of life of individuals. At the microsocial level, the analysis of women’s experiences, subjectivities, and agencies helps us understand how the care work of migrant women is linked to global economic processes (^{Cienfuegos, 2016}).

The literature on migration and care emphasizes the concept of global care chains to describe the transnational commodification of care work resulting from the migration of domestic workers and caregivers from the countries of the south to the countries of the north (^{Hochschild, 2000}; ^{Sassen, 2003}; ^{Yeates, 2005}). Migrant women transfer their work to destination countries while delegating care activities in their countries of origin to others (Hochschild, 2000).

From a transnational perspective, ^{Yeates (2009}) and ^{Kofman and Raghuram (2012}) argue that global chains limit the analysis to certain geographical regions (south to north), institutions, and care regimes, highlighting the importance of paying attention to inequalities of gender and ethnicity in specific areas. Recent research in Europe and Latin America has already taken into account other geographies of care work at the global level, as is the case of south-south migrations (^{Maher, 2003}; ^{Durin, De la O & Bastos, 2014}). These studies highlight the participation of migrant women as “reproductive workers” (^{Truong, 1996}) dedicated to caring for families in destination countries (^{Carcedo, Chávez & Lexartza, 2011}; ^{Mattingly, 2006}; ^{Pérez-Orozco, 2014}; ^{Soto, González & Dobrée, 2012}).

Despite the above, less attention has been given to the cross-border dimension of care work, hence our interest in analyzing this activity in one of the busiest regions of the world, the border area of Tijuana and San Diego, which is characterized by its transmigrant population.

Methodology

Most of the studies carried out in several border cities of the US and Mexico focus on the work of migrant women residing in the US. For this reason, we focus on the transmigration of Mexican women who live in Tijuana and cross the border to work in San Diego as caregivers of children, seniors, and the sick.

This is a qualitative study based on the experiences of cross-border care work and labor trajectories of a group of women interviewed. The aim is to analyze the dynamics and social interactions that are the focus of this activity.

To this end, in 2016, we interviewed six care workers and one more in 2018. All of them were contacted using the snowball technique, through colleagues and friends, who knew these workers. Five women were interviewed in Ensenada, Playas de Rosarito, and Tijuana, and two of them in San Diego. The women did not agree to be interviewed in their homes, so the interviews took place in public places such as cafes and restaurants, and a shopping center.

We recorded most of the interviews but when women disagreed, we took notes. We gave them all an informed consent letter but they refused to sign it because they felt at risk or felt it would assume some type of commitment. We explained to them that they could request information about the project, that they could suspend the interview if at any time it bothered them, and that we will not mention their names to preserve their privacy. A second field trial began in 2018, for which several female workers who were older than 40 years were contacted, some dedicated to caring for children and others to older adults. However, during this time, the Migrant Caravan arrived in Tijuana, creating a risky situation for transmigrants, as many of them cross the US border to work with their tourist visa. Because of this, the care workers who had been contacted refused to be interviewed because they feared being deported. Their concern was totally justified, as the threat that the US government would close the border created uncertainty not only for trade and tourism but also for the people who live in Tijuana and depend on the daily crossing of the border to work in San Diego. In the summer of 2019, another set of interviews was carried out; however, due to time issues, it was not possible to integrate them into this text.

We systematize the information from the interviews by using some categories that emerged from the stories, and according to the grounded theory method (^{Glaser & Strauss, 2012}), and then we performed an interpretive analysis. In addition to the narratives of the workers interviewed, we also used census and intercensal information from Mexico, obtained from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series of the Minnesota Population Center (2017), to describe some profile features of female care workers who are part of the transmigrant population.

Transmigration and Care Work at the Tijuana-San Diego Border

For some authors, the Tijuana-San Diego region functions as a cross-border metropolis that fulfills complementary functions. Thus, while San Diego specializes in high-technology activities, Tijuana is oriented towards services and intensive manufacturing with low-skilled labor. These cities are part of two distinct countries that are characterized by significant differences and political, cultural, and economic asymmetries (^{Alegría, 2002}).

Despite the differences in income, infrastructure, language, and culture (^{Mendoza, 2017}), thousands of people cross these borders daily, with Tijuana-San Ysidro being one of the busiest international borders in the world. Among the daily crossings are those of people who live in Tijuana and work in San Diego. Based on the geographic proximity and the related economic activities of the cities on both sides of the border, ^{Alegría (2002}) called this process transmigration.

Transmigration from Mexico to the US is mainly economic. Cross-border care workers are part of the transmigrant population of border cities, and their work is part of the informal sector of domestic service in the US. Despite the existence of labor and tax laws (^{Mattingly, 2006}), it is a flexible and deregulated labor market, resulting in precarious employment. Besides, immigration status, combined with ethnicity and gender, leads to low wages, instability, and lack of social protection for these workers (^{Maher, 2003}; ^{Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2007}; ^{Williams, 2011}; ^{Ariza, 2011}).

