Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
They Never Come Back : A Story of Undocumented Workers from Mexico - Frans J. Schryer

They Never Come Back

A Story of Undocumented Workers from Mexico

By: Frans J. Schryer

eBook | 1 October 2014 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

eBook


RRP $37.26

$33.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $8.50 with

 or 

Instant Digital Delivery to your Kobo Reader App

For Mexicans on both sides of the border, the migrant experience has changed significantly over the past two decades. In They Never Come Back, Frans J. Schryer draws on the experiences of indigenous people from a region in the Mexican state of Guerrero to explore the impact of this transformation on the lives of migrants. When handicraft production was able to provide a viable alternative to agricultural labor, most migrants would travel to other parts of Mexico to sell their wares. Others opted to work for wages in the United States, returning to Mexico on a regular basis.

This is no longer the case. At first almost everyone, including former craft vendors, headed north; however it also became more difficult to go back home and then reenter the United States. One migrant quoted by Schryer laments, "Before I was an artisan and free to travel all over Mexico to sell my crafts. Here we are all locked in a box and cannot get out." NAFTA, migrant labor legislation, and more stringent border controls have all affected migrants' home communities, their relations with employers, their livelihoods, and their identity and customs.

Schryer traces the personal lives and careers of indigenous men and women on both sides of the border. He finds that the most pressing issue facing undocumented workers is not that they are unable to earn enough money but, rather, that they are living in a state of ongoing uncertainty and will never be able to achieve their full potential. Through these stories, Schryer offers a nuanced understanding of the predicaments undocumented workers face and the importance of the ongoing debate around immigration policy.

Industry Reviews

"As the current national attention continues to focus on undocumented workers, this book will prove to be an accessible aid to general readers hoping to gain insight into the world of these workers. Schryer (emer., Univ. of Guelph, Canada) rightly points to the fact that though the economic integration of goods and capital has made tremendous progress in US-Mexico relations, people moving across the border have been the victims of a dysfunctional immigration policy. This dysfunction resultsin enormous human cost and consequences on both sides of the border; families and children experience great personal trauma, especially the undocumented who live in the shadow of fear. Through anecdotes from the lives of people of the Altos Balsas region of Mexico, Schryer illustrates the push and pull factors that have created the situation of the undocumented worker and the benefits to rural Mexican villages where migrant dollars help sustain local economies. A human account of the anguish and life journeys of undocumented workers, the book is written in an accessible manner, which will serve both readers and policy makers well as they try to peer behind the statistics and polemics surrounding the policy response to undocumented workers in the US."

on

More in Migration, Immigration & Emigration

American Passage : The History of Ellis Island - Vincent J. Cannato

eBOOK

In Search Of Kings - Tony De Bolfo

eBOOK

What Would Martin Say? - Clarence B. Jones

eBOOK

RRP $24.99

$20.99

16%
OFF
My Fathers' Houses : Memoir of a Family - Steven V. Roberts

eBOOK

RRP $25.99

$20.99

19%
OFF
Compassionate Bastard - Peter Mitchell

eBOOK

Death in the Afternoon - Ernest Hemingway

eBOOK