Forced Out

In honor of Mother’s Day, this week’s review centers on the experiences of immigrant mothers, spotlighting both their struggles and fortitude.

Posted on May 12, 2025 in Reviews of the Month

Forced Out: Migrant Mothers in Search of Refuge and Hope

Terrio, Susan J. New York University, 2024
216p bibl index, 9781479823529 $89.00, 9781479823536 $28.00, 9781479823550

Terrio (emer., Georgetown Univ.) has masterfully penned a poignant, powerful, and insightful book focused on undocumented mothers who escape detention and try to build lives in the US. This ethnographic study of immigrant women and their children presents authentic testimonials revealing challenging and complicated lives and simultaneously highlighting their resiliency and agency. It is an emotional book that shows what women will do for their own survival and to make a future for their children. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 (“Leaving Home”) explains conditions in home countries that lead women to migrate, such as competing gangs, extortions, violence, poverty, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. Part 2 (“Border Trouble”) depicts the travesty of crossing into Mexico and the US, highlighting financial negotiations with coyotes (i.e., smugglers) and the often violent encounters women face in transit. Part 3 (“Living in the United States”) presents the hardship of working in low-paying jobs, sending money back home, trying to bring children to the US, and, if successful, dealing with painful and difficult reunifications after mothers and children have not seen each other in years. This is an excellent book for researchers, graduate students, and policy makers.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals.
Reviewer: I. Coronado, Arizona State University
Interdisciplinary Subjects: Latin American & Latina/o Studies, Women’s & Gender Studies
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences – Anthropology
Choice Issue: Nov 2024

---

Enjoy this week’s review? Check out more reviews of related titles:

• Scales of Resistance: Indigenous Women’s Transborder Activism
• Making the MexiRican City: Migration, Placemaking, and Activism in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Refusing Death: Immigrant Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice in LA
• Queer Freedom: Black Sovereignty

Related Posts