Return to Mexico: Migration and the pluralization of kinship

在过去的15年里，从美国返回的墨西哥移民比进入美国的墨西哥移民还要多。到目前为止，人们对世界上最大的移民流动之一的这种引人注目的逆转只有部分了解。大多数关于墨西哥返乡移民的研究都仔细研究了返乡移民重新融入墨西哥劳动力市场的经济成功或失败。尽管承认家庭的相关性是返乡的核心动机，但很少有研究更深入地研究亲属关系的重要性。考虑到墨西哥在过去几十年中经历的亲属关系的深刻变化，这一趋势更加令人震惊，例如，离婚率的上升就表明了这一趋势。该项目分析了回返移民和增加亲属多样性，希望探索回流移民如何塑造以及如何被这些社会变化塑造。墨西哥农村和城市之间的亲属关系多元化程度差别很大。在墨西哥农村，主要是男性移民回归，而在城市中心，女性回归者越来越多。通过比较墨西哥农村和城市返乡移民，该项目增加了关于返乡的空间和社会方面的知识，从而有助于更好地理解高度流动的生活世界中的新的归属形式。

During the last fifteen years, more Mexican migrants have returned from the USA than entered the country. So far, this remarkable reversal of one of the largest migration movements in the world is only partially understood. Most studies on Mexican return migration scrutinize the economic success or failure of returnees’ reintegration into the Mexican labor market. Despite acknowledging the relevance of family as a central motive for return, only few studies have examined the importance of kinship in any greater depth. This is the more astonishing given the profound changes in kin relations Mexico has experienced during the last decades, a trend indicated, for example, by rising divorce rates. Analyzing return migration and increasing kin diversity together, the project wants to explore how return migrants shape and are shaped by these social changes. The pluralization of kinship strongly varies between rural and urban Mexico. In rural Mexico, mainly male migrants return, while in urban centers one finds increasing numbers of female returnees. Comparing rural and urban Mexican return migrants, the project adds knowledge on spatial and social aspects of returning, thus contributing to a better understanding of new forms of belonging in highly mobile life worlds.