They Never Come Back: A Story of Undocumented Workers from Mexico

For Mexicans on both sides of the border, the migrant experience has changed significantly over the past two decades. In They Never Come Back, Frans J. Schryer draws on the experiences of indigenous people from a region in the Mexican state of Guerrero to explore the impact of this transformation on the lives of migrants. When handicraft production was able to provide a viable alternative to agricultural labor, most migrants would travel to other parts of Mexico to sell their wares. Others opted to work for wages in the United States, returning to Mexico on a regular basis. This is no longer the case. At first almost everyone, including former craft vendors, headed north; however it also became more difficult to go back home and then reenter the United States. One migrant quoted by Schryer laments, "Before I was an artisan and free to travel all over Mexico to sell my crafts. Here we are all locked in a box and cannot get out." NAFTA, migrant labor legislation, and more stringent border controls have all affected migrants' home communities, their relations with employers, their livelihoods, and their identity and customs. Schryer traces the personal lives and careers of indigenous men and women on both sides of the border. He finds that the most pressing issue facing undocumented workers is not that they are unable to earn enough money but, rather, that they are living in a state of ongoing uncertainty and will never be able to achieve their full potential. Through these stories, Schryer offers a nuanced understanding of the predicaments undocumented workers face and the importance of the ongoing debate around immigration policy.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. What Happened to the Mexican Miracle? 2. "Struggling to Get Ahead" 3. "No One Lives There" 4. "I Feel Sorry for Them" 5. "It Used to Be Easy to Cross the Border" 6. "In the United States All You Do Is Work" 7. "For Me It Is about the Same" 8. "Mexicans Are Good Workers" 9. "We Can Never Hang Out with Our Friends" 10. "They Only Send You Back if You Are Bad" 11. "We Must Carry On Our Ancestors' Traditions" 12. "I Don't Have Much in Common with My Cousin" 13. The System Is Broken Suggested Readings and References Acknowledgments

About the Author :
Frans J. Schryer is Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph. He is the author of several books, including Farming in a Global Economy: A Case Study of Dutch Immigrant Farmers in Canada and The Rancheros of Pisaflores: The History of a Peasant Bourgeoisie in Twentieth-Century Mexico.

Review :
"As the current national attention continues to focus on undocumented workers, this book will prove to be an accessible aid to general readers hoping to gain insight into the world of these workers. Schryer (emer., Univ. of Guelph, Canada) rightly points to the fact that though the economic integration of goods and capital has made tremendous progress in US-Mexico relations, people moving across the border have been the victims of a dysfunctional immigration policy. This dysfunction resultsin enormous human cost and consequences on both sides of the border; families and children experience great personal trauma, especially the undocumented who live in the shadow of fear. Through anecdotes from the lives of people of the Altos Balsas region of Mexico, Schryerillustrates the push and pull factors that have created the situation of the "undocumented worker" and the benefits to rural Mexican villages where migrant dollars help sustain local economies. A human account of the anguish and life journeys of undocumented workers, the book is written in an accessible manner, which will serve both readers and policy makers well as they try to peer behind the statistics and polemics surrounding the policy response to undocumented workers in the US."-B.P. Corrie, Choice (March 2015) "Written for a wide audience,They Never Come Backwill make a timely and engaging addition to undergraduate courses on globalization, Mexico, labor migration, and U.S. immigration politics... The book especially shines in its description of small-town life in rural Mexico, a critical part of the migrtion equation that is missing from most migration scholarship. Another strength of the book is a clear and concise writing style, which makes it accessible to a broad audience that includes students...They Never Come Backtackles some big issues, telling the stories of a small group of people with broader lessons about continuity and change, tradition and adaptation and workers' daily struggles to survive."-Ruth Gomberg-Munoz,Journal of Anthropological Research(Spring 2015) "They Never Come Back is a compelling book. Frans J. Schryer's command of Nahuat, his long association with the sending area, and his long-term friendships with the migrants allow him to give a real feeling for the hopes, dreams, and realities that the immigrants face as they address each border as well as the realities for the families and the communities left behind. He paints a vivid picture of an indigenous people who are adept at adapting to economic and political change while maintaining their sense of community."-Cornelia Flora, Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Sociology Emeritus, Iowa State University, author of Rural Communities: Legacy and Change "They Never Come Back is at once big and small, balancing thick description of a group of people with broader analyses of an issue, global economic integration, that affects us all. And this book is written for all, with a narrative that is compelling, engaging, and refreshingly accessible. This is some of the best of what ethnography can offer to contemporary public debates."-Ruth Gomberg-Munoz, Loyola University Chicago, author of Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network