Return to Mexico: Migration and the pluralization of kinship

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Julia Pauli
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 506034487

During the last fifteen years, more Mexican migrants have returned from the USA than entered the country. So far, this remarkable reversal of one of the largest migration movements in the world is only partially understood. Most studies on Mexican return migration scrutinize the economic success or failure of returnees’ reintegration into the Mexican labor market. Despite acknowledging the relevance of family as a central motive for return, only few studies have examined the importance of kinship in any greater depth. This is the more astonishing given the profound changes in kin relations Mexico has experienced during the last decades, a trend indicated, for example, by rising divorce rates. Analyzing return migration and increasing kin diversity together, the project wants to explore how return migrants shape and are shaped by these social changes. The pluralization of kinship strongly varies between rural and urban Mexico. In rural Mexico, mainly male migrants return, while in urban centers one finds increasing numbers of female returnees. Comparing rural and urban Mexican return migrants, the project adds knowledge on spatial and social aspects of returning, thus contributing to a better understanding of new forms of belonging in highly mobile life worlds.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Mexico, USA
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Jeffrey H. Cohen; Professor Dr. David Robichaux