What Does it Mean to Return Home? Narratives of Hope and Uncertainty.

This paper examines what it means to return to Mexico for Mexican women living in the Dallas metropolitan area without papers. While the fear and distress caused by the possibility of being deported are common features of life among undocumented immigrants, not all undocumented immigrants experience the same kind of anxiety and apprehension about the possibility of returning home. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 43 undocumented Mexican women, I examine the factors that shape the women's subjective concerns about returning to Mexico and how they use narratives of hope and uncertainty to articulate two main concerns: providing educational opportunities to their children and protecting their children from violence. I pay particular attention to how Mexican women articulate their aspirational longings and how these are shaped by the condition of illegality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]