The configuration of developed countries has become today diverse and multiethnic due to international migration. A single coherent theoretical explanation for international migration is lacking. The aim of this discussion was the generation and integration of current theories that clarify basic assumptions and hypotheses of the various models. Theories were differentiated as explaining the initiation of migration and the perpetuation of international movement. Initiation theories discussed were 1) macro theories of neoclassical economics; 2) micro theories of neoclassical economics; 3) the new economics with examples for crop insurance markets futures markets unemployment insurance and capital markets; 4) dual labor market theory and structural inflation motivational problems economic dualism and the demography of labor supply; and 5) world systems theory and the impacts of land raw materials labor material links ideological links and global cities. Perpetuation theories were indicated as network theories of declining risks and costs; institutional theory cumulative causation through distribution of income and land organization of agrarian production culture of migration regional distribution of human capital and social labeling factors; and migration systems theory. The assumptions and propositions of these theories although divergent were not inherently contradictory but had very different implications for policy formulation. The policy decisions over the next decades will be very important and carry with them the potential for misunderstanding and conflict. Policy options based on the explicated models range from regulation by changing wages and employment conditions in destination countries or promoting development in countries of origin to changing structural market economic relations.

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Theories of international migration: a review and appraisal.

This essay examines the shift toward "structural" explanations in recent studies of inequality. After reviewing this body of research and some of its shortcomings, we examine its theoretical underpinnings, comparing "structuralist" perspectives on work organization derived from institutional economics and neo-Marxism to more orthodox accounts based on neoclassical and "industrialism" theories. This discussion suggests areas where the different perspectives overlap and diverge. We conclude that work arrangements within the firm and their trend are the focus of most "structural" perspectives on positional stratification; thus, empirical studies grounded at the organizational level are more likely to inform current debates about the "structure of work" than is the growing body of research about structural effects on individual attainment or covariation among industrial/occupational characteristics. Toward that end, an agenda for future research is outlined, focusing on three aspects of work organization: (a) the units which comprise the structure of work and the dimensions underlying economic segmentation; (b) the effects of sectoral differentiation on technical and administrative arrangements within firms; and (c) temporal changes in how enterprises organize production. We provide some illustrations of the kinds of empirical data and research hypotheses required to link research on segmentation and stratification more closely to studies of organizations.

Bringing the Firms Back in: Stratification, Segmentation, and the Organization of Work

This article reviews conventional theories about different aspects of labor migration: its origins stability over time and patterns of migrant settlement. For each of these aspects the authors provide alternative explanatory hypotheses derived from the notions of increasing articulation of the international system and the social embeddedness of its various subprocesses including labor flows. A typology of sources and outcomes of contemporary immigration is presented as a heuristic device to organize the diversity of such movements as described in the empirical literature. (authors)

Contemporary immigration: theoretical perspectives on its determinants and modes of incorporation.

This article introduces a method that measures resemblance between sequences using a simple metric based on the insertions, deletions, and substitutions required to transform one sequence into another. The method, called optimal matching, is widely used in natural science. The article reviews the literature on sequence analysis, then discusses the optimal matching algorithm in some detail. Applying this technique to a data set detailing careers of musicians active in Germany in the 18th century demonstrates the practical steps involved in the application of the technique and develops a set of typical careers that successfully categorize most of the actual careers studied by the authors.

Measuring Resemblance in Sequence Data: An Optimal Matching Analysis of Musicians' Careers

Growing Up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States

We note the need for a measure of economic segmentation based on current empirical data for a range of theoretically relevant indicators. Drawing on a dual economy interpretation of the relationship between economic organization and labor market structure, we identify a set of empirical indicators which relate to the degree of oligopoly versus competition in industrial settings. We use factor analysis to test the dual economists' expectation of a common dimension underlying indicators of economic concentration and scale and the characteristics of product and labor markets. After confirming this expectation, we use factor scores to define an index of segmentation for industrial categories. Finally, we demonstrate the application of dichotomous and continuous segmentation measures to the analysis of a simple earnings determination model.

The Structure of Economic Segmentation: A Dual Economy Approach

The economic segmentation literature suggests two mechanisms by which the inferior position of minority within the socioeconomic structure of industrial capitalism is perpetuated. The first is the differential allocation of minority labor to different segments of the industrial economy, and the second is the differential evaluation of minority credentials within different industrial segments. Using data from the 1976 Current Population Survey we evaluate each of these two mechanisms. We find that while there are significant earnings costs due to the differential allocation of minority labor into the labor-intensive sector of the economy, the dollar costs of the differential evaluation of minority credentials are far greater. This is especially apparent in the capital-intensive sector where the penalties paid by minorities are substantial, especially for white females but also for nonwhites of either sex.

Industrial Segmentation and Labor Market Discrimination.

Social Stratification in Industrial Society: Further Evidence for a Structural Alternative

Hamernesh, Daniel S. 1975. \"The Effect of Government Ownership on Union Wages.\" Pp. 227-63 in Labor in the Public and Nonprofit Sectors, edited by Daniel S. Hamernesh. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Harman, Harry H. 1976. Modern Factor Analysis. 3d ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Hodson, Randy D. 1978. \"Labor in the Monopoly, Competitive, and State Sectors of Production.\" Politics and Society 8:141-93. O'Connor, James. 1973. The Fiscal Crisis of the State. New York: St. Martin's. Spilerman, Seymour. 1977. \"Careers, Labor Market Structure, and Socioeconomic Achievement.\" American Journal of Sociology 93:551-93. Stolzenberg, Ross M. 1975. \"Occupational Labor Markets and the Process of Wage Attainment.\" American Sociological Review 40:645-65. . 1978. \"Bringing the Boss Back In: Employer Size, Employee Schooling, and Socioeconomic Achievement.\" American Sociological Review 43:813-28.

E. M. Beck

Papers

The Structure of Economic Segmentation: A Dual Economy Approach

Industrial Segmentation and Labor Market Discrimination.

Social Stratification in Industrial Society: Further Evidence for a Structural Alternative

The Circle Has No Close