Dr. Caitlin E. Fouratt

Dr. Fouratt’s book Flexible Families: Transnational Migration in Costa Rica and Nicaragua (Vanderbilt University Press, 2022) explores the intimate connections between Nicaraguan migrants in Costa Rica and their families in Nicaragua in order to understand how economic crisis, environmental pressures, and failed government policies contribute to the reconfiguration of care and kinship among transnational families. She argues that Nicaraguan transnational families cannot be understood in terms of an idealized or romanticized nuclear family but rather must be examined in the context of the decades of political, social, and economic crises that have plagued Nicaragua and the constantly shifting legal landscape of Costa Rica. For Nicaraguans, migration represents a strategy of caring for loved ones in the face of absent or failed forms of public care such as healthcare, education, and social security. However, for transnational families, the instabilities of Nicaraguan family-life are further complicated by the uncertainties migrants face in Costa Rica, including repressive immigration laws, poverty, and xenophobia. Her work demonstrates how intimate relationships and understandings of absence, presence, and care are reshaped as Nicaraguan families seek to care for one another across borders and in the face of the contradictory presences and absences of state policies on both sides of the border. 
 
Dr. Fouratt’s other research interests relate to refugees and forced migrants within Central America, and with state responses to shifting regional migration dynamics. She is actively involved in the Red de Jovenes Sin Fronteras, a youth association based in Costa Rica that advocates for and with refugee and migrant youth.

Dr. Fouratt has worked with I/ST student research assistants in her work with refugees in Costa Rica through the University Honors Program, UROP, and McNair Scholars Program. In Spring 2024, she was named Most Valuable Professor by the graduating students in the University Honors Program. 

Dr. Fouratt serves as the Director of the MA in International Affairs and the Global Studies Institute.

PhD, Anthropology UC Irvine

MA, Anthropology, UC Irvine

MPhil, Latin American Studies, Cambridge University

BA, Spanish Language & Literature; BA Interdisciplinary Honors, Villanova University

 

Peer Reviewed

Fouratt, Caitlin E. “Pobrecitos: Determinations of Deservingness in the Costa Rican Asylum Process.” The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology n/a, no. n/a. Accessed November 4, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12740.

Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2023). “Digital Solidarities, Transnational Families, and the Nicaraguan Refugee Crisis in Costa Rica.” In Ethnographic Insights on Latin America and the Caribbean, edited by Melanie A. Medeiros and Jennifer Guzmán. Toronto:  University of Toronto Press.

Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2022). Flexible Families: Nicaraguan Transnational Families in Costa Rica. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.

Fouratt, Caitlin E., and Lizbeth Castillo-Monterrosa (2022). “Undeserving  and Undesirable: Representing New Migrants and Refugees in Costa Rican Media.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 41, no. 4: 591–607. https://doi.org/10.1111/blar.13288.

Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2019).  “Transnational Families, Care Arrangements and the State in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.” Discussion Paper for Progress of the World’s Women 2019-2020: Families in a Changing World. UN Women. New York. https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2019/12/discussion-paper-transnational-families-care-arrangements-and-the-state-in-costa-rica-and-nicaragua.

Fouratt, Caitlin E. and Koen Voorend (2019). “Esquivando al Estado. Prácticas privadas en el uso de los servicios de salud entre inmigrantes nicaragüenses en Costa Rica.” Anuario de Estudios Centroamericanos. 44:1-32.

Fouratt, Caitlin E. and and Koen Voorend (2018). “Side-stepping the State: Practices of social service commodification among Nicaraguans in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.” Journal of Latin American Studies. 50(2): 441-468. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X17001195

Caitlin E. Fouratt and Chelsea Powell (2017). “’To lose friends, lose school, lose security’: Salvadoran refugee youth and access to education in Costa Rica.” In David Haines, Jayne Howell, and Fethi Keles (Eds.), Maintaining Refuge: Essays on Analysis and Praxis. Alexandria, VA: Committee on Refugees and Immigrants (CORI), American Anthropological Association. 

Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2017). “Love for the Land: Remittances and Care in a Nicaraguan Transnational Community.” Latin American Research Review. 52(5), 792–806. DOI: http://doi.org/10.25222/larr.248

Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2016). “Temporary Measures: The Production of Illegality in Costa Rican Immigration Law.” PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. 39(1): 144–160. 

Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2014). “‘Those Who Come to Do Harm’: The Framings of Immigration Problems in Costa Rican Immigration Law.” International Migration Review. 48(1): 144-180

Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2012). “Por el amor y la tierra: las inversiones emocionales de los migrantes nicaragüenses.” Anuario de Estudios Centroamericanos. Universidad de Costa Rica. 38: 193-212.

 

Additional Publications:

Little, Carrie (November 2019). Interview with Dr. Joseph Wiltberger and Dr. Caitlin Fouratt on research with Central American refugees on  “Anthropologist on the Street,” Available online: https://www.facebook.com/AnthropologistOnTheStreet/videos/3055993461083879/

Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2019). “’Lo Que Nos Une”: Refugee Youth and Integration in Costa Rica.” On Youth Circulations Blog website. Ed. Lauren Heidbrink and Michelle Statz. Available online: http://www.youthcirculations.com/blog/2019/2/18/lo-que-nos-une-refugee-youth-and-integration-in-costa-rica

Fouratt, Caitlin E. (August 2018) “Can Migrant-Friendly Costa Rica Handle an Influx of Nicaraguan Refugees?” Interview with World Politics Review https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/25558/can-migrant-friendly-costa-rica-handle-an-influx-of-nicaraguan-refugees 

Carrillo Arciniega, Luzilda, and Caitlin Fouratt (2018). “What Can We Do for DREAMers?” Anthropology News website, April 10,2018. https://rdcu.be/b0z7A 

February 2018 Interviewed by Shirin Jaafari on Public Radio International’s The World. “They lived in limbo in Australian offshore camps for years. Now they call the US home.” https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-02-19/they-lived-limbo-australian-offshore-camps-years-now-they-call-us-home 

Interview with Latino Media Collective, WPFW 89.3fm, Washington D.C. Available online: https://soundcloud.com/latinomediacollective/may-5th-2017-xenophobia-in-costa-rica 

Fouratt, Caitlin E. (March 2017).  “The rise of anti-immigrant attitudes, violence and nationalism in Costa Rica.” The Conversation. Available online: https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-anti-immigrant-attitudes-violence-and-nationalism-in-costa-rica-73899 

Fouratt, Caitlin E.  (August 2016). “The U.S. wants Costa Rica to host refugees before they cross the border. Here’s why.” The Conversation. Available online: https://theconversation.com/the-u-s-wants-costa-rica-to-host-refugees-before-they-cross-the-border-heres-why-63989