Newman Business Review
Descripción del autor:
Doctor en Antropología Social por el Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas de la UNAM, Maestro en Estudios Rurales por el Colegio de Michoacán. Licenciado en Sociología por Universidad de Guadalajara. Profesor Investigador del Centro Universitario de los Valles, adscrito a Departamento de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades. Corresponsable y responsable de dos proyectos de investigación. Autor de 9 artículos y capítulos de libro, cuatro libros. Ha realizado tres estancias en universidades norteamericanas. Líneas de investigación: Migración internacional México-Estados Unidos, Familia y parentesco, Hijos de inmigrantes en Estados Unidos, Transición a la adultez, Antropología visual. Nivel I del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores y Perfil Prodep.
Doctor en economía y empresa por la Universidad Rovira i Virgili. Profesor Investigador de la Universidad de Guadalajara, miembro del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores Nivel II del CONAHCYT. Perfil PRODEP. Líneas de Investigación: emprendimiento, desarrollo regional e innovación.
Doctora en Planeación estratégica dirección de tecnología por
UPAEP. Profesora Investigadora de
y la la
Universidad de Guadalajara, miembro del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores Nivel I del CONAHCYT. Perfil PRODEP. Líneas de Investigación: estudios sustentables en las organizaciones, emprendimiento.
Enrique Martínez Curiel 1, Carlos Alberto Santamaria 2, Gloria Silviana Montañez Moya 3
1 Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, México (enrique.mcuriel@academicos.udg.mx) ; 2 Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, México (carlos.santamaria@academicos.udg.mx) ; 3 Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, México (gloria.montanez@academicos.udg.mx)
Este estudio examina el papel de los enfoques empresariales de los padres deportados a la hora de fomentar la reunificación familiar en el contexto de las familias transnacionales. Objetivo: La investigación explora cómo las personas deportadas utilizan el espíritu empresarial para hacer frente a la separación familiar y evalúa la influencia del género en la dinámica empresarial. Metodología: A través de un análisis cualitativo de historias digitales del proyecto Humanizing Deportation, se examinaron las narrativas de madres y padres deportados para identificar estrategias de sostenibilidad económica, reconexión familiar y apoyo comunitario. Este enfoque permite comprender mejor los aspectos humanizadores de la deportación y los mecanismos de supervivencia de las familias afectadas. Resultados: Los resultados revelan que las mujeres deportadas a menudo muestran una mentalidad empresarial más fuerte en la reunificación de sus familias en comparación con los hombres. Las emprendedoras demostraron resiliencia aprovechando sus
Recibido: 08 de noviembre del 2024. Aceptado: 10 de noviembre del 2024. Publicado:
31 de diciembre 2024
Este es un artículo de acceso abierto, distribuido bajo los términos de la licencia Creative Commons Atribucion - No Comercia_Compartir Igual 4.0 Internacional.(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- sa/4.0/) que permite el uso no comercial, distribución y reproducción en cualquier medio, siempre que la obra original sea debidamente citada
habilidades y oportunidades para crear pequeñas empresas u organizaciones sociales, afrontando los retos personales y sociales derivados de la separación familiar. El estudio pone de relieve las variaciones en las respuestas empresariales influidas por las normas de género y las expectativas culturales. También subraya el doble impacto de la deportación, que presenta tanto dificultades -como depresión e inestabilidad económica- como oportunidades de crecimiento y adaptación. Conclusiones: Al enmarcar el espíritu empresarial como una herramienta para la supervivencia y la reunificación, esta investigación contribuye al discurso más amplio sobre la migración, la deportación y la dinámica familiar, con implicaciones para los responsables políticos que pretenden apoyar a las familias desplazadas y fomentar su reintegración. Futuros estudios deberían adoptar marcos multidisciplinares para profundizar en la comprensión de estos fenómenos.
Palabras clave: Separación familiar, Familia Transnacional, Migrantes retornados, Deportación, Género, Emprendimiento.
This study examines the role of deported parents' entrepreneurial approaches in fostering family reunification within the context of transnational families. Objective: The research explores how deported individuals utilize entrepreneurship to address family separation and evaluates the influence of gender on entrepreneurial dynamics. Methodology: Through a qualitative analysis of digital stories from the Humanizing Deportation project, narratives of deported mothers and fathers were examined to identify strategies for economic sustainability, familial reconnection, and community support. This approach provides insight into the humanizing aspects of deportation and the coping mechanisms of affected
families. Results: The findings reveal that deported women often exhibit a stronger entrepreneurial mindset in reuniting their families compared to men. Entrepreneurs demonstrated resilience by leveraging skills and opportunities to create small businesses or social organizations, addressing both personal and societal challenges arising from family separation. The study highlights variations in entrepreneurial responses influenced by gender norms and cultural expectations. It also underscores the dual impact of deportation, presenting both hardships—such as depression and economic instability—and opportunities for growth and adaptation. Conclusion: By framing entrepreneurship as a tool for survival and reunification, this research contributes to the broader discourse on migration, deportation, and family dynamics, with implications for policymakers aiming to support displaced families and foster their reintegration. Future studies should adopt multidisciplinary frameworks to deepen the understanding of these phenomena.
