# Gendered Emotions Within the Migration Process: a case study of Argentinean migrants in Miami

Cecile Vermot

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Cecile Vermot. Gendered Emotions Within the Migration Process: a case study of Argentinean migrants in Miami. Working Paper du Ceped #02, Centre Population et Développement. 2009, pp.25. hal-04159442

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Gendered Emotions Within
the Migration Process

A case study of Argentinean migrants in Miami

Cécile Vermot

Centre Population et Développement

UMR 196 CEPED, Université Paris Descartes, INED, IRD

http://www.ceped.org/wp
**Contact • Corresponding Author**

Cécile Vermot, Doctorante en sociologie au CEPED (UMR 196 Paris Descartes, INED, IRD), sous la direction
de Denys Cuche, Professeur à l'Université Paris Descartes
Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
cecilevermot@gmail.com

**Remerciements • Acknowledgements**

The author would like to thank Dr. E. Aranda and Pr. J. Copans for their motivation and critical reading of
the manuscript, and the MICEFA program and the Conseil Régional d'Île de France for the exchange
scholarship.

**CEPED • Centre Population et Développement**

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# Gendered Emotions Within the Migration Process

## A case study of Argentinean migrants in Miami

Cécile Vermot

### Abstract

Immigration is often seen as a rational choice by people who seek more economic opportunities or who flee politically oppressive regimes or violence. However, it has been suggested that emotions and emotional actions have to be seen as conceptually rational. The aim of this paper is to assess the role emotions have played in the choice to migrate and how this choice has affected gender roles after migration. I use a case study of Argentinean immigrants in the United States to explore these issues. Findings from the interviews carried out reveal that the economic crisis in Argentina affected the emotional well-being of the male Argentineans, because they were not able to fulfil their socially prescribed role as breadwinner, while women could continue to fulfil their role as caregivers, not only of their children but also of their husbands. Thus, migration was a response to the emotional difficulties men experienced when they were unable to care for their families financially.

**Keywords:** Argentineans, emotion, feminism, gender, migration, transnationalism.

### Abstracto

A menudo, la inmigración se ve como una elección racional de gente que busca mejores oportunidades económicas o que huyen de la violencia o de regímenes políticamente opresivos. No obstante, se ha sugerido que las emociones y las acciones emocionales deben verse, conceptualmente, como racionales. Este artículo pretende evaluar el papel que juegan las emociones en la elección de inmigrar y cómo esta elección puede afectar los roles de género después de la inmigración. Para explorar estas cuestiones, me valgo del estudio de caso de los inmigrantes Argentinos en Estados Unidos. Los resultados derivados de las entrevistas llevadas a cabo revelan que la crisis económica argentina afectó el bienestar de los hombres argentinos al no ser capaces de cumplir sus roles como cabeza de familia, mientras las mujeres sí podían cumplir sus roles de amas de casa, no solamente en relación a sus hijos, sino también a sus maridos. Así, inmigrar fue una respuesta emocional frente a las dificultades que vivieron los hombres al no ser capaces de mantener a sus familias económicamente.

**Palabras claves:** Argentinos, emoción, feminismo, genero, inmigración, transnacionalismo.
Introduction

The number of migrants in the world increased from about seventy-six million in 1960 to almost one hundred and seventy-five million in the year 2000 (World Survey, 2005, 24). Currently, the rate of migration of women has increased, and is almost equivalent to that of men. In 2000, 49 percent of all international migrants were female. In the United States, there are more female immigrants (51%) than male (49%). Whereas gender has been seen by sociologists as "another variable [...] relegated to family studies," feminist scholars have argued that it is an "organizing principle of the overall social order in modern societies" (Lorber, 2006). During the 1970s, women were introduced in the studies of immigration, and only in the 1980s did migration studies focus on gender. Migration becomes the subdiscipline where the feminist perspective is most integrated. According to Mahler and Pessar (2006), understanding migration from a gender perspective "can make a difference to understanding how people decide to migrate, why they migrate at all, and why they occupy varying occupational niches". For a dynamic and fluid conceptualization of gender within the migration process, recent poststructuralist scholars propose not only studying male and female separately, but studying relational and situational gender issues in the general context of migration (Mahler, Pessar, 2006). Because "gender is a structure and is not only constituted in practices but created in individual, interactional, and institutional levels" (Parrenas, 2005, 95), gender cannot be analyzed by simply comparing men and women. As Hondagneu-Sotelo has argued, migration from a gendered perspective has to focus on "gender relations as a constitutive feature of the social, economic, and cultural constellations that structure migration" (2005).

The genders are generally expected to react differently emotionally. If men symbolize the rational, and
are seen as unemotional, calculating, individualistic, self-interested, dominant, and hierarchical,
women symbolize the emotional, such as warm feelings and cold cognition (Goodwin *and al.*, 2001).
Emotions can be approached theoretically from many perspectives, but none of these can define or
explain emotions in their totality: "No one element -biology, cultural construction, or cognition- is
*solely* responsible for how emotions are experienced or expressed" (Turner and Stets, 2005, 2, 10).
Emotions are thus caused by biological and psychological processes as well as cultural construction.
Only the interdependence among all these factors can give us a complete view of human emotions.
Nevertheless, the goal of this work is to establish an approach that emphasizes the meaning and
consequences of the symbolization of gendered emotions as a social construction. Emotions have been
neglected by sociologists; they were seen by the discipline as irrational and illogical feelings (Goodwin
*and al.*, 2001). This neglect is due, on the one hand, to sociologists who wanted to give scientific
recognition to the discipline and, on the other, to the assumption that rational, cognitive, or
intellectual people are superior to sentimental or emotional ones (Hochschild, 1975). Overlooking
social and emotional expressions, which are linked stereotypically to gender, can reinforce the
conviction that sociology, until recently, was a masculine-oriented discipline. If the study of emotions
may still seem 'an unsuitable topic for sociological examination,' the fathers of the discipline have,
nevertheless, produced paradigms to analyse and examine emotions sociologically (Borgatta *and al.*,
2000, 773). Among them, Max Weber was one of the first to highlight the idea that scientists have to
take emotional action into account: "For the purpose of a typological scientific analysis it is convenient
to treat all irrational, affectually determined elements of behaviours as factors of deviation from a
conceptually pure type of rational action" (1978 [1922]:6). Emotions are part of all aspects of social
actions and social relations (Goodwin *and al.*, 2001). The fact that emotions were firstly studied by
psychologists has brought some sociologists and anthropologists to establish a distinction between
emotion, sentiments and affects. Nevertheless, following the sociologist Hochschild, I will use her definition of emotion and, thus, use these terminologies without distinctions. For Hochschild, an emotion is the result of cooperation between the body and a picture, a thought and a memory (Hochschild, 2003).

