Distance Fatherhoods. The New Reality of Deported Parents

Abstract

As a consequence of the recent massive deportations of undocumented migrants, from United States to Mexico, many households have been separated, making visible a particular way of familial reconfiguration specially in motherhood and fatherhood practices. The deportations have been carried out in a framework of strengthening immigration laws, as well as xenophobic and classist speeches by the American government. In this article, I seek to contribute to the recognition of the reconfigurations of paternity practices in a transnational context. I present four cases of fathers from the town “El Nith” in Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo. These fathers were jailed several times in the USA, and at the end deported to Mexico. So they still have a restriction to reentry, and for them it is impossible to think in a likely familial reunion. There is a great lack of research on this topic, the most common approach is on transnational maternity, and that’s why I find it is necessary to have an analysis about fatherhood and masculinity. When the masculinity is disrupted, men cease to be the father providers and the principal source of economic income in their families.