Abstract

LOPEZ-POZOS, Cecilia. The emotional cost of separation in migrant children: a study case in family migration between Tlaxcala and California. agric. soc. desarro [online]. 2009, vol.6, n.1, pp.81-103. ISSN 1870-5472.

In this research, I describe the psychosocial effects that separation and reunification imply for the members of transnational families, who live separately and interact between two countries (México-USA). the members of these families who stay back, as well as those who leave, pay a high emotional cost that is evidenced in the way they interact and the alteration of their mental health. these disorders that emerge in the transnational context have to be studied under the framework of a new transdisciplinary perspective that includes anthropology, ethnology, clinical psychology and traditional healing. Only under this new analysis perspective can we understand that certain disorders are exposing the otherness and the suffering of individuals who live between two different cultures.

Keywords : Transnational families; migration; mental health; ethnopsychiatry.