1st Edition

Striving and Surviving A Daily Life Analysis of Honduran Transnational Families

By Leah Schmalzbauer Copyright 2006
    142 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    142 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Drawing on data the author gathered in Honduras and the United States from weekly time diaries, in-depth interviews, participant observation and interpretive focus groups, she looks specifically at the experience and prospects of transmigrant labor in the United States; the aspirations and consumption practices of transnational family members in the United States and Honduras, especially as the relate to the American Dream; and she explores the ways in which families negotiate caretaking responsibilities, both financial and emotional, while striving and surviving in a transnational space. This is the first daily life study of undocumented immigrants and the first transnational analysis of Honduran families.

    Acknowledgments Introduction: Transnational Families and Daily Life 1. Surviving in the Margins, Struggling to Move Up 2. Strategies and Challenges of Transnational Care 3. A Week in the Life 4. Transamerican Dreams Conclusion: Para Seguir Adelante, To Continue Moving Forward References Index

    Biography

    Leah Schmalzbauer received her PhD in sociology from Boston College in 2004 and is now an assistant professor of sociology at Montana State University. Her recent work has been published in the Journal of Marriage and Family and is forthcoming in the Berkeley Journal of Sociology.