Transnational health practices are an emergent and understudied phenomenon, which provide insight into how migrants seek care and tend to their health care needs in receiving communities. We conducted in depth interviews with return migrants (N = 21) and traditional healers (N = 11) to explore transnational health practices among Mixtec migrants from Oaxaca, specifically in relation to their utilization of traditional healers, medicinal plants, and folk remedies. In established migrant destination points, folk remedies and plants are readily available, and furthermore, these resources often travel alongside migrants. Traditional healers are integral to transnational networks, whether they migrate and provide services in the destination point, or are providing services from communities of origin. Findings encourage us to rethink migrants’ communities of origin typically thought of as “left behind,” and instead reposition them as inherently connected by transnational channels. Implications for transnational health care theory and practice are addressed. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Migrants Oaxaca transnational Mexico Traditional medicine

medicinal plant human epidemiology middle aged Aged ethnology Mexico procedures qualitative research interview United States Humans psychology traditional medicine Interviews as Topic male Medicine, Traditional female Aged, 80 and over very elderly Mexican American postal mail Postal Service adult migration utilization Transients and Migrants Plants, Medicinal Mexican Americans