CAREER: Gendered Transnational Labor Migration, Agriculture, and Environmental Change in Mesoamerica

跨越国界的劳动力迁移继续增长，对世界各地的许多家庭来说，这是一项日益重要的生计战略。这种移徙对农村生计和移徙派遣社区的自然环境有重大影响，特别是在发展中世界。据预测，由于生计受到影响，全球环境变化将导致发展中国家农村地区向外迁移的人数增加。移民模式（谁去，去哪里，待多久）是高度性别化的，男人和女人在不同的地方采取不同的策略。劳工移徙者通常通过经常汇款和定期或永久返回家园来保持与原籍家庭和社区的联系。因此，他们的迁移既与他们的实际缺席有关，也与他们在缺席期间和返回时注入新的资源、思想或技能有关。本研究将考察国际劳动力迁移对墨西哥和中美洲派遣地区农业系统、土地分配、家庭经济、性别关系和地方/区域环境的相互关联的结果。迄今为止在墨西哥进行的研究表明，当地的性别规范和期望对形成这些结果至关重要。因此，本项目将明确探讨性别的作用，以及具体和不同的性别移徙模式，以确定国际劳工移徙的影响。该项目还将分析当地环境变化作为当前（国内和国际）劳动力迁移模式的驱动因素所起的作用。通过研究环境结果和环境驱动因素，研究结果将有助于更好地从理论上理解环境变化与人类迁移之间的关系，以及这种关系与性别等关键社会制度之间的复杂交织。在五年的时间里，这项由CAREER奖支持的研究将在三个地区进行研究：墨西哥的尤卡坦南部地区，危地马拉的韦韦特南戈高原，以及尼加拉瓜北部的莱昂州和奇南德加州。方法主要是人种学，包括对小农家庭的面对面访谈调查，以及对一部分参与移民家庭的半结构化深度访谈。该项目的研究结果将为政策提供参考，以促进当代世界人类和环境福祉的积极成果。该项目将帮助建立一个地理学家移民研究网络。与研究项目相结合的是各种教育活动。该项目将通过研究资助和参与由犹他州立大学和墨西哥El collegeo de la Frontera Sur的教师和学生组成的合作研究小组，支持和培训至少三名研究生。建立这些研究小组将促进国际合作的期望和文化。该项目还将通过服务学习活动以及制定、实施、评估和传播有关移民、环境和发展的新教材，培养大学生的全球和当地公民意识。

Labor migration across international borders continues to grow and is an increasingly important livelihood strategy for many households around the world. This type of migration has significant implications for rural livelihoods and the physical environments of migrant-sending communities, particularly in the developing world. It is predicted that global environmental change will result in increased out-migration from rural areas in the developing world as livelihoods are impacted. Migration patterns (who goes, where, and for how long) are highly gendered, with men and women following different strategies in different places. Labor migrants usually maintain ties to origin households and communities by frequently sending remittances and by returning home periodically or permanently. Thus their migration is associated both with their physical absence and with the injection of new resources, ideas, or skills during their absence and on their return. This research will examine the interconnected outcomes of international labor migration for sending region agricultural systems, land distributions, household economies, gender relations, and local/regional environments in Mexico and Central America. Research to date in Mexico suggests that local gender norms and expectations are important in shaping these outcomes. Thus this project will explicitly explore the role of gender, and specific and varying gendered migration patterns, in determining the impacts of international labor migration. The project will also analyze what role local environmental change plays as a driver of current patterns (both internal and international) of labor migration. By examining both environmental outcomes and environmental drivers, research results will contribute to a better theoretical understanding of the relationship between environmental change and human migration and the complex intertwining of this relationship with key social systems such as gender. Over a five-year period, the research supported by this CAREER award will conduct research in three regions: Mexico's southern Yucatan region, the highland Guatemalan state of Huehuetenango, and the northern Nicaraguan states of Leon and Chinandega. Methods are primarily ethnographic, consisting of face-to-face interview-surveys with smallholder farming households as well as semi-structured in-depth interviews with a subset of migration-participating households.Findings from this project will inform policies to facilitate positive outcomes in human and environmental well-being in the contemporary world. The project will help establish a Geographers' Migration Research Network. Integrated with the research project are various educational activities. The project will support and train at least three graduate students through research assistantships and their participation in collaborative research teams consisting of faculty and students from Utah State University and El Colegio de la Frontera Sur in Mexico. Establishment of these research teams will foster an expectation and culture of international collaboration. The project will also foster global and local citizenship in undergraduate students, through service-learning activities and the development, implementation, assessment, and dissemination of new teaching materials on migration, environment, and development.