Kimberly Higuera

Graduate Student Research Funding | 2019 - 2020 Academic Year

The Migration of Money: The Social Life of Mexican Remittances

Scholars have studied how migrants use monetary remittances to build infrastructure and pay expenses. Work has also been done on "social remittances," the transnational flow of ideas, and the way they impact societal values. However, researchers have yet to explore the social impacts of monetary remittances like the way senders and receivers value each other. Do people attach social meaning to remittance transactions? How do the social repercussions of monetary remittances impact the way Mexican and American societies value different people? Remittance dollars consistently outstrip American aid dollars. These sums can impact the way people value each other across borders.

Kimberly Higuera, Department of Sociology

Kimberly Higuera is an MPP and PhD student in sociology at Stanford University. Her research focuses on contemporary immigrants in the U.S. Higuera’s dissertation explores remittance patterns and behaviors between the U.S. and Mexico, the social meaning remitters and receivers attach to these remittance transactions, and how these transactions impact relationships across borders. She earned her BA in sociology with minors in child research and policy and Latinx Studies from Duke University. Before coming to Stanford, she worked at Duke’s Center for Child and Family Policy conducting maternal health research.

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