“Back There We Had Nothing to Eat”: The Case of Transnational Food Insecurity
| Author | Megan A. Carney |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12293 |
| Published date | 01 August 2017 |
| Date | 01 August 2017 |
“Back There We Had Nothing to Eat”: The
Case of Transnational Food Insecurity
Megan A. Carney*
ABSTRACT
This article discusses migrant food insecurity in the United States from the perspective of
Mexican and Central American migrant women. Many describe migrating because they had
nothing to eat in their countries of origin. Migration is thus framed as a necessary strategy for
overcoming food insecurity. I argue that these women’s perspectives are unique in the migra-
tion literature because food security comprises a gendered labour from which men are fre-
quently spared. Unfortunately, food insecurity still prevails in these women’s households in
the US. Assuming a “double-duty”workday of earning wages and overseeing care within
households, these women experience the added burden of ensuring food security of households
“back there.”Thus, I argue that the food practices of Mexican and Central American migrant
women provide a unique lens through which to understand the increased feminization of
transnational migration from Latin America to other regions of the world.
INTRODUCTION
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that food insecurity currently affects
roughly forty-nine million people, or close to one-fifth of the US civilian population (Coleman-Jen-
sen, et al. 2011). The USDA conceptualizes and measures food insecurity at the household level
and defines it as “uncertain, insufficient, or unacceptable availability, access, or utilization of food”
(Wunderlich and Norwood, 2006, p.4). Transnational migrant households are some of the most
structurally vulnerable in the US to the conditions of food insecurity while also having the fewest
resources for addressing this problem (Quesada et al., 2011).
Since the late 1970s women have migrated from Mexico to the United States in more or less
equal numbers to men, and much of this migration is unauthorized (Segura and Zavella, 2007). Ele-
ven million unauthorized immigrants are estimated to be living in the United States (Passel and
Cohn, 2011), one-third of whom are women (Segura and Zavella, 2007). Compared to other states,
California –the site of my fieldwork outlined herein –has the largest number of foreign-born resi-
dents from Latin America and the largest number of unauthorized immigrants employed in its econ-
omy (US Census Bureau, 2010; Van Hook et al., 2005).
Ethnographic research on women’s migration from Mexico and Central America to the United
States has identified several factors that influence women’s decisions to migrate: desire for reunifi-
cation with family members; desire for improved economic opportunities; intimate partner violence;
and political violence and instability (Boehm, 2012; Chang, 2000; Segura and Zavella, 2007).
Women’s levels of education, their prior marital status, and the strength of their social networks in
the United States are also important predictors of migration. Food insecurity as a central motive
underpinning women’s migration has received much less scholarly attention.
* University of Washington, Seattle
doi: 10.1111/imig.12293
©2017 The Author
International Migration ©2017 IOM
International Migration Vol. 55 (4) 2017
ISS N 00 20- 7985 Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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