García Víctor, González Laura
Professor, Department of Anthropology & Associate Director, Mid-Atlantic Research and Training Institute, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA 15701.
Urban Anthropol Stud Cult Syst World Econ Dev. 2009 Jun;38(2-4):303-344.
In our article, we present the recent findings of our ethnographic field study on drug use and the emergence of a drug use culture in transnational communities in Mexico. Transnational communities are part of a larger migratory labor circuit that transcends political borders and are not restricted to a single locality. Transnational migrants and returning immigrants link the multiple localities through their social networks. In southern Guanajuato, Mexico, using a transnational migration paradigm, we examined the manner in which transnational migration and drug trafficking organizations are contributing to a growing drug problem in these communities. We found that transnational migrants and returning immigrants, including deported workers, introduce drugs and drug use practices, and contribute to the creation of a drug use culture within the communities. The social conditions in the community that foster and proliferate drug use are many: the erosion of the traditional family, truncated kinship bases, and new social formations. These conditions are all consequences of migration and emigration. Recent drug cartel activities are also contributing to this growing drug problem. The cartels have aggressively targeted these communities because of availability of money, existing drug use, a drug use culture, and the breakdown of traditional deterrents to substance abuse. Although a number of communities in three municipalities were part of our study, we focus on two: Lindavista, a rancho, Progreso, a municipal seat. Our field study in Mexico, one of four sequential ethnographic field studies conducted in Guanajuato and Pennsylvania, was completed over a six month period, from September, 2008, through February, 2009, using traditional ethnography. The four field studies are part of a larger, ongoing, three-year bi-national study on drug use among transnational migrants working in southeastern Pennsylvania. This larger study, near its third and final year, is funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
在我们的文章中，我们展示了关于墨西哥跨国社区吸毒情况及吸毒文化兴起的民族志实地研究的最新发现。跨国社区是更大规模的移民劳工循环的一部分，它跨越政治边界，并不局限于单一地点。跨国移民和归国移民通过他们的社会网络将多个地点联系起来。在墨西哥瓜纳华托州南部，我们采用跨国移民范式，研究了跨国移民和贩毒组织如何助长这些社区日益严重的毒品问题。我们发现，跨国移民和归国移民，包括被驱逐的工人，引入了毒品及吸毒行为，并促使社区内吸毒文化的形成。社区中助长和扩散吸毒现象的社会状况众多：传统家庭的侵蚀、亲属关系基础的削弱以及新的社会形态。这些状况都是移民和移出的后果。近期贩毒集团的活动也加剧了这一日益严重的毒品问题。贩毒集团之所以积极针对这些社区，是因为这里有钱可赚、存在吸毒现象、有吸毒文化，而且传统的药物滥用威慑机制也已瓦解。尽管我们的研究涵盖了三个市镇的多个社区，但我们重点关注两个：林达维斯塔，一个牧场；普罗格雷索，一个市镇中心。我们在墨西哥的实地研究是在瓜纳华托州和宾夕法尼亚州进行的四项连续民族志实地研究之一，于2008年9月至2009年2月的六个月时间里，采用传统民族志方法完成。这四项实地研究是一项正在进行的、为期三年的关于在宾夕法尼亚州东南部工作的跨国移民吸毒情况的双边大型研究的一部分。这项规模更大的研究已接近第三年也是最后一年，由美国国家药物滥用研究所资助。