Statistics about transmigrant workers are difficult to obtain, but the Mexican census includes some information about them. Thus, based on census data in Mexico, recent studies show that the transmigrant population in the border cities of northern Mexico is declining. For example, in Tijuana this population decreased from 5.6% to 4.5% between 2000 and 2010 (^{Orraca, 2015}; Vargas & Coubès, 2017, cited in ^{López, 2019}).

Even so, transmigrant women increased from 23% to 30% during the same period (^{Orraca, 2015}). Although the concept of cross-border care work does not exist in the census, the category of “elemental occupations” is the best approximation, and 31.7% of transmigrant women are part of this category (Orraca, 2015, cited in ^{López, 2019}, p. 125). A more detailed analysis of census information revealed that these are women engaged in domestic and caring work and that their number increased more than 100% between 2000 and 2010.

According to ^{Coubes and Silva (2013}), this phenomenon might be due to the unemployment rate, that in Tijuana rose from 0 to 8% during the economic crisis of 2008, and to the fact that many housewives, whose husbands had no employment, had to engage as careworkers in San Diego.

Census data suggest that more young and educated women are participating in this activity. While in 2000 the average age of cross-border care workers was 40.2 years, in 2015 the number of young women markedly increased, from 16.7% to 47.6%, so there was a decrease in the average age, from 52.5 in 2010 to 40.6 in 2015 (See Table 1).

According to Table 2 the educational profile of this group of caregivers has changed over time. While in 2000 few of them had high school education, almost 15% were enrolled in high school 2015. This increase in scholar years seems to be associated with age, since as more young women participate as careworkers, the chance that they are studying increases.

Between 2000 and 2010, the average income of female workers decreased from 6 746 to 6 402 US dollars, while it increased to 11 060 dollars in 2015. In that year, the maximum income recorded was 24 000 dollars, lower than the national average cost (28 964) of hiring a nanny in the US in 2015 (^{Schulman & Blank, 2017}). According to the same source, California is the state with the highest cost for this care service.

Conclusions

While Mexican women have worked in the US, in particular in California, for decades, studies on the subject have been less concerned with the cross-border dimension of care work, which is why in this article we analyze the case of caregiver trajectories and their mobility dynamics across the Tijuana-San Diego border. Unlike cross-border regions in the world that are characterized by a circular migration of care work defined by its temporality, transmigration as a practice of frequent (even daily) commuting across the border is common in northern Mexico populations bordering with the US.

The women interviewed worked across the border for different reasons. Adult women joined this work force when their children grew up; for them, it was a way to supplement the family income in unforeseen situations such as cases of illness or their husband’s unemployment. In the case of the young women, care work helped pay for their education, contributed to their family income, or provided them independence from their families and, above all, let them achieve social mobility through education.

Some studies on border care work have focused on circular migration and addressed the precarity and levels of exploitation that characterize the activity. For example, ^{Leiva and Orellana (2016}), in their study of the labor trajectories of Bolivian migrants in Chile, highlight the hyperfragmented trajectories of female workers that is attributed to conditions of labor exploitation. In the case of Mexican women cross-border workers, we use the concept of transmigration, as geographical proximity allows women workers to come and go across the border more frequently. Some of the care work trajectories of the women interviewed showed a high turnover at first due to precariousness situations. However, this could change with job experience, so in more stable trajectories, loss of employment was associated with the life course of the people they care for.

On the other hand, the working arrangements are related to their border-crossing dynamics. The anti-immigrant context of the northern border of Mexico, such as in Tijuana-San Diego, has impacted the working arrangements of the cross-border care workers since it forced them to change their way of crossing. They remained at their workplace in San Diego during the week and returned to Tijuana on the weekends to be with their family, which is why live-in strategies predominated.

The interviewees’ life course and family responsibilities also influenced their work trajectories, which in the case of young women were characterized by their dynamism because they combined their work in San Diego with their studies, and sometimes they also worked in Tijuana. Additionally, individual aspects such as immigration status, education, and experience in the care sector determined their work arrangements and salary. For example, immigration status affected their cross-border mobility, and schooling was a decisive factor since women with higher levels of formal education have better wages and working conditions than those with primary education or secondary education.

In conclusion, the experiences of this group of cross-border care workers shed light on the set of elements that establish the conditions in which they participate in the care market in the US. Women´s experiences express the complexities of cross-border dynamics resulting from migration policies. As well as the asymmetries and inequalities that permeate the cross-border work trajectories of female caregivers, and reveal the strategies employed to live and work in a cross-border region.

The daily experiences of Mexican women caregivers of this study express the complexities of cross-border dynamics, as well as the asymmetries and inequalities that permeate the ir cross-border care trajectories, and reveal the strategies women employ to live and work in a transborder region.