Keywords: Family Separation, Transnational Family; Returned Migrants; Deportation; Gender; Entrepreneurship.
“All the borders in the world are man-made There are no borders, we are all hooked together. Everything is connected. There is no line of demarcation. We are hooked together like the colours of a rainbow. Our problem is ignorance. We do not understand that” - Bob Proctor
Human mobility has become a central topic in academic and political discourses. Previous studies have evidenced the various motives behind the decision to migrate to other territories. However, anecdotal evidence has only tangentially explained the societal and economic effects of deportation policies (Hagan et al., 2008). The most critical effect of deportation is associated with the phenomenon of transnational families, families whose members of a nuclear unit (traditionally: mother, father and children) live in two different countries (Dreby, 2006, p. 33). In this regard, research has shown that family separation not only implies the disintegration of this social unit but also may lead to an increase in rates of psychological distress (e.g., depression, addiction, and suicide) and greater susceptibility to social problems (e.g., poverty, delinquency, among others) (Rosas, 2011; Slack et al., 2015). Although these are not new issues, the evidence is limited regarding the consequences of deportation on children, parents, or society (Abrego, 2009).
Inspired by the surprising functionality of many transnational families, this chapter aims to understand how they take shape and how opportunities of family reunification may come about by considering what we refer to as the entrepreneurial approach of some parents. We especially consider how gender seems to play an important role in these creative family dynamics. Adopting the main tenets of entrepreneurship literature (Batista et al., 2010; Crush et al. 2015), in this chapter, opportunity is understood in terms of the diverse alternatives that deported migrants identify not only concerning economic obligation to fulfill parental responsibility to children (self-employment) but also as the initiative for reconfiguring family (child mobility) or supporting migrant communities (social associations). We believe that the perception of these opportunities varies according to the parent’s gender (Dreby, 2006). The methodological design of this chapter is based on the fundamentals of digital storytelling as developed by The Story Center and lays out a series of variations on these methods explicitly developed for the Humanizing Deportation project.
The remainder of this study is as follows: Section 2 reviews the literature of migration and entrepreneurship to assemble the theoretical basis of this study: returned migrants, transnational families, and the entrepreneurial role in reunification;
Section 3 outlines the methodological design used in this study; Section 4 summarizes its findings and discusses them in relation to previous studies; and, finally, Section 5 reports our main conclusions and describes their implications for policymakers.
The reasons for migration vary greatly, and may often stem from economic, familial, and/or societal factors. According to the push-pull economic theory (King, 2012), the decision to seek employment in a foreign country is determined by push factors in the home country (e.g. lack of employment opportunities and social or civil unrest) or pull factors in the host country (e.g. increased employment opportunities, financial gain, and better living standards in general) (Zikic, 2015). Inspired by the experiences of migrants participating in the Humanizing Deportation project, we propose a conceptual framework to explain how an entrepreneurial mentality can bring about opportunities for family reunification following a separation due to the deportation of a parent, and why these opportunities may vary according to gender. In this vein, this section dialogues with previous studies on deportation, transnational families, and family reunification.
Recently, the theme of the return of the Mexican migrant as a corollary of the migration process (Durand, 2006) has become prominent in the literature on migration between Mexico and the United States. In this respect, Espinosa (1998) has discussed the collective return of transnational families as a way to stay together and to make a new life among all the family members, including children who were childhood arrivals or were born in the United States, in the place of origin of the migrant parents. By using a case study approach, Espinosa (1998) identifies the factors behind the decision to return voluntarily, as well as the motivations to be self-employed in the agricultural sector as an alternative to economically sustain the family following repatriation. Although the study was conducted two decades ago, Espinosa’s (1998) findings highlight the ways in which migrants returning to Mexico may remake their lives differently from their nonmigrant peers.
The study of the challenges that migrants face as part of the deportation process is relatively recent, although it has its origins in a political-legal process emerging from the enactment of the Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA), a bill authored by Republican senators and signed by President Bill Clinton on September 30th of that year that fortified U.S. immigration laws. This act was designed to strengthen border control; ratchet up enforcement and sanctions against the smuggling of foreigners; implement penalties for document fraud; permit the the inspection, apprehension, detention, and deportation of migrants deemed unacceptable and deportable, allowing for the deportation of any undocumented immigrants, and of legal permanent residents convicted of an aggravated felony; and to toughen restrictions on employment of undocumented immigrants. Both IIRAIRA and the tightening of border security following 9/11, coupled with the financial and mortgage crisis of 2008, resulted in massive deportation. During President Barack Obama’s first term, "that is, between 2009 and 2013, 2.7 million Mexicans have been deported from that country, indicating an average of 540 thousand Mexicans deported annually over that five-year span" (Gandini et al., 2015:11). These mechanisms of forced return continue to this day.
