Abstract

ESPINOSA-MARQUEZ, Araceli  and  GONZALEZ-RAMIREZ, Misael. Social adaptation for returned immigrants from Atencingo, Puebla, Mexico. CienciaUAT [online]. 2016, vol.11, n.1, pp.49-64. ISSN 2007-7858.

The migration flux between Atencingo, Puebla, Mexico and United States of America has been maintained in the last 30 years by the network of migrants from this community. However, the recent economic recession and stricter migratory policies in United States during the last years, have caused the return of many migrants to their communities. This implies a reinsertion process to the communities of these returning migrants and their families. The aim of this research is to establish the regularities in the return process of immigrants. We focus specifically three aspects: the nature of social interactions inside their communities of origin, the impact of their migratory experiences on the accumulation of social capital, and the ways in which this change transform their employment opportunities and social empowerment. A qualitative analysis of interviews of returning immigrants from Atencingo, Puebla was conducted. In order to achieve this goal a total of 189 participant's were interviewed. The present paper reports 22 interviews which were considered the most meaningful ones. Four groups with different types of challenges among participant's individual and family life cycles were identified from the analysis of the interviews. Permanence in participant's destinations and the lack of synchrony with their places of origin changed their values, beliefs and perceptions. This change created a new set of values which ran counter to those of participant's places of destination. The same process was present when participants returned to Mexico, generating a cycle of values transformation in participant's places of origin.

Keywords : return migration; social capital; migration experience; adaptation.