Using the case of Bolivian migrants in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, this article analyses the development of hometown associations and the construction of migrant communities at multiple scales. While research has largely focused on the role of hometown associations (HTAs) in promoting local development in sending countries, HTAs also facilitate civic engagement and shape identity formation in both sending and receiving contexts. The article explores the efforts of HTAs and other migrant organisations to construct unified Bolivian communities at local, regional, national and transnational scales, while demonstrating that HTAs are simultaneously contested and highly gendered spaces. It analyses soccer fields and folkloric dance performances as sites of cultural production that seek to transfer practices and identities to the 1.5 and second generations. The article also contributes to an emerging literature on indigenous migration by examining how Bolivians have transferred and adapted organisational practices and networks of reciprocity from rural Cochabamba to suburban Washington D.C. It argues that indigenous migrants are developing new ways of being native even as they move across borders and reside away from traditional lands for long periods of time.
Indigenous Migration and Bolivian HTAsHTAs are organisations composed of migrants from a single village or town whose primary function is to contribute resources and carry out public works projects in communities of origin (Lanly and Valenzuela 2004). Unlike individual and familial remittances, collective remittances organised by HTAs to build basic infrastructure, communication and recreation projects serve a public good and are designed to provide services that otherwise would be unattainable in rural communities (Goldring 2004). HTAs are based around existing ties between family members and migrants from a single community or region (Rivera-Salgado and Rabadán 2004) and also provide spaces where immigrants can maintain and renew connections in a different Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 1699 Downloaded by [Bangor University] at 08:
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.