The increasing feminization of migration from Oaxaca, Mexico, in a context of economic globalization has profound implications for the emotional and psychological health of indigenous transnational immigrant women, who often arrive in the United States (US), having left family members or their children behind in the care of relatives. Simultaneously, indigenous women who are left behind on the migration trail also grapple with the suffering of separation and persistent undercurrents of sorrow because of an increasingly dangerous and intransigent USĝ€"Mexico border that makes family reunifications so difficult. The public policy discourses surrounding unauthorized immigration across the USĝ€"Mexico border tend to neglect attention to the mental and social health effects on families and communities. This article describes their experiences by sharing their voices, and challenges us both to shape new clinical responses, international connections, and solidarity in efforts humanize immigration policy, and to transform the dynamics of economic globalization that contribute to these conditions. Copyright © 2007 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

immigrant women Women's health Undocumented immigrants Indigenous people Mexican immigrants

psychological aspect Community Health Services community care human policy family size Family Characteristics Humans family Hispanic female Socioeconomic Factors socioeconomics cultural factor Article organization and management migration politics Emigration and Immigration Cultural Characteristics public policy Mexican Americans