This project supports the dissertation research of an anthropology student from the University of Arizona. The project is to examine the extent to which US-Mexican households in Nogales, Arizona, invest in the education of their female members as an economic strategy. The project will select a random sample of 460 households and measure the various factors (migration history, job security, informal sector activities, household size and network characteristics, housing type) that affect their vulnerability or ability to survive economic hardship. The hypothesis to be tested is that households which have invested in their female members' education will be more stable. Methods include ethnographic participant-observation and in-depth interviews as well as a questionnaire survey of households. This research is important because the site of the project is a free trade manufacturing and assembly zone (known as maquiladora), which is an intense location for NAFTA activities. New knowledge about how local families react to these new opportunities in general, and the impact of household investment on the education of female members in specific, will advance our understanding of how working class families secure their livelihood. This knowledge will be useful to policy makers concerned with promoting the economic and social security of working class families.