While "the return has as many facets as migration" (Lozano and Martínez, 2015:13), deportation is, in this sense, one of several scenarios of return, a phenomenon that brings about a series of problems that may be analyzed with a variety of approaches. For our analysis, we could rely on the theoretical foundations of the New Economy of Labour Migration (NELM). This approach does not look at decisions made by independent individuals but rather to those made collectively (Stark et al., 1985). This view helps us focus the home unit – in this case, the heteronormative family – as a unit of analysis where the individual’s decision to migrate is made in conjunction with household members, and where the costs and returns associated with migration are shared by some explicit or implicit distribution rule within the domestic unit (Kilic et al., 2007). However, this approach (NELM) does not consider the underlying emergency in which Mexican migrants are immersed, as it does not take the the challenges of forced return or deportation into account. While this approach calculates cost-benefits, it does not consider the abrupt detention of Mexican migrants by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), especially in the case of those migrants whose life project implies staying in the United States with all family members
In this essay, we focus on the consequences of deportation, an event that has often divided members of migrant families, highlighting a variety of strategies pursued by families to remain together and to secure employment in the country of origin.
According to Bryceson and Vuorela (2002), a family is considered transnational when its members live scattered between two or more countries the majority of the time, while simultaneously remaining united by emotional and/or financial ties. Along these lines, Gil Araujo and Pedone (2014) argue that transnational families support and rebuild affective bonds across distances through calls, emails, gifts, photographs, remittances. The spatial dispersion generated by migration challenges migrants and their non-migrant relatives to seek new ways of expressing affection and organizing care, leading to changes in the ways in which family members exercise their roles.
Research on family transnationality has frequently focused on relationships among family members such as the studies on the children of immigrants (Dreby, 2007) or across generations (Şenyürekli and Detzner, 2008). Meanwhile, the effects of forced return migration on transnational families have also been investigated. For Camarero (2010), in many transnational families, economic and decision-making power is transferred to displaced members while the changing family care systems shift to undisplaced members. Dreby’s (2007) findings also show that non-migrating Mexican children and adolescents are deeply affected by the absence of their parents, expressing feelings of helplessness, anguish, and depression, a situation that is related to the importamce that these children and adolescents place on family life. It is essential to note that "the lives of a growing number of people can no longer be understood by contemplating only what is happening within national boundaries" (Levitt and Glick-Schiller, 2004: 1003).
This reflects organizational strategies made between migratory and other non- migratory household members through which migration and return are decisions made
to ensure the survival of the family, positioning it as the uniqueness that sustains the transnational family as a social institution.
The relationship between migration and development is evident. A recent report of the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM, 2005) highlights that when a migrant returns to their country of origin, temporarily or definitively, they bring with them new competencies, experiences, and contacts, which within an increasingly knowledge-based global economy can give migrants a vital role in development. However, there is still a debate about the relationship between return migration and development. On the one hand, research that favours a positive relationship between return migration and development contends that migrants acquire not only financial capital but also knowledge and skills while abroad (McCormick and Wahba 2001). On the other hand, some research has shown that enterprises established by migrants have had only a limited economic impact, fueling arguments that companies set up by returning migrants should not be considered viable economic investments as they only marginally contribute to local economic development (Gitmez, 1988).
Thus far, studies on return migration and entrepreneurship have focused on migrants of African, Turkish, Pakistani, or Albanian origin who had emigrated to the European Union (McCormick and Wabba, 2001; McCormick and Wabba, 1999; Black and Castaldo, 2009; Dustmann and Kirchkamp, 2002; Ilahi 1990; Kilic et al., 2007). For example, one study, conducted by McCormick and Wahba (2001), explores the role of the experience abroad of migrants returning to Egypt in bringing accumulated savings, generating new skills, and identifying entrepreneurial opportunities in their home country. These authors find insights that support the hypothesis that both savings and duration abroad, along with several personal characteristics, influence the likelihood of returnees to become entrepreneurs. They also note that migrants use a large portion of their savings on housing (46%) and a small portion on the development of economic projects (10%). Another study, conducted by Black and Castaldo (2009), examines the relationship between international migration and entrepreneurship in Ghana and Ivory Coast. The findings suggest that work experience in countries abroad has a significant influence on the business activity of returned migrants, although the savings
accumulated abroad, the reasons for the return, and the frequency of visits to the place of origin are also important factors. It follows that migrants returning from abroad may provide additional experience and savings which could help transform developing countries. These findings support earlier research such as that of Foster (1967), who explores how the migration of Mexican braceros to the United States changed the standard of living for Mexican migrants upon their return, partly as a result of experiencing American culture, but mainly as a result of their accumulation of savings.
