An imperfect realignment: the movement of children of immigrants and their families from the United States to Mexico

Over the past 15 years, hundreds of thousands of children of immigrants and their families have moved from the United States to Mexico pushed by different legal and economic expulsion factors. Using evidence from a multi-sited, twenty year-long study of Mexican migration to Georgia, we analyze the varied educational, linguistic, employment and family reunification experiences of children of immigrants in two communities of origin in central and northern Mexico. We draw from insights of the political sociology of international migration to contend that the movement of children of immigrants and their families to the parental homeland forces the realignment of people, state and territory that emigration initially disrupts. We also argue that this realignment is imperfect because children of immigrants, especially those who are U.S.-born and possess dual citizenship and their families continue to circulate between Mexico and the United States, employing mobility strategies and tapping resources located in both countries.