Coping with dying and deaths at home: how undocumented migrants in the United States experience the process of transnational grieving

Abstract

This qualitative study explores the way in which a group of 12 undocumented migrants from Latin America who live in the United States have experienced the process of coping with dying and with deaths in their home countries. The paper argues that the grieving process is unique for a group like this, where the undocumented status means that the migrants cannot go back home to help the dying, support the ones left behind, or receive consolation. The sadness and the guilt experienced in the process have particular characteristics when you are undocumented in a host country, and the mechanisms used to cope with the situation are different than if you are at home or away but are free to travel back and forth. One avenue for coping, for instance, is the use of communication technologies to create the illusion of ‘being there’, even when that is not an option.

Keywords:

• Immigration
• transnational grief
• undocumented status
• Latinos
• polymedia

Notes

1 Since 2015, WhatsApp also allows to make free phone calls to any person in the world, provided that the second person has a smartphone and the WhatsApp application installed in it. This option was not available in 2013.