| Tamar Diana Wilson’s Women’s Migration Networks in Mexico and Beyond affords an analytically valuable and compelling window into the world of female migrants and their survival strategies within and across the border with the United States. As Wilson rightly notes, much of the story of Mexican migration, internal and transnational, has centered on the struggles of Mexican males caught up in the migrant stream. Wilson’s careful ethnography, developed through in-depth interviews with more than 150 women and extended observation of the survival strategies and social relations of women residents of Mexicali’s Colonia Popular, an irregular community in Mexicali, sheds valuable light on the special role women play in sustained social networks and anchoring the migratory chain within Mexico and internationally. As she clearly points out, these stories are not exhaustive or definitive, but the insights they offer are vital for peeling away much of the mythology of Mexican migration and understanding its structural foundations and long-term effects in Mexico and the United States. Wilson’s work illuminates and dignifies the daily struggles of women as they cope with the wrenching violence of Mexico’s rural-urban transformation and its transnational dimensions. Her study is sure to inspire further scholarship on the role of Mexico’s female migrants in internal and external migration and certainly invites comparative scholarship as well. |
©2009
All rights reserved
Print ISSN: 0886-5655
Online ISSN: 2159-1229