Vigilance upon return: Untold stories of migrants moving back to Mexico from the United States

Dürr, Eveline (16. Dezember 2025): Vigilance upon return: Untold stories of migrants moving back to Mexico from the United States. In: Cultural Dynamics [Forthcoming]

Abstract

My paper explores the (un)told stories of migrants who have returned from the United States to small-town Mexico, focussing on their strategies for (re)integration into their communities. Specifically, it examines how returnees navigate perceived status differences, expectations regarding upward social mobility, and questions of belonging. My research posits that returnees are subject to scrutiny in their everyday lives and are aware of this. I argue that, in response to being watched and often seen as ‘different’, returnees develop strategies of introspection and reflection. The stories they choose to tell—or withhold—about their lives in the United States are shaped not only by their individual migratory experience but also by their perception of how they are viewed by others in their communities. This paper highlights how returnees attune themselves to their social environment by either articulating or withholding their migration experience as they navigate their new social realities.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Kulturwissenschaften > Department für Kulturwissenschaften und Altertumskunde > Ethnologie
• Themengebiete: 300 Sozialwissenschaften > 300 Sozialwissenschaft, Soziologie
• ISSN: 0921-3740
• Bemerkung: Online first
• Sprache: Englisch
• DFG: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - 394775490