Disruptions, Dislocations, and Inequalities: Latino Families Surviving the Global Economy

Abstract

This Article draws on field research with Honduran and Mexican transnational families and the transnational family literature to explore how global inequality is influencing gender and class relations within poor migrant families. This Article begins with an overview of the relationship between globalization, Latinola migration, and transnational family formation. The Article then details and analyzes the intersections of transnational care arrangements and the gendered and classed experiences of individual transnational family members. This Article argues that global inequality, specifically the wage gap between the Global North and the Global South, has direct implications for inequalities within Latinola families. Finally, this Article suggests that transnational families are resilient, and yet gender expectations and the economic crisis have spawned new gender, generational, and class inequalities that could potentially threaten family well-being.