View/save PDF version of this document - La Strada International

4Translocal Livelihoods, Networks of Family andCommunity, and Remittances in Central Peru 1Norman LongWageningen University, the Netherlands1. IntroductionThis chapter explores issues of migration and translocal livelihoods incentral Peru. But rather than attempting to map out the general characteristicsof past and present migration patterns, it seeks an understanding of thesets of interpersonal relationships and cultural practices involved inarticulating migrants with their home-base families and paisanos (“fellowcountrymen’). From this angle, migration constitutes an ongoing process ofadaptation within networks of family and community over space and time,and requires an appreciation of the nature of translocality as experiencedby the actors involved. 2The main body of the chapter centers on two ethnographic vignettes. Thefirst elucidates the usefulness of a diachronic genealogical case studymethod for understanding the intergenerational dynamics of multiplefamily enterprise and migration; the second illustrates the need to focuson how cultural practices and interpretations shape the ongoing lives andrelations between family members “at a distance.” Insights derived fromthese illustrative cases are then applied, in the final part, to the questionof migrant remittances. Here I aim to demonstrate the necessity of fullyrecognizing the socially constructed nature of remittances.Migration studies often interpret the historical interplay of differentmigration flows and choices as shaped by a logic linked to transformationsin labor markets, production and technological systems, and/or to culturalorientations and values associated with “modernity.” While not wishing todecry the usefulness of such “structural” explanations, this paper adoptsa different stance by situating migration in relation to what Unni Wikan(1990) has called “compelling personal concerns” experienced and enactedby social actors. That is, underpinning this chapter is an actor-oriented371I wish to extend a special word of thanks to Josh DeWind for his insightful and encouragingcomments on an earlier inordinately long draft, which I was eventually able to slim down.2Sorensen’s (2002) edited volume adopts a similar livelihoods approach to internal and internationalmigration, drawing upon Caribbean, Latin American, African and U.S. cases.