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

博士生Laura Nussbaum-Barberena（芝加哥伊利诺伊大学）将在Molly Doane博士的指导下，对全球政治和经济转型时期全球南方国家经济差距扩大的影响进行研究。这项研究将特别侧重于南南劳工移徙及其对经济差距和不断变化的公民观念的影响。这项研究将重点关注前往哥斯达黎加工作的尼加拉瓜妇女。在私有化措施之后，贫穷的尼加拉瓜家庭试图通过将劳工移徙到哥斯达黎加来支付不断上升的社会再生产费用。虽然这使得尼加拉瓜的经济稳定和哥斯达黎加的经济增长，但移民本身及其家庭成员似乎面临着向下流动。初步证据表明，移民通过谈判权利、政策变化和公民身份来抵制这一进程。研究人员将同两个组织的跨国联盟进行人种学研究：一个是哥斯达黎加的尼加拉瓜移徙妇女，一个是她们在尼加拉瓜的妇女亲属。研究者将通过参与式观察和半结构化访谈来收集数据。档案研究将在哥斯达黎加和尼加拉瓜的政府办公室和报纸档案馆进行。本研究的结果将有助于对不可预测的区域和跨境经济结构调整动态进行理论分析。研究结果也可能为改善劳工、移民和社会福利政策提供信息。资助这项研究也支持了研究生的教育。

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.