From Distance Conjugality to Care of the Spouse’s Body in the Contextof International Migration
For many Mexicans, the end-of-life and death occur in a binational social, legal, administrative and geographic space. Based on two emblematic case studies drawn from interviews carried out with rural couples over sixty years old from the state of Oaxaca, the paper questions the effects of the binational administrative and legal framework on the care practices of the sick or deceased elderly migrant by his spouse, and on the choice of the migrant’s end-of-life place. The author concludes that at the end of life, despite differences between the situations of couples, and whatever the constraints of the binational context may be, a new balance is established in favor of the migrant’s wife. This situation contrasts with the long-distance conjugal relationship during the migratory period, dominated by the absence of the husband and by the lack of influence of the wife on the organization of time and couple space.