Transnational Struggles: Policy, Gender, and Family Life on the Texas-Mexico Border

Bustamante provides a rare insight of the border as an entire transnational social field, with a similar racial and ethnic composition. He finds a borderlands region patterned by political oppression and gender inequality. This oppressive situation and the lack of access to institutional resources entice families to seek and use resources provided by Mexican relatives across the border. This salient issue places transnational engagement as a strategy based on available options, not a preferred choice. Therefore, transnationalism is an approach that many border immigrants would like to avoid. Finally, Steven Gold's definition of transnational engagement is employed to theoretically capture family life shaped by numerous external conditions that transcend national borders.