This paper, presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Congress in Amsterdam, describes the emergence of illegal migration as a social phenomenon of world wide significance. Specifically it examines the nature of the social relations that evolve when a large number of an alien population reside legally in a foreign country and present among…

The practice of "chismeando" (gossiping, in Spanish) is examined as it is defined and engaged in by a group of women from the Dominican Republic. It is argued that the stories told in chismeando are repositories of sociocultural knowledge. Women's participation in the practice provides the women with a framework for understanding and…