From ‘check-writing dads’ to ‘exemplary fathers’. Relations among parents in Michoacán, seasonal labor migrants and their children

Abstract

This document presents a qualitative and exploratory approach to issues related to the interaction generated among parents, seasonal labor migrants from rural populations in the state of Michoacán (western Mexico), and the latter’s children, during both the periods when migrants are away working in the United States or Canada, and when they return to their places of origin. The research captures this interaction from the perspective of the social actors themselves who spoke of their efforts to provide for their families’ material and subsistence needs, as well as their own behaviors, sentiments and emotions recreated through family interaction when they are present in the home, or those that arise when they are absent. The ethnographic data were obtained through interviews with agricultural workers contracted to work seasonally in the U.S. (on H2-A visas) and Canada (in the PTAT Program).