• Re-reading remittances through solidarity: Mexican hometown associations in New York City

    Author(s):
    Araby Smyth (see profile)
    Date:
    2017
    Group(s):
    Modern Mexican History, Urban Studies
    Subject(s):
    Geography, Human geography
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Development, Hometown associations, mexico, Remittances, Solidarity economy
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6GF67
    Abstract:
    This paper analyzes how Mexican hometown associations in New York City practice solidarity so that they might best meet the needs of the transnational communities that they serve. Commonly formed by immigrants in the United States, hometown associations are organizations which send money collectively to their home countries, supporting public infrastructure and community projects. Scholars have debated both the merits of remittance programs that channel migrant funds as economic development and the agency of immigrant economies in neoliberal development structures. Through primary data collected from interviews in New York City, I review the frustrations that hometown associations have with one such program: Mexico's programa tres por uno para migrantes. Concurrently, I examine how the same hometown associations engage ethical economic practices of collective remittance sending and community service provision in New York City. Drawing on feminist literature on diverse economies, I argue that the solidarity work of hometown associations disrupts the dominant remittance as development discourse. Migrants are not content to participate in tres por uno and through practicing solidarity they distance themselves from this neoliberal policy.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.06.025
    Publisher:
    Elsevier BV
    Pub. Date:
    2017-7-10
    Journal:
    Geoforum
    Volume:
    85
    Page Range:
    12 - 19
    ISSN:
    0016-7185
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    Attribution
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