Reviews

“In five well-written, well-researched chapters, Oliveira focuses on the tensions and expectations immigrant mothers face, on the participation of these mothers in the education of their children in both Mexico and in the US, and on the ways children maintain bonds with mothers and siblings across two nations and cultures. She also notes the distinctive gender differences and educational achievements among these children. This book will be useful to anyone interested in the contours of transnational parenting in the 21st century.”

— CHOICE

“Motherhood across Borders is a vivid and engaging ethnography about how mothers, grandmothers, caregivers, and children fare when they are divided by, but also connected despite, the U.S.-Mexico border. Focusing on the voices of those directly impactedpeople of all ages, across generations, and in both Mexico and the United States. Oliveira provides an intimate portrayal of the ways that motherhood, and caregiving more generally, is shifting in transnational context.”

— Deborah A. Boehm, author of Returned: Going and Coming in an Age of Deportation

“In this astute and sensitive ethnography, Oliveira does a remarkable job of capturing the poignant, mundane, tragic, and frustrating aspects of mothering from afar. The Mexican migrant women in her book spend their lives caring– for children and other family members back home, family members in New York City, and often other peoples children, too–but all of their caring is not capable of fully bridging the distance or healing family ties broken by cruel immigration policies. If early studies of transnationalism made us optimistic that technology could link diasporic communities, this book reminds us that even in an era of Facetime and Facebook, migration involves separation. The difficult negotiations between mothers, other caregivers, and children, as well as between children (often siblings who have never met), are portrayed with compassion and sensitivity.”

— Alyshia Gálvez,Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at Lehman College/CUNY

“Redolent with themes and experiences that are shared by millions of families around the globe. … Blazes a pathway toward a richer understanding of how senses of belonging shift across the multiple affiliations maintained by these mobile populations: to their family networks, to their communities, and to more than one nation-state.”

— Political and Legal Anthropology Review

“Oliveira’s ethnographic monograph, exploring how transnational Mexican families are able to sustain, nurture, and develop ties of kinship, care, and affection in the wake of maternal migration to the USA is a powerful and timely book. It lays bare, poignantly and compellingly, the complex chain reactions and ripple effects across time, space, and generations that migration sets in motion.” (Read the full review)

— Anthropology & Education Quarterly