Surviving the Distance: The Transnational Utilization of Traditional Medicine Among Oaxacan Migrants in the US

• Published in: Journal of immigrant and minority health 2016-10, Vol.18 (5), p.1190-1198
• Main Authors: González-Vázquez, Tonatiuh, Pelcastre-Villafuerte, Blanca Estela, Taboada, Arianna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Beliefs; Communities; Community; Community Relations; Comparative Law; Data collection; Discourse Analysis; Female; Folk medicine; Global health; Grounded Theory; Health behavior; Health care; Health care industry; Health Needs; Health Services; Herbal medicine; Humans; Indigenous Populations; International & Foreign Law; Interviews; Interviews as Topic; Male; Medicinal plants; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Medicine, Traditional - methods; Medicine, Traditional - statistics & numerical data; Mexican Americans - psychology; Mexico - ethnology; Middle Aged; Migrants; Migration; Noncitizens; Original Paper; Other Articles; Plants, Medicinal; Postal Service; Private International Law; Public Health; Qualitative Research; Remedies; Remittances; Return migration; Social networks; Sociology; Studies; Traditional healers; Traditional medicine; Transients and Migrants - psychology; Transnationalism; Transportation; United States - epidemiology
• ISSN: 1557-1912; 1557-1920
• DOI: 10.1007/s10903-015-0245-6

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.