‘You must think ofFamilia’: the everyday lives of Mexican migrants in destination communities

The goal of this study was to explore the degree to which Mexican migrant workers engage in economic, social and cultural transnational activities throughout their migration careers, and to investigate how these activities are imbedded in the context of their everyday life in the host communities. Our findings show that migrants are primarily involved in economic transnational activities, such as sending financial remittances, and investing in land, business and properties in the home country. This affects their everyday life in the USA by limiting their financial resources, which has an effect on their living conditions and spending patterns. Migrants also engage in social transnational activities which involve maintaining social contacts with friends and family abroad, socializing with people from the same ethnic group, and home visits. Cultural transnational activities that migrants are involved in are primarily low cost, individual in nature, and home based. Only those more established in the local ethnic communities are involved in structured social and cultural transnational activities with the host country focus. The study highlights the interdependency of economic, social and cultural aspects of transnational activities and shows a temporal progression of different aspects of transnationalism among people at different stages of their migration career.