Undocumented Ecuadorians in New York City
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
AS THEY WAIT: UNDOCUMENTED ECUADORIANS IN NEW YORK CITY A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Nicolas Eilbaum January 2011 © 2011 Nicolas Eilbaum AS THEY WAIT: UNDOCUMENTED ECUADORIANS IN NEW YORK CITY Nicolas Eilbaum, Ph.D. Cornell University 2011 My dissertation explores the tension between temporary and permanent migration. While many migrants leave for the United States intending to work for a short time, many end up staying much longer than originally planned. Why does temporary migration seem so often to become permanent? The answer I explore is based on the concept of embeddedness, or lack thereof, as developed in economic sociology. The decision to leave is made in dense social spaces. Once emigrants have left, however, social density drops. The emigrant conditions—the effects of distance, the new kinds of jobs, the lack of papers—contribute to making decision-making elusive, and return is continually put off. The concept of waiting is discussed to capture the migrants’ “non-decision” to stay as time goes by. The material I present concentrates on two Ecuadorian families of urban and relatively middle-class background, now undocumented in Queens (NYC). While participant observation was employed to build relationships and extended conversations with the emigrants, most of the material is socio-biographical, as I reconstruct the social world they come from in Ecuador, and discuss how this background helps us understand their emigrant trajectories. The combination of participant observation and socio-biographical methodology aims at drawing the links between life in the sending and receiving country, moving back and forth between the migrants’ present and their past. One of the goals of the dissertation is to let migrants speak for themselves as much as possible—extensive transcriptions from interviews seek to convey some of the original texture of immigrant life. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Nicolás Eilbaum was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he attended elementary school, high school, and college at the University of Buenos Aires, taking his degree in Sociology and Economics. After working for several years for the National Direction of Fiscal Coordination with the Provinces at the Treasury Department, he left Argentina in 2003 to pursue graduate studies in Sociology at Cornell University. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My thesis adviser, Richard Swedberg, supported and encouraged my graduate work through thick and thin—and he suggested some of the best books I’ve ever read. Mabel Berezin helped me understand how academic life works, and Michael Jones- Correa pushed me to make my arguments clearer. Maria Cook provided generous help and encouragement when I most needed it. My classmates at Cornell helped me endure difficult moments in graduate school: Chris Yenkey, Jared Peifer, Ningxi Zhang, Yujun Wang, and particularly Alexa Yesukevich. Most of the people who helped me in Queens will remain nameless, but I need to mention Lori Crook and Victoria Quiroz-Becerra—both helped me to conduct the fieldwork and write the dissertation. Over the years many people helped with my English, but no one helped as much as Theresa Alt, who not only went over every page of this thesis carefully but also found ways to make me feel good about my writing and ideas. My long-time friend Hernán Pruden had much to do with my decision to study in the United States. Valentina Ferretti read much of this dissertation and helped me and encouraged me in countless other ways. My uncle Hugo Caram and his family welcomed me and helped me. My parents and sister were always on my side. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.........................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................................................................................iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ...............................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................viii INTRODUCTION: SOUTH AMERICAN CROSSROADS IN ECUADORIAN QUEENS.................................................................................1 I. American Visas...................................................................................1 II. Hunted Hunter in the Immigrant Field ................................................4 III. Ecuadorian Emigration: A Labyrinth on the Move...........................12 IV. What Follows.....................................................................................28 CHAPTER ONE: AS IT BEGINS TO LAST TOO LONG...................................33 I. The Temporary That Lasts ................................................................36 II. Migrants Looking Back.....................................................................39 Migration as Modern Sacrifice....................................................39 New Immigrant Time ..................................................................47 III. From Plants to Birds..........................................................................53 IV. A Sociology of Waiting?...................................................................60 Leaving........................................................................................61 Falling..........................................................................................63 Hiding..........................................................................................67 V. Socio-Biography of Immigration ......................................................71 VI. Types and Cases ................................................................................80 PART ONE: HAY GENTE QUE NO SABE DE DONDE VIENE UNO [SOME PEOPLE DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU COME FROM]...................... 85 CHAPTER TWO: EN ESTE PAIS TIENES QUE ANDAR CON LA MENTIRA [IN THIS COUNTRY YOU HAVE TO GO AROUND LYING]...................86 I. Night Shift Dominoes........................................................................90 II. Yo tenía mi empresa allá en el Ecuador [I had my own company there in Ecuador] .....................................100 III. Vivir en la Oscuridad [Living in the Shadows]...............................105 IV. Boundaries Redrawn.......................................................................114 V. Betrayal and Beyond .......................................................................119 VI. Ghosts..............................................................................................126 CHAPTER THREE: VIVIMOS ASI POR MUCHISIMOS AÑOS [WE LIVED THIS WAY FOR MANY YEARS]..........................................128 I. The Most Spoiled in the House .......................................................128 II. Migrant Lineage..............................................................................132 III. Regional Divide...............................................................................140 v IV. María Delia......................................................................................146 V. Settling Down..................................................................................154 VI. His World ........................................................................................161 CHAPTER FOUR: TODO TE SALE CAMBIADO [NOTHING WORKS OUT AS YOU PLAN] ...............................................167 I. El sábado me voy [I’m leaving on Saturday] ..................................168 II. El error más grande de su vida [The biggest mistake in his life] ....173 III. Esto no nos representa [This is not us]............................................179 IV. Lonely Family Man .........................................................................183 V. Yo quiero de nuevo renacer [I want to rise again] ..........................188 VI. Business Plans.................................................................................194 VII. Hay gente que no sabe de dónde viene uno [Some people don’t know where you come from] ..........................199 PART TWO: JODIDO PERO EN NUEVA YORK [SCREWED—BUT IN NEW YORK CITY] ...................................................... 204 CHAPTER FIVE: YO VINE A PAGAR LA SOBERBIa [I CAME TO PAY FOR MY PRIDE] ...........................................................205 I. Last Whisky on the Rocks...............................................................205 II. Alguien tiene que aparecer [Someone has to turn up].....................213 III. Sentí que me sacudió la espalda [I felt a jerk in my back] ..............220 IV. Mejor ver más allá [Better to see further beyond]...........................228 V. He Arado en el Mar [I Have Plowed in the Sea].............................235 VI. Cangrejos Hispanos [Hispanic Crabs].............................................242 CHAPTER SIX: NO TODO EN MI VIDA HA SIDO COLOR DE ROSA [NOT EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE HAS BEEN ROSY] ............................248 I. ¡Es por amor! [It’s for love!]...........................................................251 II. Collateral Arrest ..............................................................................254 III. Quería Nueva York y acá estoy [I wanted New York and here I am]................................................265 IV. Una maestra como yo [A teacher like me] ......................................270 V. Círculo de un Mundo Opuesto [Circle of an Opposite