“Written with a strong theoretical background and based in in-depth interviews, The Returned explores the complex and often contradictory experiences of return migration to Mexico. It reveals the mixed emotions of individuals who find themselves trapped between two worlds—one left behind with lost economic opportunities and the other not fully embraced. The authors illuminate the challenges and transformations that shape the lives of returnees, providing a nuanced perspective on the forces that drive and define migration within a complex policy framework.”
—MARÍA DOLORES PARÍS POMBO, profesora-investigadora, Departamento de Estudios Culturales, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Tijuana, B.C.

“The Returned makes an important contribution to research on migration, both by focusing on the less researched reality of return migration, which has grown dramatically in recent decades, and by illuminating the struggles returnees face—the sense of being norteado (‘disoriented’ is one translation) when they go to live in Mexico City. Claudia Masferrer, Erin R. Hamilton, and Nicole Denier expertly analyze the experience of deportees and de facto deportees (those who return to Mexico with a deported spouse or family member) and trace how return migration fits into the life course. An important book.”
—ROBERT COURTNEY SMITH, professor of sociology, CUNY Graduate Center and Baruch College

“The Returned tells the story of a historic turning point in which more Mexicans come back from the United States than emigrate. Lively interviews reveal how families cope with binational separation, finding work, and starting over in Mexico City. This is a highly readable contribution to understanding return migration.”
—DAVID FITZGERALD, Gildred Chair in U.S.-Mexican Relations and professor of sociology, University of California San Diego

In the first two decades of the 21st century, more than two million Mexican migrants returned to Mexico from the United States. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of people who returned to Mexico was so large that, for the first time in at least fifty years, more people entered Mexico from the United States than entered the United States from Mexico. Many of these migrants were destined for urban areas, and we know little about how they fare after they return to cities. In The Returned, sociologists Claudia Masferrer, Erin R. Hamilton, and Nicole Denier examine the experiences of returned migrants in Mexico City, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world.

Masferrer, Hamilton, and Denier draw on interviews with former U.S. migrants living in Mexico City to better understand the experience of return migration to urban areas. Each of the migrants they spoke with lived in the United States for long periods with noncitizen status during the last four decades. During this time, U.S. immigration policy became increasingly focused on restriction and enforcement, which made it difficult for migrants to safely move back and forth across the border for work or to visit family without documentation. The authors find that upon their return, migrants in Mexico City felt disoriented and lost and had difficulty adapting to a massive urban environment where there is little support for returnees. They struggled to translate their work experience from their time in the U.S. to find quality jobs. Additionally, many found their family lives upended as they reunited with or formed families in the U.S.. Some found themselves separated from family members still in the U.S. with no ability to legally visit them. Others brought their families back to Mexico, some of whom were U.S. citizens and had never been to Mexico before. They, too, struggled to adapt and integrate to life in Mexico City.

The authors use the experiences of return migrants to discuss policies and practices that would improve their lives and ease their reintegration. To help with the disorientation they experience, returnees proposed ongoing psychological support with mental health professionals who have knowledge and training in the social and legal issues that return migrants face. Return migrants also advocated for policies to enhance skill matching, job creation, and entrepreneurship, as many felt the occupational skills they developed in the U.S. were undervalued in Mexico. To address family separation, returnees argued for legal and policy reform to accommodate family reunification.

The Returned is an illuminating account of the difficulties faced by return migrants and their families in Mexico City.

CLAUDIA MASFERRER is an associate professor, Centre for Demographic, Urban, and Environmental Studies, El Colegio de México

ERIN R. HAMILTON is a professor of sociology, University of California, Davis

NICOLE DENIER is an associate professor, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta

“Throughout her distinguished career as one of the nation’s preeminent social policy scholars, Jennifer Hochschild has drilled down to the bedrock of society to expose the race- and class-based inequalities that undergird much of American life. Now, in her latest study, Race/Class Conflict and Urban Financial Threat, she takes us through four fascinating case studies in the cities of New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Chicago, to explore with precision exactly when, how, and why race and class do—or do not—drive the creation and implementation of major public policy programs, from policing to housing, education to retirement funding. The framework she devises for analyzing these programs not only helps to unlock an important public policy puzzle; it will go a long way toward helping a rising generation of urban leaders to be more aware in shaping a future that will be more just and inclusive for all.”
—HENRY LOUIS GATES JR., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor,Harvard University

“Jennifer Hochschild deserves our admiration for her commitment to combining a passion for justice with rigorous scholarship and a resolutely realistic view of how urban politics works. All these virtues are on display in Race/Class Conflict and Urban Financial Threat. Understanding the relationship between race and class conflicts is hard enough. But understanding both in the context of the financial challenges facing big cities is an enormous contribution to solving problems—and to being honest with each other about the stakes in some of our most divisive public policy battles.”
—E.J. DIONNE JR., W. Averell Harriman Chair and Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution

“Returning inventively to a prior generation’s attention to pluralism in urban settings, this book’s conceptually focused cases of policing, development, pensions, and education illuminate when, how, and why deeply inscribed inequalities of race and class shape policy creation, goals, and implementation. Stressing the importance of variations to substance and location, Race/Class Conflict and Urban Financial Threat powerfully shows that core hierarchies of inequality are not fixed, constant, or always dominant as causes.”
—IRA I. KATZNELSON, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History,and deputy director, Columbia World Projects, Columbia University

Race and class inequality are at the crux of many policy disputes in American cities. But are they the only factors driving political discord? In Race/Class Conflict and Urban Financial Threat, political scientist Jennifer L. Hochschild examines significant policies in four major American cities to determine when race and class shape city politics, when they do not, and what additional forces have the power to shape urban policy choices.

Hochschild investigates the root causes of disputes in the arenas of policing, development, schooling, and budgeting. She finds that race and class are central to the Stop-Question-Frisk policing policy in New York City and the development of Atlanta’s Beltline. New York’s Stop-Question-Frisk policy was intended to fight crime and keep all New Yorkers safe. In practice, however, young Black and Latino men in low-income neighborhoods were disproportionately stopped by a predominantly White police force. The goal of the Atlanta Beltline, a redevelopment project that includes public parks, new housing, commercial development, and a robust public transit system, is to expand access around the city and keep working-class residents in the city by constructing affordable housing. Instead However, the construction completed thus far has also encouraged gentrification and displacement of, displaced poor, disproportionately Black residents, and has increased the wealth and power of both Black and White city elites.

However, Hochschild finds that race and class inequality are not central to all urban policy disputes. When investigating the issues of charter schools in Los Angeles and Chicago’s pension system she identifies a third driver: financial threat that feels existential to the policy and political actors. In Los Angeles, there is a battle between traditional public schools and independent charter schools. Increasingly, families with sufficient resources are moving out of L.A. to areas with better school districts. Traditional public schools and charter schools must fight for the remaining students and the funding that comes with them, since they fear that there There are not enough students to teach and not enough money to teach them. The school district risks school closures, layoffs, and pension deficits; in this context, race/class conflict fades into the background.

Chicago’s public sector pension debt is at least three times as large as the city’s annual budget and continues to grow. Policy actors agree that the pension system needs to be stably funded. Yet city leaders, fearful of upsetting constituents and jeopardizing their political careers, fail to implement policies strong enough to do so, except by penalizing new workers. Meaningful policy change to rectify the pension deficit continues to get kicked down the line for future policy actors to address. In this context also, race/class conflict fades into the background.

Race/Class Conflict and Urban Financial Threat is a compelling examination of the role that race, class, and political and fiscal threat play in shaping urban policy.

JENNIFER L. HOCHSCHILD is Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government, Professor of African and African American studies, and Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University