Studying gendered emotions implies connecting the person (the self or identity) and social interaction with social structures and culture. The arousal of emotions interacts with the identity and the cultural script as class, race, ethnicity, and gender given to people. In the perspective of gender script, as pointed out by Hochshild (1989) in her book *The Second Shift*, feeling rules have to support gender ideology in a given society. Women and men have to be in conformity with cultural norms, they have to "do gender" (West and Zimmerman, 1991). Doing gender involves learning a cultural script, adhering to the "normative gender behavior," substituting something that is cultural for something that is natural; as the expression of masculine and feminine "nature." According to Parrenas, the possibilities of change by "disagreements in practices" do not "subvert the structure," but may reinforce the "naturalness" of "normative gender behaviour" (2005, 95). On the one hand, emotions expressed and felt by men and women have to be in accordance with their gender roles. On the other hand, if a person cannot fulfil the gender role, if his or her gender identity cannot be socially confirmed, he or she is going to feel an emotion arousal. According to Burke's identity-control theory, individuals "will experience distress, anxiety, and other negative emotions along with lowered self-esteem" when their identities are not confirmed, but the emotional feelings are going to be positive if the self is confirmed (Turner and Stets, 2005, 127). For Burke, the identity disruption, an interruption of the social role, which "serves as a standard or reference for who one is," is going to create negative emotion (1991).

From a gender perspective, I will try here to interpret the process of migration within the emotional lives of migrants. Can emotions, which lead to rational action and accompany rational choice, bring one to the act of migration? How have emotional factors played a role in the choice to migrate? How has migration affected Argentinean migrants' emotional lives, and the lives of their relatives? I will also try to analyze the emotions within their transnational lives. The term transnationalism describes the "process by which immigrants forge and sustain multistranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement" (Basch *and al.*, 1994, 6). It is also a "series of economic, socio-cultural, and political practical and discursive relations that transcend the territorially bound jurisdiction of the nation-state" (Guarnizo, 1997, 9). Studies of transnationalism have not introduced the subjective dimensions of the migrants until recently. It is, however, "crucial to paint a holistic portrait of immigrants and, in the words of Jorge Duany, to go beyond the narrow view of migrants as simply demographic numbers or passive victims of historical and economic processes, to begin to see them as people of flesh and blood" (Aranda, 2007a,12). The term transnationalism defined also family which lived in a different nation. To take into account the emotion that tied a transnational family permits to explain the decision to go back and forth between the country of origin and the country of destination. For example, in her book Emotional Bridges to Puerto Rico, Aranda analyzes emotional transnationalism for the first migrant generations of Puerto Ricans (2007a). She highlights, *inter alia*, the transnationalism from an ideologically and emotional perspective, pointing out women's emotional struggle in the first generation of Puerto Ricans living in transnational families because they can not fulfil their role as caregivers. The studies of the transnational attachment show that, beyond the economic factor, the emotional attachment between the member of a family permits to understand the decision of the migrant to remain in its country of migration or go back to the country where the family settled. The emotional transnationalism and the migrant desire to go back and forth give us an idea about the migrant's relation with its family, its genre and its place within the kinship. Following
the work of Aranda, this paper aims to study, from a gender relational and situational perspective, the emotional life and subjective transnationalism of the first generation of Argentinean migrants who came in the United States just before the 2001 economic crisis or because of it. The objective of this work is thus to analyze, within a gender perspective, the emotional factors involved in the migration process.

# Argentinean Migration

Argentina is historically seen as a country of immigration, not emigration. Like the United States, immigration, principally from Europe, constructed the modern country. The incoming immigrants in Argentina during the 1800s and the 1900s were half from Italy, one third from Spain, and one fifth, polish, who were followed by Russians, French, and Germans. It is remarkable also that a number of them were Jews that fled the persecutions in Eastern Europe. A second and third wave of Jewish migration in Latin America took place respectively during the first and the Second World Wars (Morales, 2005, Gordenstein, 2005). The Argentinean emigration can be distinguished in four waves. This first wave took place between 1950 and 1970. This wave is commonly seen as a "Brain Drain" migration. Mainly the dominant class and people with a high level of qualification decided to leave their country (Oboler, 2005). Their migration, specifically to the United States, was facilitated by the U.S. immigration act of 1965, which opened the door of the country to 20,000 people per year and per country. The second wave was due to the dictatorship that took place between 1976 and 1983. In 1982 the consulate of Argentina estimated that 500,000 Argentineans were living abroad (Maletta and al., 1988). By 1982, 22 percent had elected the United States, 39 percent had elected neighboring countries, 11 percent, Europe, and 4 percent, Australia (Marshall, 1988). In front of the dictatorship, the first ones who chose to migrate were those who suffered most of the political repression, such as students, intellectuals or political activists (Maletta and al., 1988). This emigration was politic but also economic. Excluding a small part from the elite, all the population suffered a fall of their wage. The third wave, from the 80's to 2000, was the result of the application by the government of the neoliberal politic and was therefore composed by economic exiles. The fourth wave, which began in 2001, was also the consequence of a neoliberal policy. However, this wave may be distinguished from the precedent one by its intensity and the departure reason, which is the economic, political and social crisis of 2001. This last crisis was the accumulation of several crises that started in 1995. At the beginning of 2002, the inflation rate climbed from 10 to 67 percent, the Gross Domestic Product decreased by 15 percent and the external debt (public and private) reached $147,881 billion (Iriat, and Waitzkin, 2006). In this same year the situation seemed to stabilize. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate was more than 25 percent, and 57.5 percent of the population fell below the poverty line (Iriat and Waitzkin, 2006). Because of this economic crisis, many Argentineans chose to leave the country. According to the Center for Migration and Information, "An estimated 1.05 million Argentineans were living abroad as of March 2005 - double the number from 1985" (Jachimowicz, 2006a). A majority seemed to migrate to Italy and Spain, where many were able claim citizenship because of an ancestor who migrated to Argentina two or three generations ago. In Spain for example the number of Argentinean increased from 70.491 to 271.444 between 2000 and 2006 (2). The choice of Spain, apart from the ease to obtain the citizenship, can be understood by the fact that they share a common language. The Argentinean migration in Italy, where a majority of Argentineans would be able to ask for the citizenship, it is unfortunately difficult to quantify because the Italian's national institute of statistics counts only the Argentineans who do not have Italian citizenship. However, the number of Argentineans increased between the 2002 and 2006 from 10 114 to 13 422 (3). Argentina has the fourth largest Jewish community in the world and
the first in the Latin American region. In consequence, a large number of Argentinean Jews migrated to Israel. In 2000, 1300 people migrated to Israel, 1500 in 2001. In 2002, there were a total of 30,000 Jewish Argentineans in Israel. The majority of Jewish Argentineans who migrated to Israel during the crisis were from middle or low social classes (Melamed, 2002). Others chose Australia or the United States. The economic crisis erupted in November 2001 and pushed a number of Argentineans to try to find a way to survive. This year, however, also corresponded to stricter border enforcement in the United States as the result of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Before 2001, Argentineans were not required to have a visa to enter the United States. Facing the economic collapse and the increasing number of Argentineans who attempted to overstay the 90-day admission period under the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service removed Argentina from the list of countries participating in this program in February of 2002. However, for almost one year, Argentineans were able to enter the United States without a visa. According to the Census Bureau, there were 100,864 Argentineans living in the United States in 2000 (3). In 2005, census statistics indicate an increase of 58,209 legal Argentinean immigrants (4). Of the 183,427 Argentineans currently living in the United States, 51.6 percent are male and 48.4 percent are female. The median age is 33.5 years; 69.5 percent are living in family households. The majority of these immigrants are well educated. 52.6 percent of the males and 47.4 percent of the females are naturalized U.S citizens (5). Ten percent of Argentinean families in the United States live in poverty (6). Argentineans are affected by poverty as much as other immigrant groups, and, like them; they send remittances back to their homeland. The remittances, which tripled from 2001, reached $780 million in 2005.