Our study adds to research that investigates how and why entrepreneurship occurs among return migrants. Pauli and Osowska's study (2019) notes that nearly half of the migrants returning to Poland who were surveyed formulated a business idea during migration. According to Barbiano and Terzera (2018), the majority of studies that analyze family reunification in contexts of return migration focus on three ideas: the consideration of the destination country as the only option for long-term migrants, the roles of family members in maintaining family stability, and education and work opportunities. None of the studies previously mentioned take forced return migration into consideration, a factor that changes the logics of return and entrepreneurship. It should, therefore, be noted that the type of return we are examining here carries with it an element that has not been evaluated in other studies.
Beyond considering a number of the factors mentioned above, this essay also takes into account the kind of work done during the stay abroad. This work can function as a kind of education where migrants improve their skills and expand their knowledge that can later be replicated in their home country (Kilic et al., 2007). Going abroad offers migrants the opportunity to increase their knowledge and skills due to an ability to observe processes and techniques provided by different forms of employment, and, with this, to come up with new entrepreneurial ideas to implement in other places. In this sense, the adverse factor is deportation, that unplanned, forced return that the other studies do not mention because it is not a factor for the migrants who participated in those studies. This factor may negatively impact the creation, productivity, profitability and longevity of the micro-enterprise. However, these adversities can become positive aspects when parents, especially mothers, influenced by societal
conceptualizations of gender and gender roles, adopt a business mindset that allows for the reunification of the family (Drebry, 2006).
The methodological design of this study consists of close readings of digital stories from Humanizing Deportation archive. Specifically, we analyse the narratives of four deported women and four deported men. We chose stories that not only focused on self-employment as an alternative to survive in the domestic labour market, but also on the development of initiatives to bring family together (especially children) or to support the migrant community.
Digital narratives allow for the voices of deported migrants to be heard, humanizing them and their lives. Meanwhile, our analysis offers additional elements to take into consideration to better understand how deported migrants remake their lives in the face of separation from family members, and, in turn, understand how entrepreneurship is used as a strategy for familial reunification.
In this methodological approach, we must consider that "the movement of place changes the perspective of the subjects, so that when one's values are subjected to the imperatives of arrival, if there is no sociocultural integration, conflicts arise between institutions and ways of life” (Martínez, 2016: 24). In this sense, it can be observed that the narratives of migrant subjects demonstrate the realities of the circumstances of deportation, the bonds that migrants have managed to build during their stay in the United States, the role of the family structure, the life plans that migrant families build during their stay abroad, and, above all, the deployment of the knowledge and skills acquired through their migration experience to achieve family reunification following deportation, many times starting with entrepreneurship. These are processes that migrants face and that situate family members in terms of survival across national borders.
Following the thematics explored in the conceptual framework, this section describes the main findings of this analysis and discusses the links with previous studies.
Coinciding with Nueno's definition of entrepreneur (Nueno, 1996), these narratives show how entrepreneurship plays an important role, providing some migrants with an intuition to detect business opportunities and identify the skills needed to take advantage of them, even when necessary, resources might be lacking. Concretely, the story of Esther Morales, a Oaxacan migrant who emigrated to Los Angeles, California, allows us to explore how the deportation process intersects with entrepreneurship.
For several years, while living in California and constantly coming and going as an undocumented migrant, she crossed the border without much difficulty. Four years after arriving in the United States for the first time, she gave birth to her daughter. They lived alone together in an apartment until Morales was deported (Morales, Guerrera Part I, IIa). She explains that she was actually deported nine times, eventually giving up, in 2010 when her daughter was 17 years old, on returning to the United States, settling in Tijuana, where she was forced to look for work (Morales, Comida, 11e). Because she was forcefully returned and with a series of disadvantages such as ignorance about the place of return, lack of social networks, and separation from her daughter, with the will to survive, she tested her capabilities in the face of this complex new reality.
One day while out for a walk and looking for work, she suddenly came across an opportunity. She recalls: “When I passed through a tortilla shop downtown called, La Mexicana. And there was big sign that said, `Looking for a woman who can make delicious tamales.’” Although she had never made tamales, she had experience working with food and was intrigued by the idea. She met the owner, who showed her an empty storefront: “When he raised the curtain, and I saw the murals on wall, I asked,
‘Why do you have these murals in this dump?’ ‘Well, this is where I want to put the tamale shop,’ he said. So I said, “Okay.”
From there she started cleaning up the space, learning how to make corn tamales. “I did struggle a bit at first; once I had to throw 80 away, because they didn´t come out right, they didn´t come out right and they still didn´t come out right. I mean, never in my life had I made tamales! I started making them really, really, really well after about a year.” Her work came to give her a great deal of satisfaction: “So let me tell you, one of life´s ironies is that now all my customers are from the US. The buy my tamales and say they´re delicious, and they take them by the dozen! My tamales end up in the US.” (Guerrera 11c).
