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

跨越国际边界的劳动力移徙继续增长，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。这种类型的移徙对农村生计和派遣移徙者的社区的自然环境有重大影响，特别是在发展中国家。据预测，随着生计受到影响，全球环境变化将导致来自发展中世界农村地区的移民增加。移民模式(谁去了，去了哪里，迁移了多久)是高度性别的，男性和女性在不同的地方遵循不同的策略。劳工移民通常通过经常汇款和定期或永久返乡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，也与他们在离开期间和返回时注入新的资源、想法或技能有关。这项研究将考察国际劳动力移徙对墨西哥和中美洲地区农业系统、土地分配、家庭经济、性别关系和当地/区域环境的相互联系的结果。墨西哥迄今的研究表明，当地的性别规范和期望对形成这些结果很重要。因此，该项目将明确探讨性别以及具体和不同的性别移徙模式在确定国际劳工移徙的影响方面的作用。该项目还将分析当地环境变化作为当前劳动力迁移模式(包括国内和国际)的驱动因素所起的作用。通过审查环境结果和环境驱动因素，研究成果将有助于从理论上更好地理解环境变化和人类移徙之间的关系，以及这种关系与性别等关键社会制度的复杂交织。在五年的时间里，该职业奖资助的研究将在三个地区进行研究：墨西哥南部尤卡坦地区，危地马拉高原州Huehuetenango，以及尼加拉瓜北部的里昂州和奇南德加州。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参与移徙的部分家庭的半结构化深入访谈。这一项目的结果将为促进当代世界人类和环境福祉取得积极成果的政策提供信息。该项目将帮助建立一个地理学家移徙研究网络。与研究项目相结合的是各种教育活动。该项目将通过研究助理奖学金和他们参与由犹他州立大学和墨西哥南埃尔弗朗特拉学院的教职员工和学生组成的合作研究团队，支持和培训至少三名研究生。这些研究小组的建立将培养国际合作的期望和文化。该项目还将通过服务性学习活动以及开发、实施、评估和传播有关移徙、环境和发展的新教材，在本科生中培养全球和地方公民身份。

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.