Ambiguous Loss Experienced by Transnational Mexican Immigrant Families

Abstract

In this study, an ambiguous loss framework as described by Boss (1999, Ambiguous loss: Learning to live with unresolved grief, First Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA) was used to examine and understand the family experiences of Mexican immigrant agricultural workers in Minnesota. Transcripts from interviews with 17 workers in Minnesota and 17 family members in Mexico were analyzed using qualitative methodology to identify experiences of ambiguous loss in the participants' narratives. Key dimensions of ambiguous loss identified in the transcripts include: psychological family, feelings of chronic/ recurring loss, finding support, and meaning making. In the category of psychological family, participants in both Mexico and the United States mourned the physical absence of their family members and experienced ambiguity regarding family responsibilities, but worked to maintain their psychological roles within the family. In the category of chronic/ recurring loss, participants in both countries experienced chronic worry from not knowing if family members were safe, ambiguity regarding when the immigrant would return, and chronic stressors that compounded these feelings of loss. Participants in both countries coped with both real and ambiguous losses by accessing family support and by using ambiguous communication to minimize worry. Participants in Mexico also accessed work and community-based support. Participants in both countries made meaning of the ambiguous loss by identifying ways their lives were improved and goals were met as a result of the immigration for agricultural work in Minnesota.

The emotional toll of out‐migration on mothers and fathers left behind in Mexico

“…These studies illuminate emotional coping among mothers of migrants; yet, to better understand the gendered nature of transnational parenting, fathers of migrant must also be studied. Building on these and other emergent literature emphasizing the emotional impact of migration (Boccagni and Baldassar ; Solheim, Zaid, and Ballard ), the current study aims to further this research by examining the emotional implications of transnationalism specifically on both mothers and fathers of migrants.…”

“…Many parents had not seen their children in person for many years, and expressed sadness not just over missing them but over the belief that they would never return to live in Mexico. Extended separation and the undocumented context imbues uncertainty and emotional strain that are reflective of the ambiguous loss originally theorized by Boss () and later discussed in the context of migration by Solheim and colleagues (); in effect, parents are torn between accepting a permanent separation from their migrant children and maintaining the hope that they will return. This ambiguity appears to heighten the emotional toll that parents experience, and elicits a unique emotional coping dynamic for the parents of migrants.…”

Family Members’ Transnational Migration, Community Contexts, and Psychological Distress in Mexican Families

“…Many of these immigrants remit financial resources to family members who remain in Mexico. Although migrating family members experience stress due to acculturation transitions in their new environments, remaining family members may also experience considerable distress resulting from absence of family members (Graham & Jordan, 2011;Lahaie, Hayes, Piper, & Heymann, 2009;Solheim, Zaid, & Ballard, 2015). This study examines factors that contribute to Mexican family members' psychological distress, especially effects of having family members who migrate to work in the U.S.…”

“…Due to a gendered pattern in which men typically migrate from Mexico to the U.S., research has focused on wives who remain in Mexico (Boehm, 2008;Radel & Schmook, 2009). Many studies show that changes in family roles and living arrangements combine with feelings of loss to increase psychological distress for remaining spouses (Boehm, 2008;Martone, Muñoz, Lahey, Yoder, & Gurewitz, 2011;Radel & Schmook, 2009;Solheim et al, 2015). One source of this stress is increased responsibility and labor demands for women (Boehm, 2008;Radel & Schmook, 2009), but Nobles et al (2014) found that stress is associated mainly with absence of spouses rather than influenced indirectly by decreased household resources or increased caregiving burdens.…”

Editorial: Emerging Principles of Practice in Couple and Family therapy

“…These methods are, of course, applied within specific treatments in particular ways, but these concepts and methods are also readily exported into the integrative method of the practitioner. And, finally, there is the vast underlying base of knowledge about relational life from which all effective practice draws, including the myriad of empirical findings that we catalog in this journal about family life that is so essential to effective practice [the wide range of such findings includes such diverse information as understanding the impact of partner affairs (Whisman, ), the ways in which resilience occurs (Lietz, Julien‐Chinn, Geiger, & Hayes Piel, ; Walsh, ), the impact of ambiguous loss (Solheim, Zaid, & Ballard, ), the nature of LGBTQ issues in families (Green & Mitchell, ), the impact of various cultural contexts on families (Killoren, Wheeler, Updegraff, Rodríguez de Jésus, & McHale, ; Updegraff & Umaña‐Taylor, ), and relational assessment (Hamilton, Carr, Cahill, Cassells, & Hartnett, ; Heyman, Slep, & Foran, ; Wamboldt, Cordaro, & Clarke, )].…”