Abstract
Scholars examining gender-specific migration experiences have shown the significant variation in both the migratory process and assimilation of newcomers. Desbordes and Gender and International Migration each highlight the importance of considering new approaches to examine the movement of individuals across borders. While much of the current studies of gender and migration concentrate on qualitative approaches, Viteri takes this a step further by using linguistics and translation to understand transnational LGBT Latino identification. In contrast, Donato and Gabaccia emphasize the need for more demographic and statistical studies that highlight the gender shifts in migration patterns over time. Both of these studies offer nuanced perspectives for advancing the study of migration and resettlement through a gender lens that focus on the intersections of race, class, time, and location to understand identities and migrant flows.
Viteri uses a transnational multisited ethnographic approach, by comparing the lived experiences of LGBT Latinos in Washington, D.C., to those in El Salvador and Ecuador, to map the ways in which Latinos understand and define their LGBT identities across borders. The processes of migration and assimilation takes on a nuanced meaning for LGBT Latinos because their focus on citizenship and belonging does not fit into mainstream constructs of “American” and “queer.” According to Viteri’s research, “queer” is often defined within the context of “whiteness” and is seen as a form of socioeconomic and racial privilege within U.S. Latino communities.
Viteri explains how language and the use of certain Spanish terms, that are often regionally constructed, translate into different categories of LGBT identities. In chapter one (p. 8), an informant named Romero sheds light on the classed differences between “gay” and “faggot” or “culero.” In El Salvador, “gay” means someone who is employed and has material wealth/assets. A “faggot” or “culero” is someone who is unemployed and/or lives at home with family members and has not accumulated material wealth. Similarly, on p. 26, another informant named Juan Fernando discusses the use of the Spanish term “loca” to mean “a homosexual who exchanges sex for money or for goods.” However, “loca” in Washington, D.C., means “transvestite, ‘female’ gay or female impersonator” (p. 27). The carefully contextualized translations show the fluidity of Latino LGBT identities and the various meanings attached to identification labels within and across borders.
Chapter four is entirely dedicated to the author’s reflexivity. Here, Viteri discusses her own perspective as a “Latinidad” or light-skinned Ecuadorian who came from an upper-middle-class family. She documents how her experience with feminine gender expectations limited her understanding of same-sex attraction. The author uses her own experience to offer a critical perspective on the gender boundaries that exist within the Latino community both within America and Latin America. Most of Viteri’s Latino informants reject identifying as queer because they feel racially marginalized from white, queer agendas. Yet, Viteri’s adoption of a “queer” identity highlights her own position of privilege and degree of freedom to self-select a sexuality identity.
Viteri views language as a tool to both mark and reject normative expectations of sexuality and wants to show how Spanish terms in one location can have a different meaning in another. The author’s contextualization of identities within spatial and linguistic boundaries is especially critical to the theoretical contribution of this project. This is evident as Viteri discusses the ways in which masculinity and femininity are constructed, reworked, and challenged across borders—even within the context of Latin America itself. The author explains how Latin America has often been constructed as a homogenous locale by which the Spanish language is used as a means of defining the pan-ethnic “Latino” label. However, this pioneering study addresses the need to understand how LGBT identities within Latin America are also complicated by national boundaries and other historical conditions that have occurred even before crossing the American border.
Similarly, Donato and Gabaccia also address how migration scholarship is affected by constructs of masculinity and femininity, as well as sex and gender. Unlike Viteri’s qualitative approach, Donato and Gabaccia use flow and stock data analysis to advance the study of the variance in gender migration trends. Gender and International Migration provides an organized, chronological discussion of gender migration patterns and lucidly examines larger social and economic conditions connecting different movements of people across the globe.
Part one provides an insightful explanation for the use of “feminization of migration” among demographers in the 1980s. Donato and Gabaccia highlight how scholarship itself is gendered and the methods of gathering data are shaped by sex differences. Early migration scholars were predominantly focused on the role of the state in governing migrants’ national identities and assimilation. In contrast, demographers examined population growth that tracked biological sex differences. According to the authors, demographic shifts in migration provide a useful frame of analysis for understanding patterns of migration such as ancestral origins, destinations, and the changes in “gender balance,” or equality in the gender composition of immigrant populations, over time.
Part two is a historical account of gender differences in migration trends from 1492 until the twentieth century. In a very concise, yet rich, presentation of the push and pull factors affecting emigrant journeys, Donato and Gabaccia offer a well-documented account of gender, class, and labor market trends. The authors highlight the variation between men’s and women’s migration trajectories during early nautical explorations, slavery, colonialism, international warfare, economic necessity, and globalization. Marital and child bearing/rearing expectations have been a concern for migrants across history. The authors show how a large influx of migrant men leads to cultural shifts in ethnic marital expectations. For example, the authors note: “Historically, at least, immigrant men were far more likely than immigrant women to choose partners from a different cultural group—a predictable consequence—and their marriage partners were most often natives of the destination country” (p. 94). Graphs and tables are also used throughout the book to further clarify the authors’ points and give readers a visual interpretation of gender migration patterns.
Part three is a critical examination of stock data to examine migrant flows of men and women by age, 18 and older, to address concerns about gender composition. The authors cite specific concerns with using stock data such as excluding seasonal workers, who are not present during Census counts, the inability to gauge individual autonomy in relation to age, and the constraints with understanding the feminization of migration. Particularly because past estimates have not paid significant attention to gender difference, which may exaggerate the current perception of women’s migration patterns. Lacking from Donato and Gabaccia’s analysis is a detailed discussion of LGBT migrant trends. In this light, Viteri’s study fills this gap by addressing how LGBT Latino/as vary in their sexual identification across borders.
The authors conclude with a reflection on the policy implications for examining the gender composition of migrant flows. Although this book does not concentrate on addressing undocumented populations, the authors suggest that policies shaping migration conditions for men and women can benefit from a gender-informed labor market analysis. In terms of the feminization of migration in the current context of globalization, the authors envision their research contributing to policy changes that consider the gender relations and expectations placed on men and women that shape migrant patterns. The authors note that policy-makers have to first take into consideration the importance of these gender effects before changes are plausible.
The study of migration through a gender lens is very complex and multilayered. Overall, both of these books offer significant contributions to the field of gender and migration studies. Framed for advanced graduate students and scholars in the field of gender migration studies, both books provide important insights and are starting points for scholars to engage in multiple types of methodological studies of migration through a gender lens.