Social Science Research Council

"Inequality and Childcare in the Global Economy: The Children of Mexican Domestic Workers"

Focusing on the families and communities of origin of Mexican domestic workers living in New York City, my dissertation concerns the conditions of children whose migrant mothers leave them in the care of family members in Puebla, Mexico. Mexicans are now the fastest growing group in New York City, which, for the first time in history, has become a key destination for Mexican immigrants. My research explores how families, communities and institutions in Mexico distribute the labor and costs of caring for children who remain in migrant sending communities and how such childcare arrangements affect children, caretakers and other family members. How do the circumstances of children change when their mothers migrate and how do family and other persons in communities in Puebla understand and deal with these changes? How do caretakers and other household members in Mexico understand their roles and define their relationship to these children? How does the structure of the welfare state in Mexico differ from that of the US and how does the relationship between these two systems (given also their increasingly integrated economic systems) shape the conditions and choices of migrant women (as both workers and mothers) and their families? I will gather data in Mexico through interviewing and participant observation in migrant sending communities near the city of Puebla. The institutional context that shapes the lives of such families will be documented through archival research and interviews with representatives of relevant institutions. As transnational childrearing arrangements and new migration streams, such as that of Mexicans to New York City, continue to expand in the global economy, knowing more about the lived realities of such families is important, particularly so, when we consider the recent trends in policy reform (welfare, immigration and citizenship) that aim to restrict the reproduction of migrant families in the United States.