Rerouted Across Borders: Return Migration, Cultural Belonging, and Labor Precarity in a Mexican Call Center

• In Event: Latina/o Sociology Section Open Call Paper Session

Abstract

For the past few decades, there has been a growing population of return migrants to Mexico from the United States due longstanding deportation policies. A significant portion of these migrants originally arrived in the US during their youth, developed an American identity, and due to their legal status, faced deportation or pressure to return to Mexico. After arriving, return migrants feel cultural barriers to incorporation and challenges to their identity as they search for work pathways often seeing themselves as exiled Americans. The call center industry emerges as one cultural and workplace site that covets American accented English skills and familiarity with US culture. This research study examines how return migrants navigate reincorporation into Mexican society and the challenges involved in reconstructing identity and work life after prolonged US residence during youth. Drawing on 12 in-depth Zoom interviews with return migrant call center workers in Monterrey, Mexico, this research explores how Americanized Mexican return migrants experience reintegration and labor market experiences in a call center in Mexican society. Findings reveal a pattern of cultural liminality with the experiences of social barriers in Mexican society; the usage of a linguistic capital to navigate precarious call center spaces; as well as a cultural refuge through the call center community. Alongside these findings, feelings of belonging in the call center coexists with the pressures of closely monitored performance, limited mobility, and broader feelings of in betweenness. Return migration reshapes identity, labor incorporation, and everyday belonging, while the call center employment operates simultaneously as an accessible opportunity and a site of ongoing labor precarity.

Author

• Juan Salinas, University of North Florida