In 2006, 60 percent of the immigrant Argentineans lived in just three states: Florida, 52.682; California, 33.529; and New York 22.869 (7). According to Gowland, Vice-Consul of the Argentinean consulate in Miami, the projection of the number of Argentineans in Florida averages 150,000 people. Florida is now the state of first choice for immigration. The choice of Florida, and more specifically Miami<fnref n="1" />, can be explained by the existence there of an important Latino community and the possibility of living in a Spanish-speaking environment. Another reason to choose Miami, as pointed out by Gowland, is that the cheapest flight from Argentina is to Miami. The Argentinean community in Florida, specifically in Miami, is growing. The estimate of the number of Argentineans in Miami in 2005 is 30,973 (8). Unfortunately a comparison before this last census's field is impossible. The Argentinean population, like other eight countries of South America, was designated until 2000 as "Other Hispanics" by the Census. Data are thus available only since 2000. Even if the category "Other Hispanic" still exists today; this group is divided by nationalities. Nevertheless, as Oboler (2005) pointed out, South Americans are understood as a homogenous population whereas few things are known about the South American population in the United States. Nonetheless, the population of South American is diverse in national, ethnic, racial, linguistic and social concerns because "Waves of immigrants and refugees from every country in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East have settle throughout South America, such that, taken as a whole, the population of South America is as diverse and heterogeneous as that of the United States" (Oboler, 2005). For some of them migrated to Miami can also be explained by religious and cultural factors. The number of Jewish people living in Miami put the city in the twelfth position in the United States. Jewish Latinos represent 1 percent of the total Latina population. The fourth first countries of origin are Cuba with 29 percent, Argentina with 18 percent, Colombia with 16 percent and Venezuela with 15 percent (Mandell L. Berman Institute, 2004). The choice of Miami for them is perhaps due to the important Latina community in Miami but also by the fact that it is a place where the Jewish Latino group is important. In the specific context of

<footnote n="1">¹ Miami Dade County</footnote>
Argentina, the religious factor is important. Argentina has the most important community of Jewish of the region. The migration and reception of Jewish Argentineans in the United States is a complex issue (Morales, 2005). Judaism is a religion but not all Jewish are religious. Moreover, they come from very different countries, have different languages and cultures. The Ashkenazis Jewish came from Eastern Europe and speak a common language, the Yiddish, whereas the Sephardic came from Spain and Portugal. Some of Jewish who have migrated to Latin America speak a common language; the Landino (Morales, 2005). They were both Sephardim and Ashkenazim in Latin America but the majority is now Ashkenazim since a lot of Sephardim migrated earlier to the United States (Gordenstein, 2005). Jewish who come from the Latin America today, are not discriminated for their religion but they suffer prejudice by the English speaker because of their use of Spanish (Gordenstein, 2005). The history of the Jewish migration is one of the examples which show the necessity to not see a nation as an identical whole.

## Data and Methods

The participants in this study were enlisted in Miami. The sample represents 12 individuals (see Table 1). There are 9 women and 3 men. Because the sample has more women than men, the expression of the disruption of the men's well-being, is thus here more the statement of the spouse than the husband. To keep the participants anonymous, fiction's names have been elected. I contacted the participants through my network of relations (Eduardo, Carolina, Alejandra, Cristina, Eugenia). I contacted one of them (Ernesto) by internet because he is working as the director of a free newspaper dedicated to the Argentinean community in Florida. Otherwise, the participants responded to advertisements that I put around the Argentinean neighborhood in Miami, also called "Little Buenos Aires" by the Argentinean community (between 75th and 80th Streets NW in North Miami Beach), in the consulate, or in the free newspaper *Argentina Hoy*. Only women answered the advertisements (Ana, Laura, Maria, Carmen, Paulina). The husband of Laura, Carlos, wanted to do the interview with his wife. They generally contacted me by phone. I conducted the 12 in-depth, open-ended interviews with first-generation Argentinean immigrants. All the interviews, from November 2006 to July 2007, were conducted in Spanish. Three of the females were teachers in a Jewish school in downtown Miami (Carolina, Alejandra, Cristina). They had religious visas and were waiting for their residency. Carolina was born in Buenos Aires. Before migrating, she was living in San Miguel de Tucuman where she was working with her husband in his textile factory. Her father died a long time ago. Her nuclear family remains in Argentina; her mother is living in San Miguel de Tucuman with one of her sisters, whereas her brother is living in the south. She had a son who was born in the United States one year after their arrival. Alejandra was born in Cordoba where her nuclear family still remains. When she got married, she moved with her husband to Salta where she was working as a nurse. Her husband was working in web design. She had one son and one daughter, born in Argentina. Cristina was born in Buenos Aires and was living in Cordoba. She was also working as a nurse. She had one daughter and two sons, born in Argentina. Her husband was working in a plane company. Her nuclear family remains in Argentina. Carolina, Alejandra, and Cristina came a few months after their husbands and did not know each other before the migration. Ana came at the same time as her husband (Carlos) and their three children, who were born in Argentina. Two of their children were married and live in Miami; the other one was still living with them. They had no legal status. In Argentina, they were all working together in their video shop in Salta. Ana does not have more family in Argentina whereas Carlos has his mother. Ana is now doing housekeeping or babysitting and he is working in a painting enterprise. Laura was born and raised in Buenos Aires. She came a few months after her husband, and she was
divorced one year after she arrived. She did not have her own job in Argentina but had been helping her husband in his mechanics enterprise. She is now working as a nurse and doing extra hours as a waitress in a casino. She was married to an American citizen in the United States, and subsequently divorced. From this marriage she obtained her residency. Her nuclear family remains in Argentina. Carmen and her husband lived in Buenos Aires. She came at the same time as her husband with their child born in Argentina. Since then they have had two more children born in the United States. They have no legal status. She was a secretary in Argentina and her husband was a gardener. She is now doing housekeeping and babysitting, and her husband still works as a gardener. Maria was born and was living in Buenos Aires. She came alone, and subsequently married and divorced an American citizen in the United States. She was an entertainer in Argentina and is doing the same kind of work in Miami. She gets her residency from her marriage. Paulina was born and lived in Buenos Aires. She was divorced before she immigrated with two of her three children, but came a few months after them. The son and daughter who immigrated were born in Brazil where she had lived for nine years to escape the dictatorship. The other son, who remains in Argentina, was born there. She was a professor of mathematics in Argentina. She tried to open an internet shop in Miami, but it did not succeed. She is now working as a broker. In term of the nuclear family, only one of her children (her eldest son) remains in Argentina. Her other son and daughter are living in Miami. Eugenia and Eduardo were born and lived in Buenos Aires. They came at the same time. They had expatriate status because of Eduardo's work. He had been working in an important bank in Argentina; she was working as an accountant. The bank asked him to work in Miami. After taking English lessons for a year, Eugenia found a job in a bank. Their nuclear family remains in Argentina. Ernesto was born and lived in Buenos Aires. He divorced before he migrated. He was a football coach before leaving Buenos Aires for Miami. His three children born in Argentina were from his previous marriage. One of his sons was living in Miami and another in Spain. His daughter was living in Argentina.

