I’m revising a chapter for the book (Pluto Press) on young undocumented migrants I’m writing with Alice Bloch and Roger Zetter and while I was writing about how young migrants’ relationship with friends back home changes over time I bumped into the quote below. For a discussion of the impact of legal status on undocumented migrants’ social life and networks, see this article I wrote for Social Anthropology.

This is what I’m writing:

For some, the conversation, after the initial exchange of excitement and information post departure, gradually becomes an empty exchange of greetings and routine questions and young migrants feel less and less able and willing to share aspects of their daily life that are more intimate or painful, this trend seems particularly noticeable among male migrants. David (29, M, Brazilian) vividly captures the transformation of his relationship with friends in Brazil,

 When I moved, we talked so much that there is nothing else to say. They say, ‘how is it there?’, I’d say, ‘it’s all the same’. I’d ask, ‘how is it there?’, they’d say, ‘I’ve been to the same places’. So we don’t have anything to say, it’s over. I’ve already told them about everything here. I’ve sent all the pictures I had to send.