The Role of Rootedness in (Im)Mobility Decisions in Guatemala: Perspectives of Rural Maya Women Who Stay

Abstract (English)

This presentation presents preliminary results from six months of ethnographic fieldwork in the northwest highlands of Guatemala. This research answers a call in (im)mobility studies to also focus on those who do not migrate (Carling & Schewel, 2018; de Haas, 2014; Schewel, 2015, 2019) and to move away from linear and individual explanations for why people migrate or stay (de Haas, 2014; Schewel, 2019). Situated within a feminist, decolonial paradigm, this ethnographic case study involved participant observation and both individual and group interviews with Maya women who participate in agricultural and entrepreneurial capacity building workshops in remote villages of Huehuetenango. The results offer more nuanced perspectives into gendered aspects of voluntary and forced decisions to migrate or to stay. These women who have stayed in their villages demonstrate high levels of agency in their use of individual, familial, and communal strategies and networks to sustain a viable livelihood whether their husbands are in the United States or not. In addition, they draw on emotional, spiritual, and collective resources as they face endemic structural violence from an absent state or face the uncertainty of a migration attempt by their husband. In addition to offering rural women’s perspectives on (im)mobility, this research puts forward a conceptualization of the role of rootedness in the experiences of those who stay. The results have important implications for the transnational support of migrants and families