The age range was 31-55 years old. They were all the second, third or fourth generation of immigrants to Argentina. Cristina's grandparents, was from Russia, the grandparents of Alejandra were from Poland, one of the grandmothers of Carolina was Spanish-Arab, and the grandparents of Ana were Spanish. Ernesto's mother's parents came from Italy, and on his father's side, from Germany and Syria. Carolina's parents came from Spain. Three of the participants, Carolina, Alejandra and Cristina, are Jewish Argentineans.

The choice of the qualitative method has permitted me to "empathize with the respondents" and "view their situations from their own point of view" (Williams and Heiks, 1993). Nevertheless, the fact of being a woman interviewer trying to understand the emotional point of view of the participants from the gender perspective may have an impact in collecting the data. I felt that women were much more comfortable speaking with me about their feelings than the men, who tend to respond differently to the gendered context of the interview in a mixed-sex interaction. All the participants asked me why I wanted to do an investigation of Argentinean people, but also how I learned Spanish. The fact that my level of Spanish is good helped me to conduct the interviews. However, I was not familiar with the Argentinean accent, and I needed time to adapt. During the first contact, by phone, some of them were surprised that I was not Argentinean. Some also asked me if I was American. They asked me why I wanted to study immigration. I told them about my own experiences. The interviews generally took an hour to an hour and a half, except for Ana and Carlos whom I interviewed at the same time. That interview took two hours, and I went on talking with them for two additional hours after the end of the recording.
# Findings and discussions

## The Migration's Loss within a Gendered Perspective

According to Falicov, the migration process represents a loss (2002). Migrants leave their family members, friends, habits, customs, language, house, and land. They have to cut themselves off from everything they leave behind them in order to be introduced to a new culture, new friends, new codes, customs, and language. Immigrants have to find a new home in a new land far from their family. If migration can seem like a rebirth, Falicov compares it to the loss of death (2002). However, she points out the possibility of fantasizing the eventual return. The physical, social, and cultural separations, even if they cannot be reached in the present, are still alive. A first geographical separation of the participants and their families' history of migration play a role in their feelings of loss, as do their sentiments when faced with the migration of a relative. Even if the migration is not their own, the fact of having somebody in the family living abroad seems to help the people left behind to accept the migration of their children: "Yo tengo primos viviendo afuera. Tengo uno en Londres y uno en África. Entonces no era el más raro de la familia y, aparte, fue una época cuando muchos jóvenes se fueron, profesionalmente, muchos jóvenes se fueron de Argentina." Eugenia. Nevertheless, since all the participants were the third or fourth generation of migrants, principally from Europe to Argentina, the migration process of children or grandchildren cannot be accepted by a family who, seeing their children leaving, refer to their own migration history: "La mamá de Eduardo es italiana, y los abuelos de Eduardo son italianos. Claro tienen la idea de la familia junta y eso, que cuando uno se va, nunca vuelve, porque ellos no volvieron. Pero para mí no es así, es que yo quiero volver. Como que no, no lo tomaron muy bien" Eugenia.

It seems also that having a first geographical separation from the family before migrating to the United States helped them and the family members who stayed behind to accept the separation. Cristina had migrated to Israel when she was 18 years old. She wanted to travel and study abroad. The fact that she is Jewish motivated her first migration to Israel. She went for two months, but after meeting her future husband, she stayed for ten years. Because of the Intifada<fnref n="2" />, she decided with her husband (who is Argentinean, but went to Israel at 12) to go back to Argentina. They lived in Buenos Aires. In the same way Carolina and Alejandra experienced a first departure before migrating to the United States. Alejandra left Córdoba to live with her husband in northern Argentina, and Carolina left her mother's house young to attend the university in Buenos Aires. Since they had experienced a first geographical separation from their extended family, the migration to another country was easier: "La verdad es que se pusieron muy contentos. Yo ya, digamos, yo no vivía en Córdoba. Yo me caso en Córdoba y decidimos irnos a Sal, al norte del país. A pesar de que no era tan difícil visitarnos, estábamos separados. Eso fue la primer, la primera separación que tuvimos. Y cuando decidimos venir acá, lo aceptaron, aceptaron la decisión." Alejandra. Nevertheless, even after these first separations, each new one remains difficult for the migrants who have to leave: "Las despedidas las sufro y las lloro horas y mi gran despedida fue a los 18 años" Cristina. When she migrated to the United States she said that the most difficult thing for her was the departure: "Lo más difícil fue la despedida, ese fue el momento más traumático. Bueno en ese momento dejar los afectos fue lo peor." Cristina. The distance between Argentina and the United States is, of course, greater, and therefore in the imagination of the family and of the migrant the separation is not the same as a separation within the country. It is more difficult to travel from the United States to

<footnote n="2">² Intifada is an Arabic term which means insurrection. In Israel the Intifada is the popular insurrection in occupied territory (the Gaza Strip and Transjordan) against the Israeli army. The first one, which was the reason for the departure of Valeria and her family, started in 1987 and ended in 1991. The second one began in 2000.</footnote>
Argentina than to travel inside Argentina. Eugenia and Eduardo thought of migrating to Uruguay. It was a kind of compromise between actually migrating and being away but not far from their friends and family. The final decision to come to the United States affected Eduardo's father more: "Al principio no lo entendían, pero porque mi Papá principalmente nos quiere mucho, y, pero sí, ya después lo tomaron bien y creo que para ellos hubo... es que primero teníamos que irnos a Uruguay y sí nos expatriamos, pero muy poco, está al lado. Es como su propio país, está en frente, entonces cuando nos fuimos acá fue un paso más difícil". Eduardo. The case of Carolina is different. Even after her first separation when she went to Buenos Aires to attend the university, her migration was painful for her mother. During the interview, I was surprised by the fact that she had tears in her eyes, and it was difficult for her to speak. When I asked her what had been her family's reaction to her decision to leave, she said: "Horrible, horrible. Bueno, mi mamá me parece que todavía no lo supera a pesar de que ya me fui." Carolina. For Carolina, the emotional factor, the loss is stronger because her mother got depressed. It is difficult for her to deal with the separation. She relates the beginning of her mother's illness to her departure. She also said that she has a special relationship with her mother because she is the eldest child: "Yo soy la más grande, siempre tuve [...] la carga de tener que ser buena en lo que hago. Entonces, este, mi mamá lo sintió mucho, lo siente todavía, se enferma, se enferma pero físicamente. Cae en depresión. Sí, sí y la depresión se la lleva. Es una depresión de su cuerpo" Carolina.

