Transnational Parenting and Immigration Law: Central Americans in the United States

Abstract

In recent years, many immigrant-receiving countries have implemented increasingly restrictive policies that include tighter border controls, more temporary worker permits, an increased threat of deportation, and greater restrictions on the ability to acquire permanent residence and to petition for family members. Thus, family separation seems to be built into new immigration policies, and long-term and indefinite separations are not the exception. In this article, I examine the case of the largest Central American immigrant groups: Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans. Many of these immigrants are neither fully ‘undocumented’ nor ‘documented’, but often straddle both statuses as a result of having received a series of temporary permits over a period of more than a decade. This legal instability profoundly influences parenting across borders among these immigrants—both the relations between parents and children who are separated, and the links between these immigrant families and the different institutions in the host society. The experiences of Central Americans present a special opportunity to reflect on the effects of current immigration regimes on families separated across borders.

Keywords:

• Transnational Parenthood
• Guatemala
• El Salvador
• Honduras
• United States
• Immigration Policy
• Legislation

Notes

1. I conducted the research for this larger study with the assistance of several doctoral students; thus, I sometimes use the plural pronoun to refer to the fieldwork.

2. There are questions about the efficacy of this strategy, as Central American countries now exhibit high levels of violence. Observers blame this violence on the deportation of youth who were in trouble with the law in the US, but one must locate this phenomenon more carefully within the broader context of lack of opportunities, along with the legacy of years of overt political and structural violence in the countries of origin.

3. I am not denying that separation, divorce and abandonment happen. I argue for a more nuanced understanding of these dynamics, which questions the simplistic notion that migration leads to family disintegration (a popular trope that conflates physical separation with the act of migration itself).

4. It is this idea of a family, and the expectations embedded in it, that led many of the Salvadorans in my study in San Francisco (Menjívar 2000) to be disappointed when their relatives could not help them during settlement.

5. In an excellent examination of the effects of IIRIRA 1996 on Salvadoran families, Rodríguez and Hagan (2004) note the devastating effects of increased deportations resulting from implementation of this law.

6. Extensive ties have developed between immigrants in the US and their families in Central America, but frequent trips back home are highly concentrated among those who provide a link (through the delivery of goods) to people at both ends. Thus it is the immobility of many that has opened up opportunities for the relatively few entrepreneurs.

7. Negative effects of family separation through migration have also been found in other contexts and groups (see Landale and Ogena 1995).

8. This situation is not specific to Central Americans, as other undocumented immigrants also go to great lengths to avoid detection. However, it is an integral part of the Central Americans’ experience that lingers for indefinite periods of time.

9. Arizona voters approved Proposition 200 in 2004 and another version of it in 2006. This law requires that state and local workers report immigration violations to federal authorities. Failure to do so or to not withhold benefits from individuals who fail to provide proof of eligibility can result in a misdemeanour charge. Immigrants of uncertain status are understandably fearful of contacting service providers and state officials. Other laws have followed, such as the 2008 law that heavily penalises employers who hire undocumented immigrants. The most controversial, Senate Bill 1070, contains the USA's most stringent provisions against undocumented immigration, including those requiring law enforcement officers to determine the immigration status of individuals who are suspected of being undocumented immigrants. At the time of writing, a temporary injunction has prevented the more controversial components of Senate Bill 1070 from taking effect.