Excluded at Home: 1.5-generation Return Migrants in Mexico

• In Event: 3170 - Social Inclusion and Exclusion and International Migration

Abstract

As immigration enforcement has augmented in recent years, increasing numbers of 1.5-generation immigrants have returned to their countries of birth as a result of deportation, and others have made painful decisions to return to origin countries they may scarcely remember. Drawing on interviews with 1.5-generation return migrants and deportees in Mexico, this article examines how young adults navigate upon return to their country of origin. Both deportees and “voluntary” return migrants must confront considerable challenges in Mexico due to family separation, social stigmas and bureaucratic obstacles that block access to educational institutions and labor market opportunities. The data suggest that exclusionary immigration laws have enduring and transnational impacts over the experiences of both "voluntary" return migrants and deportees. Nonetheless, return migrants show resilience in creating communities of belonging and transnational identities.

Author

• Alexis Silver, State University of New York-Purchase