The norms and forms of the remittance landscape in Latin America

This chapter discusses academic research on the impact of transnational migration in Latin American rural and peri-urban landscapes. Starting with studies from the 1990s in countries close to the U.S. (Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean) I discuss the literature on socio-spatial changes in rural communities from various approaches, ranging from a developmentalist take on local socio-spatial inequalities to culturalist interpretations of consumption and modernity. Studies on Mexican and Central American remittance communities set the stage for a broader Latin American debate, resulting in prolific ethnographic studies from Andean countries that theorize the linkages between remittances and the social and aesthetic transformations on different scales, from individual homes to trans-local communities. Partly based on my research in Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala and El Salvador the chapter argues that the transnational ways of living shape, and are shaped by, a shift in norms and spatial forms that are best understood as a kaleidoscopic organization of landscapes and communities.