Studies about the transnational family generally focus on the migration of the mother or the father or both and analyze the well-being and the transmission of care between the parents in the United States and the children in the country of origin. In this case, the children migrated. The case of Carolina shows us that the expectation of the caregiver role for the eldest child is important inside the emotional transnationalism. The age of migrants may play a role in the different conceptions of the caregiver expectation between the parents, who remain in the country of origin, and their children. Nevertheless, here is an example of an exacerbation of the emotional separation (Aranda, 2003) due to the role assigned to the eldest child, Carolina, who has to take care of her mother. According to Aranda (2003) women seem to have more emotional disturbance than men. This emotional disturbance can be understood by the fact that they are expected to be caregivers and guarantors of the family's future generations (Aranda, 2003). Since Carolina has migrated with her husband, she cannot fulfill the role of her mother's caregiver because of the geographical constraints, Carolina was living with contradictory emotions. She could not fulfill her role as caregiver for a nuclear family unit in Argentina. Living in transnational families has an emotional impact on the migrants. The construction and articulation of a transnational family, taking into account the location and gender of the migrants, can play a major role in their well-being. The case of Eduardo is different. His family, more specifically his grandparents, does not accept his migration. Eduardo's grandparents had migrated from Italy and never gone back. In this case, it seemed more difficult for the family to accept the migration of this relative that for a family not having a similar migration history. Considering their own experience of migration, they think their grandson is going to do the same and never come back to Argentina. The family's history of migration has an impact, for both men and women, on emotional well-being. Eugenia told me that her parents accepted her migration. Her wish to migrate with her husband did not seem strange to them. Two of her cousins had previously migrated (to England and South Africa). When they decided to migrate, it was also the time when "muchos jóvenes se iban de Argentina" Eugenia. Therefore, the migratory histories of a transnational family and the family's expectations according to the gender have an impact on the well-being of the migrants.
Gendered Emotional Well-Being

Four of the seven married women interviewed utilized the same migration strategy. We find here the characteristic situation where females (and children) migrate “to accompany or to reunite with their breadwinner migrant husbands” (Mahler and Pessar, 2006). In the case of Carolina, they came at the same time to settle in Miami. Carolina’s husband came first, a few days earlier, to find a job before returning with his spouse. In the case of Cristina, Alejandra, and Carmen, the separation from their husbands was longer. Cristina and Alejandra worked as teachers in Argentina. They stayed (six months for Cristina, nine months for Alejandra) in Argentina after their husbands went to Miami. Only when their husbands found work in the United States did they rejoin them with their children. The fact that Cristina’s husband had lost his job was one of the reasons for the decision to leave the country. When he lost it and did not find another one, Cristina said he got depressed. The importance of the mental health of her husband was one of the factors that influenced their departure: “Entonces, lo primero es que quería ver a mi marido bien. Si él está bien, el resto digamos seguíamos. Yo sabía que seguía haciendo lo mío pero muy frustrante porque yo tenía toda una carrera hecha en Argentina y acá tuve que empezar de cero, de cero.” Cristina. Cristina, Alejandra, and Eugenia accepted the necessity of resigning their jobs even if it cost them emotionally: “Dejar mi trabajo fue horrible,” Cristina. In no social class are women expected to be the providers in the family: “Sí, dejar mi trabajo. En realidad, a veces lo siento, yo trabajaba en impuestos y acá tengo que empezar de nuevo.” Eugenia. Women had not been fulfilling the role of “good provider”; the family migrates to make it possible for husbands to provide for them. Moreover, women, who have integrated their role, are fulfilling the emotional needs of their children, and also of their husbands: “Apoyo a mi marido a salir de la depresión y, digamos, a buscar un camino. Y empezamos a tirar, a movernos y a buscar, digamos, una salida.” Cristina. Cristina and Alejandra’s husbands migrated first, while they stayed in Argentina and fulfilled the role of mother, providing the necessities for the children. According to Cristina, Alejandra and Carolina their husbands were affected by the loss of their jobs. It seems that they become depressed at losing one of the basic foundations of their masculinity, that of the “good provider.” For these Jewish’s women the worker identity may be seen as less important than other types of identity –spouse or parent– which are culturally seen as more important. The function of women, unlike men, is to maintain the household and to take care of the family, emotionally and physically. They are the “caregivers,” whereas the construction of manhood implies the traditional “breadwinner.” Fulfilling this socially gendered expectation, marriage and family roles appear to protect women psychologically while employment appears to protect men. Society expects in general men to be the breadwinners whereas women are expected to be the caregivers. If a disjuncture between the gendered self-perception and the response by the other to these self-presentations occurs, individuals are going to feel an arousal of negative emotions and are going to try to eliminate the disjuncture (Borgatta *and al.*, 2000, 105).

Many scholars have examined gendered inequity in the labor market and workplace. This inequity
favors women who “generally gain greater personal autonomy and independence, whereas men lose
ground,” and this even if “making it” in America is a men’s story (Pessar, 1999). Correlated is the
women’s desire to stay, above all for married couples, “to protect their advance in gender equity,”
whereas “men seek to return rapidly to regain the status and privilege that migration itself has
challenged” (Pessar, 1999). In this case, it seems that the change of the woman’s status does not affect
the self-esteem of the male. It is more the change of male status that affects their masculinity and their
self-esteem. In these cases, it was one factor contributing to the migration. The well-being of men and
women is constructed according to their gendered construction. Men do not deal well with the loss of
their provider’s role, which implies work, and women do not accept their inability to fulfill their role
as caregivers. For Cristina, her husband was depressed when he lost his job. After migration, Cristina found a job similar to the one she had held in Argentina. This was not the case for her husband, who is no longer working at United Airlines. In this situation Cristina felt that she needed to take care emotionally of her husband: "Mi marido se quedó un poco herido, digamos, a los niveles emocional de lo que pasó en Argentina y hay momentos, digamos, que empieza a ir allá [state of depression] y digo: 'No, que no se te ocurra, no nos podemos dar el lujo de caer dos minutos, es que esto tiene que, tiene que ir para adelante'." Cristina. Carolina's husband's depression was the cause of their migration. From her perception it was also because of the death of his mother: "Fue un poco porque mi suegra murió y, como a mi marido lo afectó muchísimo esto, le ofrecieron una posibilidad de trabajo acá, para sacarlo de esta onda de duelo." Carolina. After migrating, he tried to develop his own business, but this attempt did not work. Because of the difficulty of integration, and her husband's refusal to change his work strategy, Carolina has discovered a man "que no conocía antes," even though she has spent eleven years with him. Her husband seems unable to accept the fact that he cannot be the boss of his business enterprise: "Conocí aspectos de mi marido que no, y yo te estoy diciendo de una persona que conozco. Pensaba que a mi marido lo conocía cien por cien porque 11 años estuve con él antes de casarme, o sea, yo sabía con quién me casaba. Yo creía que sabía. Pero no, son cosas de inmigrar." Carolina. For Carolina, her husband is unable to deal with the change in his situation. Leaving Argentina after the loss of his mother, he tried to create a new life in the United States but could not deal with the new circumstances: "Mi marido no la pudo manejar [the situation] y no podía creer que no podía manejarla." If it is difficult for her husband to deal with this new situation, it is also difficult for Carolina to accept the change in her husband.

The disruption of role identities, as a consequence of the Argentinean economic crisis, may be understood as one of the factors that pushed this couple to migrate. For both of them his working status played a symbolic role. For Carolina, her husband was depressed because he had lost his social status, and she did not see her husband in the same way because he had lost a part of his masculinity by losing his function as a good provider, and because he could not confront his new situation:

"Mi marido fue dueño de un negocio toda su vida. Su familia siempre fue dueña. Y entonces cambiar la cabeza a mi marido y decir que no puede ser más dueño sino que va a tener que tener otro empleo para aquí sobrevivir, eso fue muy duro para él y obligadamente yo también, yo estaba acostumbrada. Por los últimos 15 años de mi vida había sido dueña entonces a mí también me daba, me daba cierto cambio en la cabeza. Que yo soy más adaptable, porque yo venía de mi familia que había sido de un nivel medio bajo." Carolina

Here Carolina points out the difficulty she perceives for her husband, but also for herself, in the change in his social status. She also stresses the fact that he came from a higher social class than their social class in the United States, which is, according to her, a lower one. Social class may have an impact on the emotions of the migrants. Eduardo migrated to Miami with a working visa. Earning $60,000 a year, he returns to Argentina eight times a year. Eduardo, a person on a high economic level, can leave his country more easily than a person on a middle or low economic level. The projection of return, the possibility of coming back, in reality makes the separation easier. From this perspective, the fact of being illegal or not also has its impact on emotional well-being. Ana, Carmen, Carolina and her family have not returned to Argentina since they arrived in the United States in 2001, because of their status as undocumented. As Parrenas (2005) has noted, government policies, which have a role in the possibility of migrants' coming back or not, also play a role in their well-being. Cristina, Carolina, and Alejandra are in the same situation. They are waiting for their residency. Nevertheless, the consequences of the economic crisis seem to affect all social classes in terms of male stress. Eduardo,
who was a member of the upper class in Argentina, was also feeling a lot of stress. Eugenia is speaking about her husband:

"Aparte, Eduardo, al ser abogado del banco, cuando fue la devaluación estaba muy estresado. Él trabajaba para lo que era el área corporativa del banco. Y la gente la agarraba con él. Como si él tuviese, si fuera él el que hubiese estafado a la ley. Y en realidad era una ley que hizo el estado. No es que el banco fuera el culpable. La gente, en realidad, lo personificó con los encargados de los bancos. Tuvieron que descargarse con alguien. Siempre es el empleado del banco al cual vos te podés cargar. Entonces estaba muy estresado. Y a él le ofrecieron esto [his new work in Miami] que es mucho más tranquilo." Eugenia

The stressful situation lived by Eugenia's husband led to the couple's migration and the abandonment of the woman's work.

Cristina, Carolina, and Alejandra are Jewish and have religious visas. It is specifically the Jewish network that helps Cristina, Carolina and Alejandra to leave their country. All of them have their own visas and are not on their husbands'. When they arrived in Miami, they asked the Jewish community for help, specifically temples which were hiring "muchas mujeres de Argentina" (Cristina). In the case of Cristina, the Hebrew immigrant aid society (HIAS)<fnref n="3" /> helped them leave Argentina for Miami. Cristina and Alejandra started as volunteers with the possibility of seeking religious visas. Both of their husbands found jobs through contacts in the temples. The women's Jewish and female position makes it possible for them to get visas and find jobs. The fact that they have their visas can be seen as a sign of independence. This is the case of Carolina, who is happy to have her own visa and her own work:

"Era mi sol, era lo que yo necesitaba, un trabajo independiente porque por los últimos 15 años yo había trabajado con mi marido. Siempre trabajé con mi marido desde que lo conocí. Al tener el negocio en seguida me trajo de sus pestañas a su negocio. Y entonces, era mi oportunidad, eso, tener un trabajo independiente y tener mi propio sponsor, que nos hacía bien para la futura residencia." Carolina

The change from inequality between genders to equality can succeed if women have financial independence and if society "redefines domesticity and breadwinning or if society includes nurturance in notions of masculinity" (Parrenas, 2005, 96). The correlation between these two factors —economic independence and better self-esteem— is today a sociological truism. Women feel an empowerment in paid employment above all if they work independently of their husbands (see Grasmuck and Pessar, 1991, Hondagneu-Sotelo 1994). Unlike their situation in Argentina, they now have credit cards and their own bank accounts. Traditional gender roles seem to have been maintained, but the women have acquired independence, as the migration changes their self-perception: "Definitivamente, [inmigrar] me cambió porque ahora, me fortaleció, volver a trabajar, volver a trabajar y ser independiente de él en mi trabajo" Carolina. It is not so much the economic factor alone that is responsible for the sense of well-being; it is more the fact of having the possibility of working and being independent:

<footnote n="3">³ In 2001, HIAS, a society organized to help Jewish immigrants, was established in Buenos Aires. They help the Jewish community which is often at risk around the world. Jewish Argentineans did not migrate only to Israel. Other Jewish communities which want to increase their numbers help them to migrate. This is the case in Canada, Italy, and Mexico (Melamed, 2002.) Cristina asked for help from this community to migrate to the United States.</footnote>
"En realidad creo que nos ha hecho madurar. Primero el hecho de estar solos tanto tiempo. El aquí y yo en Argentina con los niños. Estos nueve meses creo que nos ha hecho madurar. De hecho, yo era muy dependiente de él y el hecho de haber estado sola he tenido que tomar decisiones que antes nunca tomaba. Y yo, de hecho, que llegué acá y ya yo manejaba cosas que nunca hice. Tenía mi auto, tenía independencia económica. Yo como, yo creo que lo que hago ahora no se si podría hacerlo en Argentina, en este momento, si me hubiera quedado." Alejandra

The separation of the couple permitted to Alejandra to live independently of her husband. This
situation allows her to take her own decisions about her and her children. During these nine months
she gained in self esteem, whereas the migration in the United States gives her more possibilities than
she had previously in Argentina. Nevertheless, if the migration gives more opportunities in terms of
independence and self esteem, there are not drastic changes at home. Carolina, Alejandra, Cristina,
Ana, Carmen, and Eugenia are not in equality systems within their marriages. Managing the
household and taking care of children is still in majority their assigned work, despite a possible
increase in economic independence. However, it seems that the social class could be a factor for the
participation of the husband to the reproductive work. This evolution of the husband role is not due to
the ideology change but it is due to the economic capital. The fact that the couple was able to have a
maid before the migration could have had an impact in the role distribution after the migration. For
example, Cristina explained to me how she lived a regression in her role after the migration which led
her to ask help to her husband. Before the migration she had not to take care of the reproductive work
because of the help of a maid. After their migration the decrease of their economic capital does not
permit them to pay a maid. In consequence, and also perhaps of the influence of an American culture,
the division of gender roles seems to have changed by the implication of her husband in the children
education:

"Acá, sí fue un gran cambio. En Argentina, no. Sí, porque primero, que ya no está más Janette, que era la chica que me ayudaba. Secundo, estamos solos. Estamos solos con tres chicos. Yo en Argentina hacia la cena y no limpiaba, y alguien se quedaba a cuidar los chicos cuando yo no estaba. Y acá no, acá no. Era muy difícil. Y entonces, si yo tengo que limpiar ahora, entonces, mi marido digamos es el que tiene que llevar a los chicos a las actividades extras. O yo salgo de trabajar a las 7.30, bueno, el tiene que bajar y llevarlos al colegio. Acá no, acá no. Acá se termino el machismo, es que acá hay que hacer las cosas entre los dos. Si tiene que lavar la ropa, lava la ropa y terminamos de cenar y a lavar los platos conmigo." Cristina

Here, the role between the husband and the spouse seems to change. Cristina does not accept to come back to a traditional role. The fact of gaining economic independence and, in consequence, gaining in self esteem can explain the fact that Cristina changes her attitude in front of the role repartition.

Emotional Transnationalism

Argentinean people "experienced devaluated statuses in terms of job occupations and social recognition, which often constituted painful reminders of the loss of social privileges (social and symbolic) they had enjoyed in Argentina" (Viladrich, 2005). Wolf points out the fact that the second generation learns the subjective embeddedness from their parents. Children try to "make sense" of the "multiple discourse" and opposite discourses with which they are confronted (Falicov, 2005). If the
second generation learns this emotional dichotomy of their parents, the construction of these
sentiments came from the first generation. The emotional transnationalism concept can be used for the
first migrants' generation in a gendered perspective. The specific situation that Argentineans lived
during the 2001 crisis may have an impact in the emotional embeddedness in view of their country.
After the end of the dictatorship, the Argentineans had stable economic well-being. They saw a social
structure similar to that of Europe (Melamed, 2002, 31). In 2000, the fixed exchange rate of the peso
was equivalent to the U.S. dollar. The population had to face the worst economic crisis in their history.
After the "everything is good" period, a wave of low self-esteem and pessimism took over the country
and affected all social classes. Many people fell into poverty and lost trust in their country and in
politics in general. There was tremendous political instability; during the crisis, five presidents
succeeded each other in the course of two weeks. In Argentina, as in other Latin American countries,
people rejected the government, seen as the cause of the economic problem. Argentineans had to
confront the fact that their problematic situation "tiene cada vez más puntos en común con Latinoamérica
que con Europa, adonde nuestro país enviaba libros y alimentos, y ahora trabajadores" (Melamed, 2002, 31):
"Estamos peor que Costa Rica, peor que Costa Rica, estamos con el Salvador, Nicaragua, grado de inversión B,
entonces me digo: 'Cómo pensar en volver a este desastre'." Eugenia. Cristina does not want to go back to
Israel because she left the country in bad condition; she does not want to go back in Argentina neither.
Economic insecurity is one of the reasons why she doesn't want to go back: "Obviamente, los pocos
ahorros que teníamos quedaron atascados y todo lo que habíamos podido ahorrar el estado nos lo robó. No lo
podíamos sacar del banco, no teníamos ahorros ni nada. O sea, que él se quedó sin trabajo y no teníamos plata de
donde mantenernos." Cristina. They cannot do what they did before the crisis. The loss of their social
status and their inability to foresee any improvement (political or economic) pushed them to migrate:

"La verdad es que no había nada, era una situación bastante fea y mi marido trabajaba y el dinero no nos salía, alcanzaba, en realidad. O, o sí nos alcanzaba pero en realidad no podíamos hacer más cosas que lo que hacíamos. A uno le alcanzaba para las cosas básicas. Para la comida, para pagar los impuestos y nunca uno podía dar un paso más adelante." Alejandra

Economic insecurity is one of the other determining factors. A lot of Argentineans endured a drop in their economy. However, physical insecurity, which was mentioned by all the participants, is another reason. They made reference to physical insecurity, assault, and robbery in the street: "Yo me siento más tranquila [en los Estados Unidos], si hay un problema yo sé que pueden ayudar, no tengo miedo, me siento en seguridad, me siento protegida a pesar de que no tengo mis papeles, te digo [...] te juro que me da terror, hay mucha violencia, sí [en Argentina]." Ana. The lost of trust in politics, the economic and physical insecurity, the impossibility of seeing alternatives, are accompanied by a sense of injustice: "No hay justicia, allá nadie es culpable, ya son todos sospechosos pero nadie es culpable." Carlos. They lost trust in their politicians and their government to restore the situation they had imagined before the crisis and to give them a future. The 2001 crisis was not the first one. The world economic crisis and its domino effect started to reach Argentina in 1995: "Sé como es [in Argentina], sé lo que pasa, es como un círculo. O sea, está bien, mejora, hay elección, sube otro, empezó a robar y otra vez decadencia y eso es como un círculo. En Argentina hay cambio de nombres pero siempre es la misma, siempre es la misma. Como que no hay nada nuevo que esperar de lo que pasa en Argentina." Cristina. In addition, the economic and political crises were the cause of collective pessimism and anxiety (Melamed, 2002, 71). People who migrate were not attracted by the receiving country; they were rejecting their own country for what it was (Melamed, 2002, 65): "Y yo no quiero escuchar, no quiero escuchar [the Argentinean media]. Estaba súper enojada porque me tenía que haber ido de mi país o por culpa de la clase de los dirigentes. Súper enojada ¿entiendes?" Laura
All participants who do not want to return mention economic and political stability. Six of them mention emotional attachment to the United States. This emotional attachment is the case of Ernesto, who married a Colombian woman in Miami, or Carlos, Carolina, Alejandra, Cristina, Ana, Carmen who mentioned that their children were born in the United States, grew up here, or were now married here (Carlos, Ana, Carolina). The possibility of offering their children a better future is more important than the fact that they are growing up apart from their families, who remain in Argentina. Carolina, Alejandra, Cristina, Carmen, who have young children, emphasized this fact: "Lo bueno es que ahora puedo proyectar, creo en un futuro, veo un futuro para mis hijos, veo un futuro para nosotros también." Cristina. Women who have young children (Carolina, Alejandra, Cristina, Carmen), born in Argentina or not, do not want to go back to Argentina. If "emotional dislocations varied with marital and motherhood status" (Aranda, 2007a, 91), the age of the children and the perception of their country also have an impact. Paulina came here "pensando en el futuro de los chicos." She is the only mother who is preparing to return. Her children are adults, and she does not want them to make their lives in Argentina: "Así que ahora la madre se va y los deja acá porque Argentina es inestable, Argentina es fantástico pero es muy inestable, no quiero que vivan lo que he vivido." Carolina. Before migrating because of the crisis, Carolina had lived for nine years in Brazil to escape the dictatorship. Two of her children who are living with her in Miami have constructed their emotional and economic lives in the United States. They have married here and have good jobs. Migrants can be caught in ambivalent emotions, torn between this country and the one they migrated from (Aranda, 2007b). Emotional ambivalence is reflected by their longing for Argentina, which represents "los amigos," "la familia," and "los afectos," and their simultaneous rejection of its political and economic situation:

"Estoy muy enojada. Hay cosas que, nada, es una contradicción de sentimientos. O sea, amo Argentina y por otro lado, me enoja muchísimo lo que pasó. Todavía no lo entiendo y fue, digamos, fueron tres cosas que sentí que ya esto no daba para más. Un asalto, que me robaron y que tuvieron a mi hijo de rehén en plena calle. Después nos robaron el auto y después lo dejaron, a mi marido, sin trabajo. Cuatro, y después nos robaron los ahorros. O sea, cuatro cosas que, vos decís: "¿Como puede ser? Si vos tenés la plata guardada en el banco, ¿cómo puede ser que, tu plata, no la puedas sacar? y nada, nada. No, no lo podía entender, o sea, no me entraba en la cabeza. No me entraba en la cabeza tener que explicar esas cosas a mis hijos. No me entraba en la cabeza." Cristina

The lack of work opportunity, the experience of lowered status "in terms of social occupations and social recognition," and the feeling that "Nunca va a cambiar" (Carlos), were factors leading to the migration (Viladrich, 2005). Argentina as "a painful reminder" (Viladrich, 2005) can induce in this specific context, for both the men and the women, a desire to return, above all when the salient identity for men is as the breadwinner of the family. Four of the twelve participants, but only one man, have expressed a wish to return, but only one, Paulina, is actually preparing to return. She is dissatisfied professionally and thinks that her children living in Miami no longer need her. They can go on their own. Laura wants to return for her retirement, whereas Eduardo and Eugenia are hoping to return in about ten years or as Eduardo put it when I spoke with him about the possibility of having a child in the United States: "Quiero volver cuando ya... yo no sé, tiene que pasar sentimentalmente algo que me haga sentir que vivo lejos y que necesito, no sé, algo sentimental, algo muy fuerte. O que haya una mejor situación económica para no estar sujeto a los va y viene económicos de Argentina." Eduardo. Attachment to their country is not "personal" but is due to its relationship with their family (Viladrich, 2005). As Aranda (2007a, 95) has stressed, return migration "can be seen as movement inspired by the desire to reconnect with kin and care networks": "No quiero quedarme en los Estados
*Unidos porque la gente es muy dificil, y eso es muy importante. Por eso, lo de los afectos. Acá para la gente no son muy importantes, los afectos.*" Eugenia

## Conclusion

In this work, I have interviewed 12 Argentineans, paying special attention to gendered emotions within the migration process. Although no generalization can be made, this analysis highlights three patterns that further research about immigration may have to take into account. First of all, the fact of having a family who has experienced transnatinalism previous to their migration has an impact on their well-being. It can be a factor in the acceptance and comprehension or the refusal to deal with it for the family who stay behind. In the same perspective, a first migration or geographical separation seems to facilitate the acceptance of the decision to migrate to the United States by the parents of the participants. Second, contrary to most findings, in this case, men have felt more distress, anxiety, and depression in losing their role-identity than have women. For some, who have divorced, the specificity of the men's distress and depression before the migration do not appear clearly. The data show that in the specific context of the Argentinean economic crisis, the gendered emotional affect is an important part of the migration process. Men feel negative emotions in confronting the impossibility of fulfilling their traditional role as good providers. The choice to migrate was therefore an effort to reestablish traditional gendered status. In this case, the possibility of restoring the traditional gendered status in the country of migration can explain the desire to remain. The men have reestablished their role as good providers and the women can fulfill their role as caregivers. Nevertheless, women often feel ambiguity when they realize the impossibility of fulfilling their role as caregiver for the family who stayed behind, specifically for their parents. Third, this analysis shows the dislocation caused by the family's separation and an ambiguity in their feelings about their country of origin. They no longer believe in Argentina's politics and government. They do not want to return to Argentina because of their previous experience. Women strive to give their children a better future; men who have suffered the loss of their social status as "good providers" do not want to return either. The attachment to the receiving country, and the transmission of that feeling to the second generation, has to be analyzed with the gendered emotional embeddedness of migrants. At least, and more generally, the incorporation of Argentinean immigrants into the United States has been overlooked and must be investigated in order to give a voice to this immigrant community.
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<table><caption>Table 1. Demographic characteristics of the participants</caption><thead><tr><td>Participant</td><td>Age</td><td>Marital Status</td><td>Children</td><td>Social class in Argentina</td><td>Arrival to the United States</td><td>Status</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Eduardo</td><td>31</td><td>Married before migrating</td><td>None</td><td>Upper</td><td>2004</td><td>Working visa</td></tr><tr><td>Ernesto</td><td>50</td><td>Married (in Miami/previously divorced in Argentina before migrating)</td><td>2 sons and one daughter</td><td>Middle</td><td>2001</td><td>Nationalized</td></tr><tr><td>Carlos</td><td>50</td><td>Married before migrating (with Ana)</td><td>Three sons</td><td>Middle</td><td>2002</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>Carolina</td><td>35</td><td>Married before migrating</td><td>One son</td><td>Middle</td><td>2002</td><td>Religious visa</td></tr><tr><td>Alejandra</td><td>33</td><td>Married before migrating</td><td>One son and one daughter</td><td>Middle</td><td>2002</td><td>Religious visa</td></tr><tr><td>Cristina</td><td>35</td><td>Married before migrating</td><td>Two sons and one daughter</td><td>Middle</td><td>2002</td><td>Religious visa</td></tr><tr><td>Ana</td><td>50</td><td>Married before migrating (with Carlos)</td><td>Three sons</td><td>Middle</td><td>2002</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>Laura</td><td>49</td><td>Divorced after migrating, married once in Miami and divorced</td><td>None</td><td>Middle</td><td>2001</td><td>Resident</td></tr><tr><td>Maria</td><td>36</td><td>Married and divorced after migrating</td><td>None</td><td>Middle</td><td>2001</td><td>Naturalized</td></tr><tr><td>Carmen</td><td>36</td><td>Married before migrating</td><td>Two daughters and one son</td><td>Lower</td><td>2001</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>Paulina</td><td>53</td><td>Divorced before migrating. Married in the United States to an American</td><td>Two sons and one daughter</td><td>Middle</td><td>2002</td><td>Resident</td></tr><tr><td>Eugenia</td><td>31</td><td>Married before migrating (with Eduardo)</td><td>None</td><td>Upper</td><td>2004</td><td>Working visa</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><caption>Table 2. Migrants' patterns which can help determine the well-being, emotional embeddedness, and the wish to go back to their country.²</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Reason for migration</th><th>Wish to go back to Argentina?</th><th>Professional status change</th><th>Children's place of birth</th><th>Social class Argentina/USA</th><th>Family's geographical separation before USA migration</th><th>Knowledge of Miami before migration</th><th>Presence of family/friends in Miami before migration</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Eduardo</td><td>Economic instability, better future</td><td>Yes</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>Upper/upper</td><td>No</td><td>Yes</td><td>No/no</td></tr><tr><td>Ernesto</td><td>Economic instability, better future</td><td>No.</td><td>Yes</td><td>2 sons, 1 daughter/Argentina</td><td>Middle/middle</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>No/yes</td></tr><tr><td>Carlos</td><td>Economic instability, better future</td><td>No</td><td>Yes</td><td>3 sons/Argentina</td><td>Middle/lower</td><td>No</td><td>Yes</td><td>No/yes</td></tr><tr><td>Carolina</td><td>Economic instability, better future</td><td>No</td><td>Yes</td><td>1 son/USA</td><td>Middle/lower</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes/no</td></tr><tr><td>Alejandra</td><td>Economic instability, better future</td><td>No.</td><td>No</td><td>1 son, 1 daughter/USA</td><td>Middle/middle</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>Yes/no</td></tr><tr><td>Cristina</td><td>Economic instability, better future</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>2 sons, 1 daughter/Argentina</td><td>Middle/middle</td><td>Yes</td><td>No</td><td>No/no</td></tr><tr><td>Ana</td><td>Economic instability, better future</td><td>No</td><td>Yes</td><td>3 sons/Argentina</td><td>Middle/lower</td><td>No</td><td>Yes</td><td>No/yes</td></tr><tr><td>Laura</td><td>Economic instability, better future</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>None</td><td>Middle/middle</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>Yes/no</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><tr><td>Maria</td><td>After a rupture with her boyfriend</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>None</td><td>Middle/middle</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>No/yes</td></tr><tr><td>Carmen</td><td>Economic instability, better future</td><td>No</td><td>Yes</td><td>1 daughter/Argentina, 1 daughter, 1 son/USA</td><td>Lower/lower</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>No/yes</td></tr><tr><td>Paulina</td><td>Economic instability</td><td>Yes.</td><td>Yes</td><td>1 son, 1 daughter/Brazil, 1 son/Argentina</td><td>Middle/middle</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>No/yes</td></tr><tr><td>Eugenia</td><td>Economic instability, better future</td><td>Yes in more or less than 10 years</td><td>Yes</td><td>None</td><td>Upper/upper</td><td>No</td><td>Yes</td><td>No/no</td></tr></table>

* The social class was determined by what the participants think about themselves
# Internet links

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http://demo.istat.it/str2002/index.html

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