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Mexican immigration to the United States
01 Jan 1969-
About: The article was published on 1969-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 218 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Immigration.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a theory that accounts for these uniformities and discrepancies and propose a method to compara the process of migration across communities, arguing that studies must report and control for the prevalence of migration within communities.
Abstract: Researchers working in Mexican communities have observed both regularities and inconsistencies in the way that transnational migration develops over time. This article presents a theory that accounts for these uniformities and discrepancies and proposes a method to compara the process of migration across communities. It also argues that studies must report and control for the prevalence of migration within communities. Data from 19 Mexican communities show that predicable demographic, social, and economic changes accompany increases in migratory prevalence. Although international migration begins within a narrow range of each community's socioeconomic structure, over time it broadens to incorporate other social groups.
682 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of family network ties on individual migration are estimated while controlling for measured and unmeasured conditions that influence migration risks for all family members, and the results suggest that social network effects are robust to the introduction of controls for human capital, common household characteristics, and unobserved conditions.
Abstract: This article uses a multistate hazard model to test the network hypothesis of social capital theory. The effects of family network ties on individual migration are estimated while controlling for measured and unmeasured conditions that influence migration risks for all family members. Results suggest that social network effects are robust to the introduction of controls for human capital, common household characteristics, and unobserved conditions. Estimates also confirm the ancillary hypothesis, which states that diffuse social capital distributed among community and household members strongly influences the likelihood of out‐migration, thus validating social capital theory in general and the network hypothesis in particular.
526 citations
TL;DR: This work identifies the conditions under which U.S. earnings are repatriated to Mexico as remittances and savings, and indicates the factors leading to their productive investment.
Abstract: The theoretical and empirical literature generally regards international migration as producing a cycle of dependency and stunted development in sending communities. Most migrants' earnings are spent on consumption; few funds are channeled into productive investment. We argue that this view is misleading because it ignores the conditions under which productive investment is likely to be possible and profitable. We analyze the determinants of migrants' savings and remittance decisions, using variables defined at the individual, household, community, and macroeconomic levels. We identify the conditions under which U.S. earnings are repatriated to Mexico as remittances and savings, and indicate the factors leading to their productive investment.
509 citations
Cites methods from "Mexican immigration to the United S..."
...Data for this analysis come from simple random samples gathered during the winter months of 1982-1983 and 19871992 in 30 communities located in the Mexican states of Jalisco, Michoacan, Guanajuato, Nayarit, and Zacatecas; these areas traditionally have sent the majority of Mexican migrants to the United States (Dagodag 1975; Gamio 1930; Jones 1988; North and Houstoun 1976)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors revisited the concept of social remittances and showed how people's experiences before migrating strongly influence what they do in the countries where they settle; this, in turn, affects what they remit back to their homelands.
Abstract: In this article we revisit the concept of social remittances. First, we show how people's experiences before migrating strongly influence what they do in the countries where they settle; this, in turn, affects what they remit back to their homelands. Second, just as scholars differentiate between individual and collective economic remittances, we also distinguish between individual and collective social remittances. While individuals communicate ideas and practices to each other in their roles as friends, family members or neighbours, they also communicate in their capacity as organisational actors, which has implications for organisational management and capacity-building. Finally, we argue that social remittances can scale up from local-level impacts to affect regional and national change and scale out to affect other domains of practice.
496 citations
TL;DR: For example, this article found that men are negatively selected to migrate, but, conversely, higher education increases migration among women, and that women with higher education are more likely to migrate.
Abstract: The migration literature agrees on several key factors that motivate individual decisions to move: human capital investments, socioeconomic status, familial considerations, social networks, and local opportunities in places of origin relative to opportunities abroad. Yet further analysis of the social forces underlying these relationships reveals interwoven gender relations and expectations that fundamentally differentiate migration patterns, in particular who migrates and why. Data analysis of 14,000 individuals in 43 Mexican villages reveals several mechanisms through which the effects ofgender play out in the migration process. Results suggest that migrant networks provide support to new men and women migrants alike, whereas high female employment rates reduce the likelihood that men, but not women, begin migrating. Education effects also emphasize the importance of examining gender differences. In keeping with the literature on Mexican migration, I find that men are negatively selected to migrate, but, conversely, that higher education increases migration among women. My findings also question the narrow portrayal of women as associational migrants that follow spouses, disclosing much greater chances of family separation than reunification among migrants' wives and significantly higher migration risks for single and previously married women than married women
405 citations