However, Morales did not conceive of starting up a business upon her return; initially she had no idea what she would do in Tijuana. However, she had started a small lunch stand years before when she emigrated from her native Oaxaca to Mexico City. This antecedent, together with her need to secure a job, allowed her to detect the possibility of undertaking and formalizing a tamalería in Tijuana, the destination where she has lived since being deported and separated from her daughter.
A similar business undertaking is identified in the case of Miguel Tomás Martínez, who after a time of depression, alchololism, and homelessness followig his deportation and separation from his daughters, who figures out how to regain control of his life by taking advantage of the opportunities that the environment provides, making them into a business venture. He effectively went from sleeping on the street alongside Tijuana’s municiple market to establishing a small coconut and fruit stand there. Although some become entrepreneurs by seizing opportunities, this is a case of entrepreneurship born of necessity. In this regard, Martínez states: “I started working and was presented with the opportunity to take a position, where I am right now in the coconut thing” (Echándole ganas, todo se puede).
As Dreby (2006) relates, deportation as an adverse element of transnational families, in some cases, becomes a positive aspect where the influences of gender norms on parents – especially mothers – may motivate them to adopt a positive mindset that allows for the reunification of the family. In this regard, a returned female entrepreneur describes being deported to Tijuana, where they sought help from “some friends from church - I am Christian - they took us to a Christian person`s home. At their house, they gave us a place to rest. We were they for a week until we could find a home to be here. But, yes, it was difficult for us. But, thanks to God, we are here with my husband and my sons. Life had not been great, but God has helped us and he has not left us” (Antunez and Antunez, Buscando mejores horizontes: la historia de una familia unida con hilos de amor).
Transnational families maintain links through new ways of expressing affection and organizing care that may entail changes in the ways that family members exercises their roles in a migratory context (Gil Araujo and Pedone, 2014). This pattern was also identified in the following narrative by Christian Guzmán: “After that I went to Veracruz where my sister got me a job, but I did not like it, it is too wet and I did not like the work, then I went to Coahuila with my daughter who lives in a small town” (Forzado a dejar mi verdadero hogar, Part I, 92a).
The development of human capital is also another relevant determinant in the decision to become an entrepreneur. The following two narratives illustrate that when migrants working in other countries have the opportunity to acquire new foundations and skills, they change their level of learning and and their attitudes as a result (Pauli and Osowska, 2019; McCormick and Wahba 2001). Robert Atunez tells of the opportunities he has found to both gain work experience and study after returning to Mexico with his parents. He is now “enrolled in college here in Tijuana pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration at a private university, but for a long time I was worried about enrolling because of my Spanish skills.” He sees a range of career opportunities in the company where he currently works, but also explains: “One of my
goals is to administer my own business in the future [and] I'm convinced that this newfound knowledge will be useful for my future endeavors.” The fact that he repatriated along with his parents makes it easier for him to study, which he expects will pay off in the long run for both him and his parents (La historia de Robert Antunez).
Tania Mendoza describes the challenges in finding educational opportunities as an undocumented young migrant in Los Angeles. Despite numerous roadblocks, she was always alert for prospects to help her move ahead: “I worked in the famous Santee Alleys, also known as Los Callejones. And the only reason I worked there was because I knew I couldn’t work. And I did a lot of stuff that every hard-working immigrant does. And I still kept going to school. I thank God that a place called The Este Los Angeles Occupational Center accepted me and I got certified as cosmetologist and administrative assistant. And that certification has led me into a lot of good things now.” (Soñando en las sombras).
Other entrepreneurial insights of deported migrants are associated with their involvement in social organizations that support other deported migrants. Many of them have been assisted by aid groups such as shelters and volunteer associations where they are provided with a range of guidance and support. Some deported migrants who have gotten back on their feet later volunteer with these same organizations.
Robert Vivar describes his current life in Tijuana: “I work as a customer service agent for an outsource company handling customer service for the Avis Budget car group. However my passion is volunteering as co-director for Unified US Deported Veterans Resource Center and as part of the core leadership group for an organization called Friends of Friendship Park in support of creating a bi-national park where separated families can share more than just a pinky kiss for them to have an opportunity to be a real family if even for just a few short hours.” (Mi sueño).
Yolanda Varona, founder of Dreamers Moms International in Tijuana, explains what the group has meant to her: “The Dreamers Moms group is really a blessing a gift from God; we´ve learned to be resilient, to be strong, to be brave, to not turn to drugs, prostitution, alcoholism, which might be an escape from our suffering. We’re
mothers and we stand tall and keep on showing our children day after day that we are brave” (Madres Soñadoras Internacional).
