Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Understanding the Consequences of Women's Migration for Family Health and Wellbeing in Nicaragua

加州大学洛杉矶分校博士生Kristin E. Yarris将在Linda C. Garro博士的指导下，在尼加拉瓜进行人种学实地研究，以考察妇女移民对留守家庭的影响。妇女在拉丁美洲移徙者中所占的比例越来越大，她们离开家乡到其他地方寻找经济和社会机会。本论文研究项目将评估母亲迁移如何导致家庭责任、护理实践和家庭关系的重新配置，以及这些变化如何反过来影响家庭健康和福祉结果。鉴于对妇女在拉丁美洲家庭中的作用的性别期望和文化规范，假设母亲和父亲的移徙将对移徙派遣家庭产生不同的影响。使用自然发生的案例比较组设计，研究者将通过研究有流动母亲的家庭和有流动父亲的家庭，以及与没有流动父母的家庭相比，来探索这些性别差异。这项研究涉及多种数据收集方法，包括：住户调查、对日常家庭生活的直接观察、对户主、祖母和儿童进行深入的人种学访谈，以及使用评估身心健康的标准化工具。这些多种数据来源将使人们能够从拉丁美洲移民社区家庭的角度，对跨国移民的生活经历和后果有一个有根据的民族志理解，这是一个在关于移民的社会科学研究中经常被忽视的人口。这一点很重要，因为只有了解移徙的性别和代际层面，特别是移徙对家庭健康和福祉的影响，政策制定者才能充分理解移徙者为何可能来到美国，以及他们的移徙对留下的人造成的后果。资助这项研究也支持了社会科学家的教育。

University of California, Los Angeles, doctoral student, Kristin E. Yarris, with the guidance of Dr. Linda C. Garro, will undertake ethnographic field research in Nicaragua to examine the impact of women's migration on families left behind. Women comprise an increasing proportion of Latin American migrants, leaving their home communities in search of economic and social opportunities elsewhere. This dissertation research project will assess how mother migration results in reconfigurations in household responsibilities, caregiving practices, and family relationships, and how these changes in turn nfluence family health and well-being outcomes. Given gendered expectations and cultural norms for women's roles in Latin American families, it is hypothesized that the migration of mothers and fathers will have differential effects on migrant-sending families.Using a naturally occurring case-comparison group design, the researcher will explore these gendered differences by studying households with migrant mothers and households with migrant fathers, as compared to households without migrant parents. The research involves multiple methods of data collection, including: household surveys, direct observations of everyday family life, in-depth ethnographic interviews with household heads, grandmothers, and children, and administration of standardized instruments for assessing physical and psychological health. These multiple sources of data will allow for a grounded ethnographic understanding of the lived experience and consequences of transnational migration from the perspective of families in Latin American sending communities, a population often overlooked in social science research on migration. This is singificant because only by understanding the gendered and generational dimensions of migration, particularly in relation to the impacts of migration on family health and wellbeing, can policy makers fully understanding why migrants may come to the United States and the consequences of their migration for those left behind. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.