ABSTRACT
Why are thousands of Central American and Mexican immigrant women living and working in California and other parts of the United States while their children and other family members remain in their countries of origin? In this chapter, I argue that U.S. labor demand, immigration restrictions, and cultural transformations have encouraged the emergence of new transnational family forms among Central American and Mexican immigrant women. Postindustrial economies bring with them a labor demand for immigrant workers that is differently gendered from that typical of industrial or industrializing societies. In all postindustrial nations we see an increase in demand for jobs dedicated to social reproduction, jobs typically coded as “women's jobs.” In many of these countries, such jobs are filled by immigrant women from developing nations. Many of these women, because of occupational constraints—and, in some cases, specific restrictionist contract-labor policies—must live and work apart from their families.