The motivations of migrants are conceived of as an attitude that fosters and enables the ability to take on entrepreneurial ventures. Many migrants have the desire to start a business upon returning to their country of origin (Pauli and Osowska, 2019). Deported Mexican migrant Christian Guzmán notes: “This month I was offered to go to Hola Code, but honestly I don't think I'm ready for November I will have a good understanding of computers, so I can try Hola Code and if that turns out I can become a hacker, but if that fails, my dream and my passion has always been cooking. I want to go to culinary school; I want to be a cruise chef or in a luxury hotel. Those are my goals, focusing on learning as much as I can from computers and staying away from cops” (Forzado a dejar mi verdadero hogar).
In Robert Vivar’s case: “I started looking for answers to my despair finally I found him in a group of us deported veterans who soon after I became part of as co-director soon I found myself working out not only with deported veterans but also deported mothers homeless migrants US citizen children living in exile with deported parents and homeless addicts soon another organization was born in support of deported mothers and families which I co-founded I found that working with this segment of the population was bringing a new meaning to my life and an incredible surge of energy and motivation” (Mi sueño).
In Miguel Martínez’s story, it is possible to distinguish the narrator’s perception as a migratory one that confronts new ways of expressing affection and organizing care after deportation (Gil Araujo and Pedone, 2014): “Unfortunately, my mother passed away three years ago – and she told me: if you got to the US without knowing anyone without so much as a peso, nothing so, you can´t do anything here in your homeland? That was a challenge for me and it’s true: if I made it over there in unfamiliar territory, why can’t you make it in your place of origin and this is the result, I think – what else can I say? With a little motivation, anything is possible” (Echándole ganas).
Undoubtedly, in each of the stories mentioned, we are exposed to very particular life situations as well as both the negative and positive effects that deportation has had for each one. On the one hand, we observe negative effects like problematic addictions, loneliness, depression, and family separation. On the other hand, we see awakenings and acknowledgement of the opportunities made available by dealing with things in a different way, changes in perspectives, a discernment and development of skills and knowledge through commercial and social enterprises, the ability to create small businesses and associations to support migrants and deportees, and family reunification. Here we relate the outcome of each of the life stories:
Esther Morales does not reside with her daughter. However, as she relates in a later installment of her story (Estoy en el lado de los valientes), she maintains the family unit through her daughter’s frequent visits to Tijuana. There is no current hope for reunification, but they do remain connected. Both are successful on their own in their respective countries: Morales’s daughter is working on professional development in the United States while her mother owns her own thriving business and is a pro-migrant activist.
Yolanda Varona has not achieved family reunification, but does maintain contact with her two children and hopes to be with them again. She founded and leads a group of activists (Dream Mothers) thats offers psychological and legal support to deported mothers trying to achieve family reunification.
Christian Guzmán receives help from an organization in Mexico City that assists him with employment and housing. He has two daughters; the eldest lives in Coahuila and the younger one resides in the United States. He shares his intention to return with his family to the United States. He studies computer science and his dream is to be a chef.
The Antunez family remains united in Tijuana, and, after their deportation in 2014, express their desire to return to the United States in 10 years. Robert, the son of Maria and Roberto, is studying to completed a bachelor's degree and works in a company.
Miguel Tomás Martínez does not live with his two daughters, although they do visit him in Tijuana. He talks about getting his life back (recovering from
alcoholism and depression) and having his business and being with his daughters, but they still live in the United States.
After his deportation, Robert Vivar became depressed due to the separation from his two children, finding motivation in the Deported Veterans group. He volunteers with various organizations that support the reunification of families. He doesn't relate what's going on with his family in America, but rather emphasizes his luck in finding his new partner.
Tania Mendoza has failed to achieve family reunification. However, as she expresses in the second part of her history (Feelings Are Feelings), she has adapted to life in Tijuana. Her daughter's father has cut off communication, but she manages to maintain hope for when the custody case will be heard in Los Angeles.
This aim of this study was to explain how an entrepreneurial approach can help to foster an understanding of the opportunities for family reunification as considered by deported parents and if these opportunities vary according to gender. In this vein, the selected digital stories that provided insights about the influence of parents’ gender on adopting an entrepreneurial mindset that allows for the reunification of the families. Notably, our findings also showed that deported women generally have a more entrepreneurial mindset for reintegrating the family than deported men. Moreover, we also identified the different entrepreneurial initiatives for reducing the adverse effects of family separation on individuals and society. Based on these findings, this chapter contributes to the academic debate about returned migrants, deportation (Batista et al., 2010), family separation (Slack et al., 2015), and entrepreneurship literature (Crush et al. 2015).
This study has several limitations. First, the main limitation is related to the difficulties in obtaining more information associated with the selected narratives. The existent videos provided us with relevant data about the explored thematics. However, it is important to have more details to enrich the discussion about each topic. Therefore, a natural extension of this research will be the design of a research protocol that allows for the capturing and development of an in-depth analysis of this phenomenon through
the adoption of retrospective case studies. Second, the proposed conceptual framework allows for an exploration of the phenomenon that takes the theoretical basis into account. However, this phenomenon demands a multidisciplinary approach (e.g., behavioural, economics, institutional, organisational, psychological) in order to provide a better conceptual understanding of each element from diverse angles. Our future research agenda, then, will be oriented to build a robust and multidisciplinary conceptual framework.
