Doctoral Dissertation Research: Women Migrants and Sending Households in the Context of South-South Migration

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Doctoral student Laura Nussbaum-Barberena (University of Illinois at Chicago), with the guidance of Dr. Molly Doane, will undertake research on the implications of increasing disparity between the economies of countries within the global South during a period of global political and economic transformation. The research will focus in particular on South-South labor migration and its effects on economic disparities and changing notions of citizenship.The research will focus on Nicaraguan women who travel to Costa Rica for work. In the wake of privatization measures, poor Nicaraguan households attempt to meet the rising costs of social reproduction by sending labor migrants to Costa Rica. While this permits economic stabilization in Nicaragua and economic growth in Costa Rica, migrants themselves along with their family members appear to face downward mobility. Preliminary evidence suggests that migrants resist this process by negotiating rights, policy changes, and citizenship. The researcher will carry out ethnographic research with a transnational alliance of two organizations: one of Nicaraguan migrant women in Costa Rica and one of their women relatives in Nicaragua. The researcher will collect data through participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Archival research will take place in government offices and newspaper archives in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Findings from this research will help to theorize the unpredictable regional and cross-border dynamics of economic restructuring. Findings may also inform improved labor, immigration and social welfare policy. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.