Dr. Caitlin E. Fouratt
Dr. Fouratt鈥檚 book (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鈥檚 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 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. 鈥淧obrecitos: Determinations of Deservingness in the Costa Rican Asylum Process.鈥 The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology n/a, no. n/a. Accessed November 4, 2024. .
Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2023). 鈥淒igital Solidarities, Transnational Families, and the Nicaraguan Refugee Crisis in Costa Rica.鈥 In Ethnographic Insights on Latin America and the Caribbean, edited by Melanie A. Medeiros and Jennifer Guzm谩n. 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). 鈥淯ndeserving and Undesirable: Representing New Migrants and Refugees in Costa Rican Media.鈥 Bulletin of Latin American Research 41, no. 4: 591鈥607. .
Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2019). 鈥淭ransnational Families, Care Arrangements and the State in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.鈥 Discussion Paper for Progress of the World鈥檚 Women 2019-2020: Families in a Changing World. UN Women. New York. .
Fouratt, Caitlin E. and Koen Voorend (2019). 鈥淓squivando al Estado. Pr谩cticas privadas en el uso de los servicios de salud entre inmigrantes nicarag眉enses en Costa Rica.鈥 Anuario de Estudios Centroamericanos. 44:1-32.
Fouratt, Caitlin E. and and Koen Voorend (2018). 鈥淪ide-stepping the State: Practices of social service commodification among Nicaraguans in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.鈥 Journal of Latin American Studies. 50(2): 441-468.
Caitlin E. Fouratt and Chelsea Powell (2017). 鈥溾橳o lose friends, lose school, lose security鈥: Salvadoran refugee youth and access to education in Costa Rica.鈥 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). 鈥淟ove for the Land: Remittances and Care in a Nicaraguan Transnational Community.鈥 Latin American Research Review. 52(5), 792鈥806. DOI:
Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2016). 鈥淭emporary Measures: The Production of Illegality in Costa Rican Immigration Law.鈥 PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. 39(1): 144鈥160.
Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2014). 鈥溾楾hose Who Come to Do Harm鈥: The Framings of Immigration Problems in Costa Rican Immigration Law.鈥 International Migration Review. 48(1): 144-180
Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2012). 鈥淧or el amor y la tierra: las inversiones emocionales de los migrantes nicarag眉enses.鈥 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 鈥淎nthropologist on the Street,鈥 Available online:
Fouratt, Caitlin E. (2019). 鈥.鈥 On Youth Circulations Blog website. Ed. Lauren Heidbrink and Michelle Statz. Available online:
Fouratt, Caitlin E. (August 2018) 鈥淐an Migrant-Friendly Costa Rica Handle an Influx of Nicaraguan Refugees?鈥 Interview with World Politics Review
Carrillo Arciniega, Luzilda, and Caitlin Fouratt (2018). 鈥淲hat Can We Do for DREAMers?鈥 Anthropology News website, April 10,2018.
February 2018 Interviewed by Shirin Jaafari on Public Radio International鈥檚 The World. 鈥淭hey lived in limbo in Australian offshore camps for years. Now they call the US home.鈥
Interview with Latino Media Collective, WPFW 89.3fm, Washington D.C. Available online:
Fouratt, Caitlin E. (March 2017). 鈥淭he rise of anti-immigrant attitudes, violence and nationalism in Costa Rica.鈥 The Conversation. Available online:
Fouratt, Caitlin E. (August 2016). 鈥淭he U.S. wants Costa Rica to host refugees before they cross the border. Here鈥檚 why.鈥 The Conversation. Available online:
