Sentimientos, migración y familia. El caso de mujeres michoacanas con pareja migrante

Abstract

We present he results of an ethnographic research that analyzed the role of feelings in conjugal relationships of heterosexual couples immersed in international migration processes. The objective of the research was to identify the feelings of women in this situation and to evaluate their relationship with the emigration of the couple. Specifically, we focused on the situation of Michoacán women whose partners emigrated to the United States and who stayed in their places of origin awaiting their return. All the interviewees reported feelings in common: sadness, guilt, loneliness, shame and despair. We conclude that such feelings did not arise solely from the longing for the absent partner, as proposed from the androcentric perspective underlying the concept of Penelope syndrome, with which women with migrant partners are usually associated; their feelings also emerged as an expression of rejection of the mistreatment and precariousness that women experienced in circumstances unrelated to the migratory event, both in their marital relationships and in their broader social environments.