Policy implications and recommendations for U.S. authorities also emerge from our findings. First, the Mexico-United States corridor is the largest in the world with over 12 million migrants followed by that between India and the United Arab Emirates with 3.3 million (BBVA, 2018). The deportation program of the current administration has penalized many migrant families that have spent more than one or two decades in the U.S. At the migrant level, it represents a failure and a forced re-start of their life in a different home country where they do not have a legal background. One implication for policymakers of both countries (Mexico and the U.S.) is the idea that sharing the existent information about deported migrants would be helpful for aiding migrants in restarting their lives with at least some kind of official documentation or the means to obtain it. At the familial level, deportation often represents a disintegration, a problematic effect for the social cellule (the family). In this regard, deportation programs should try to preserve individual/familial human rights. Second, the regulatory status of an individual does not delegitimize that individual’s contributions to society. According to the New American Economy (NAE, 2014 and 2017), the number of Hispanic entrepreneurs in the United States tripled from 577,000 in 1990 to 2 million in 2010. For example, Mexican entrepreneurial migrants represent a significant contribution to the growth of this entrepreneurial spirit in the U.S. (321,000 USD in the 90s to 1.4 million USD in the 00s) (NAE, 2017). In this sense, the indication for policymakers is to legitimize the role of Mexican entrepreneurial migrants that create jobs, activate the economy, and contribute to the sustainability of their home/host countries through their daily work.
Abrego, Leisy. Economic well-being in Salvadoran transnational families: How gender affects remittance practices. Journal of Marriage and Family, 71(4), 1070-1085, 2009.
Antunez, Robert. “La historia de Robert Antunez” Humanizando la Deportación #135, 2018: http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/es/2019/01/08/135-la- historia-de-robert-antunez/
Antunez, Roberto & Antunez, María. “Buscando mejores horizontes: la historia de una familia unida con hilos de amor” Humanizando la Deportación #136, 2018: http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/es/2019/01/08/136-buscando- mejores-horizontes-la-historia-de-una-familia-unida-con-hilos-de-amor/
Barbiano di Belgiojoso, Elisa & Terzera, Laura. Family reunification—Who, when, and how? Family trajectories among migrants in Italy. Demographic Research, 38, 737– 772. https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2018.38.28 2018.
Batista, Catia; McIndoe-Calder, Tara & Vicente, Pedro C. Return migration and entrepreneurship in Mozambique. Trinity College, Dublin, 2010.
Black, Richard & Castaldo, Adriana. Return migration and entrepreneurship in Ghana and Côte D'Ivoire: The role of capital transfers. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, volume 100, p. 44 – 58, 2009.
Bryceson, Deborah y Vuorela, Ulla (eds.). The transnational Family: New European Frontiers and Global Networks, Oxford, Berg publishers, 2002.
BBVA. Yearbook of migration and remittances. Mexico. BBVA, 2019.
Camarero, Luis. Trasnacionalidad familiar: estructuras familiares y trayectorias de reagrupación de los inmigrantes en España. EMPIRIA. Revista de Metodología de Ciencias Sociales. No 19, pp. 39-71, 2010.
Crush, Jonathan; Skinner, Caroline & Chikanda, Abel. Informal migrant entrepreneurship and inclusive growth in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Cape Town: The Southern African Migration Programme, Migration Policy Series (No. 68), 2015.
Dreby, Joanna. Honor and virtue: Mexican parenting in the transnational context.
Gender and Society, 20, 32-59, 2006.
Dreby, Joanna. Children and Power in Mexican Transnational Families. Journal of Marriage and Family 69 (November 2007): 1050–1064, 2007.
Durand, Jorge. Los inmigrantes también emigran: la migracion de retorno como corolario del proceso. Remhu - Revista Interdisciplinar da Mobilidade Humana, 14(26-27), 2006.
Dustmann, Christian & Kirchkamp Oliver. The optimal migration duration and activity choice after remigration. Journal of Development Economics, volume 67, p. 351–372, 2002.
Espinosa, Victor. El dilema del retorno, Migración y pertenencia en contexto un transnacional. Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacán, 1998.
Foster, George M. Tzintzuntzan: Mexican Peasants in a Changing World. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967.
Gandini, Luciana; Lozano, Fernando & Gaspar, Selene. El retorno en el nuevo escenario de la migración entre México y Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Población, Ciudad de México, 2015.
GCIM (Suiza). Les Migrations dans un Monde Interconnecté: Nouvelles Perspectivas d‟Action, 2005
Gil Araujo, Sandra & Pedone, Claudia. “Introduction. Migrant families and states: links between Europe and Latin America”, in Papeles del CEIC, vol. 2, CEIC (Center for Studies on Collective Identity), University of the Basque Country, 2014.
