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Transnational West Indian Mothers: Narratives of Parent-Child Separation and Subsequent Reunification Abroad

ABSTRACT:The long history of immigration to the United States from the West Indies has been explored in several research studies, which invariably focus on the experiences of "barrel children" during the separation and the reunification periods. However, there is a dearth of research that is specific to parents who experience separation from their children for immigration purposes, both when the children are in the home country and when they emigrate to join their parents. There are even fewer studies that focus on the experiences of mothers, specifically, when they leave their children behind to emigrate from the West Indies to the United States. This study investigates the ways mothers experience the phenomena of separation and reunification due to immigration to the United States from the West Indies, by presenting three case studies focused on mothers from Belize, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago during separation from their daughters and subsequent reunification in the United States. The cases have been intentionally selected to demonstrate possible parallels between the mothers' experiences and themes identified in previous research.