Awards

• Long-listed for Distinguished Book Award Committee, American Sociological Association Sociology of Latino/a Section 2011 (United States)

Overview

During the past three decades there have been many studies of transnational migration. Most of the scholarship has focused on one side of the border, one area of labor incorporation, one generation of migrants, and one gender. In this path-breaking book, Manuel Barajas presents the first cross-national, comparative study to examine a Mexican-origin community’s experience with international migration and transnationalism. He presents an extended case study of the Xaripu community, with home bases in both Xaripu, Michoacán, and Stockton, California, and elaborates how various forms of colonialism, institutional biases, and emergent forms of domination have shaped Xaripu labor migration, community formation, and family experiences across the Mexican/U.S. border for over a century. Of special interest are Barajas’s formal and informal interviews within the community, his examination of oral histories, and his participant observation in several locations. Barajas asks, What historical events have shaped the Xaripus’ migration experiences? How have Xaripus been incorporated into the U.S. labor market? How have national inequalities affected their ability to form a community across borders? And how have migration, settlement, and employment experiences affected the family, especially gender relationships, on both sides of the border?

Full Product Details

9780268204822

Table of Contents

Reviews

Manuel Barajas does a masterful job of integrating various theoretical perspectives to provide us a more sophisticated understanding of one particular transnational community. His model of interactive colonialism draws from such diverse conceptual and methodological traditions as neocolonialism and internal colonialism, globalization theory, network theory, gender relations, and historical materialism. At the same time, his approach is firmly grounded in the specific experience of the transborder Xaripu community, based in both Mexico and California. The complexity of his framework is a necessary reflection of the multiple economic and social factors that are shaping this type of emergent globalized community. --Mario Barrera, University of California, Berkeley

Author Information

Manuel Barajas is associate professor of sociology at California State University, Sacramento.

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