'Porque Las Raizes No Se Olvidan': Continuity and Change among Mexican Migrants in New Jersey

This paper examines how, as in the past in their home community in Mexico, Mexican immigrants in the United States use a system of flexible kinship and ritual practices to adapt to new circumstances of living and working in communities with new neighbours, new challenges and new threats. The paper focuses particularly on how the increased presence of women who have not always been a large part of the Mexican migrant community in the United States and their 'kin work' allows migrants to maintain and extend their social networks. Through various family and ritual events, migrants integrate new friends and acquaintances with new resources into their social networks and thus facilitate their survival in their new home.