Gitmez, A.S. The Socio-economic Re-integration of Returned Workers: The Case of Turkey. In: C. Stahl, International Migration Today. Paris: UNESCO p. 217-321, 1988.
Guzmán, Christian “Forzado a dejar mi verdadero hogar.” Humanizando la Deportación #92, 2018:
http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/es/2018/10/19/92a-forzado-a- dejar-mi-verdadero-hogar-parte-i/
Hagan, Jacqueline; Eschbach, Karl & Rodriguez, Nestor. US deportation policy, family separation, and circular migration. International Migration Review, 42(1), 64-88, 2008.
Ilahi, Nadeem. Return migration and occupational change. Review of Development Economics, volume 3, p. 170 – 186, 1999.
Kilic, Talip; Carletto, Gero; Davis, Benjamin & Zezza, Alberto. “Investing Back Home: Return Migration and Business Ownership in Albania.” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4366. The World Bank, Washington DC, 2007.
King, Russell. “Theories and typologies of migration: an overview and primer”, Willy Brandt Series of Working Papers in International Migration and Ethnic Relations, 3/12, Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM), Malmo, 2012.
Levitt, Peggy, & Glick Schiller, Nina. “Conceptualizing Simultaneity: A Transnational Social Field Perspective on Society.” International Migration Review, 38 (3): 1002–1039. 2004.
Lozano, Fernando & Martínez, Jorge. Retorno en los procesos migratorios de América Latina. Conceptos, debates, evidencias. Asociación Latinoamericana de Población, Serie Investigaciones No. 16. Río de Janeiro, Brasil, 2015.
Martínez, Miguel Tomás. Echándole ganas, todo se puede. Humanizando la Deportación #80, 2018:
http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/es/2018/09/23/80-echandole- ganas-todo-se-puede/.
McCormick, Barry & Wahba, Jackline. “Return Migration and Entrepreneurship in Egypt”. Working Paper, University of Southampton, 1999.
McCormick, Barry & Wahba, Jackline. Overseas work experience, savings and entrepreneurship amongst return migrants to LDCs, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 48, 2: 164-78, 2001.
Morales Guzmán, Esther. “Guerrera Incansable.” Humanizando la Deportación #11a, 2018: http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/es/2017/07/26/guerrera- incansable-i/
Morales Guzmán, Esther. “Guerrera Incansable.” Humanizando la Deportación #11c, 2018: http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/es/2017/07/26/guerrera- incansable-iii/
NAE. Better Business: How Hispanic Entrepreneurs Are Beating Expectations and Bolstering the US Economy. New American Economy, 2014.
NAE. Power of the purse. How Hispanics Contribute to the US Economy. New American Economy, 2017.
Nueno, Pedro. Emprendiendo. El arte de crear empresas y sus artistas. Bilbao, Deusto. (1996).
Pauli, Urban & Osowska, Renata. Building entrepreneurial potential abroad – exploring return migrant experience, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 25 No. 5, págs. 936-954, 2019.
Rosas, Ana Elizabeth. Breaking the Silence: Mexican Children and Women's Confrontation of Bracero Family Separation, 1942–64. Gender & History, 23(2), 382-400, 2011.
Secretaría de Gobernación. Unidad de Política Migratoria, Boletines estadísticos. http://www.politicamigratoria.gob.mx/es_mx/SEGOB/Estadistica, 2018.
Şenyürekli, Ayşem R. & Detzner, Daniel F. Intergenerational relationships in a transnational context: The case of Turkish families. Family Relations, 57, 457 – 467, 2008.
Slack, Jeremy; Martínez, Daniel E.; Whiteford, Scott & Peiffer, Emily. In harm's way: Family separation, immigration enforcement programs and security on the US- Mexico border. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 3(2), 109-128, 2015.
Stark, Oded & Bloom, David E. “The New Economics of Labor Migration”. The American Economic Review, Vol. 75 No.2, pp. 173-178, 1985.
Tania. “Soñando en las sombras” Humanizando la Deportación #115, 2018: http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/es/2018/11/05/115a-sonando-
en-las-sombras/
Varona, Yolanda. “Madres soñadoras internacional: el amor de nuestros hijos es nuestra motivación”. Humanizando la Deportación #82, 2018: http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/es/2018/09/26/82-madres- sonadoras-internacional-el-amor-de-nuestros-hijos-es-nuestra-motivacion/
Vivar, Robert. “Mi sueño”. Humanizando la Deportación #42, 2018: http://humanizandoladeportacion.ucdavis.edu/es/2018/06/27/42-mi-sueno/
Zikic, Jelena. “Skilled migrants’ career capital as a source of competitive advantage: implications for strategic HRM”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 26 No. 10, pp. 1360-1381, 2015.