Undocumented Mexican Workers in California: Networks to Cope with Migratory Grief

Abstract

This research explores the emotional resistance strategies of undocumented immigrant women in California, United States, who have been living in the country for between twelve and thirty-three years. Despite their legal and citizenship invisibility and despite their absence in migration narratives where men continue to be the reference, these women have full lives, dreams and life projects that are not incorporated in the academic discourse. Method: Through interviews with eleven participants, a Constructivist Grounded Theory is applied and developed to try to understand the mechanisms of survival in a hostile territory due to the lack of papers that legalize their life in the USA. A methodology framed in qualitative research where, from the data obtained, categories necessary to explain the investigated object and offer solutions are created. Conclusions: It is found out that the hope of providing a better future for their sons and daughters and the construction of friendship networks with other women, supported by Civil Society Organizations, are fundamental to face the stress and permanent fear of deportation and to be able to overcome the traumatic stress that many claim to continue living. This social mesh is also embedded in civil society organizations (CSOs) where they not only receive help, but also serve as a support for their own personal and intellectual development by generating synergies and resources that they obtain in a variety of ways.