Social mobility among migrants between Mexico and the U.S. and within the U.S. labor market

This paper uses data collected in 4 Mexican communities (2 rural and 2 urban) in 1982 and 1983, using a sample of 200 households, plus an additional 25 households. This analysis supports these hypotheses: 1) a U-shaped pattern of occupational mobility exists among migrants to the US; 2) the reversal of the initial downward mobility is positively correlated with the accumulation of experience within the US; and 3) the relative steepness of both legs of the pattern vary across socioeconomic with rural origin, illegal, and poorly educated migrants experiencing the slowest reversal of fortune. The occupational mobility of Mexican migrants to the US has 2 distinct phases: 1) labor market entry and 2) that which occurs within the US labor market. Both phases are characterized by occupational immobility and by migrants' area of origin. Other important findings are 1) the slowness with which upward mobility occurs among migrants on their 1st trip, 2) the dominance of agriculture as an occupational group, and 3) an improvement in mobility prospects with increased US experience for repeat migrants. Immobility for 1st time entrants pervades all occupational categories and is exceptionally high for rural origin migrants in agriculture. Rural origin unskilled workers encounter greater mobility constraints, indicating a rural agricultural worker may accomplish an upward movement to the unskilled category, but the chances of further movement are remote. Upon entering the US, the probability of being employed in agriculture is over 25% for all groups except the unskilled. Adjusting successfully to US society is best accomplished by migrants whose Mexican occupation is professional, technical, skilled, or service or who have carefully timed their migration and have accumulated significant experience in the host society. It is only with exposure to the US society, either through a prolonged stay or many trips, that a migrant can overcome the debilitating effects of a disadvantaged socioeconomic background.     

Diaspora and Health? Traditional Medicine and Culture in a Mexican Migrant Community

As members of the Mexican diaspora acculturate/assimilate to life in the United States they gain skills that help them improve their socioeconomic status and overcome barriers to the mainstream American healthcare system. Thus, we might expect better health among more acculturated Mexicans. However, most of the research conducted during the past 20 years shows that the health of Mexicans living in the United States deteriorates as acculturation increases. This suggests that certain health promoting aspects of Mexican culture are lost as migrants adapt to and adopt American ways of life. This paper is the first step in testing the hypothesis that declining health among acculturated people of Mexican descent is related to a loss of traditional medical knowledge. During an ethnographic study of women’s medical knowledge in an unacculturated Mexican migrant community in Athens, Georgia, I observed many ways low‐income, undocumented migrants maintain good health. Migrant women encourage health‐promoting behaviors and treat sick family members with a variety of home remedies that appear to be effective according to chemical and pharmacological analyses. Additionally, migrant women in Athens learn how to navigate the American medical and social service systems and overcome barriers to professional healthcare services using information provided through social networks. Nevertheless, migrant women often prefer to treat sick family at home and indicated a preference for Mexican folk medicines over professional medical care in most situations. This case study suggests that migration and diaspora need not always lead to disease. The maintenance of a Mexican culture that is distinct from the rest of American society helps ensure that traditional medical knowledge is not lost, while the social networks that link Mexicans to each other and to their homeland help minimize threats to health, which are usually associated with migration. Thus, increased access to professional medical care may not improve the health of migrants if it comes with the loss of traditional medical knowledge.     

History and trends in U.S. bound migration from a Mexican town

The authors examine "historical trends in U.S. bound migration from a rural Mexican town. The data consist of detailed migration histories collected for all town residents in 1978. From these histories, successive migrant cohorts were constructed for the period 1940-1978." Changes in the age and sex composition of migrants over time are analyzed     

Pathways to El Norte: origins, destinations, and characteristics of Mexican migrants to the United States

The geography Mexican migration to the U.S. has experienced deep transformations in both its origin composition and the destinations chosen by migrants. To date, however, we know little about how shifting migrant origins and destinations may be linked to each another geographically and, ultimately, structurally as relatively similar brands of economic restructuring have been posited to drive the shifts in origins and destinations. In this paper, we describe how old and new migrant networks have combined to fuel the well-documented geographic expansion of Mexican migration. We use data from the 2006 Mexican National Survey of Population Dynamics, a nationally representative survey that for the first time collected information on U.S. state of destination for all household members who had been to the U.S. during the 5 years prior to the survey. We find that the growth in immigration to southern and eastern states is disproportionately fueled by undocumented migration from non-traditional origin regions located in Central and Southeastern Mexico and from rural areas in particular. We argue that economic restructuring in the U.S. and Mexico had profound consequences not only for the magnitude but also for the geography of Mexican migration, opening up new region-to-region flows.     

The Impact of Temporary Labor Migration on Mexican Children's Educational Aspirations and Performance1

This article examines how temporary U.S. labor migration by family members and by students affects the educational aspirations and performance of those same students growing up in Mexican migrant communities. Labor migration affects these children in two ways. First it brings remitted U.S. earnings into the household which allows parents to provide more education for their children and reduce the need for children's labor. Higher incomes are also associated with numerous factors that improve the general well‐being of children, as reflected in various indicators including higher school grades. Labor migration also has negative impacts on children. In addition to family stress and behavioral problems with adolescents due to parental and sibling absence, migration provides an example of an alternative route to economic mobility. Children growing up in migrant households have access to information and social networks that reduce their likelihood of migration failure should they choose this alternative to the Mexican labor market. We analyze a unique data set from a stratified random sample of 7600 grammar, junior high, and high school‐level students in a state capital, a large town, and 25 rural communities in a Mexican migrant‐sending state. We find that high levels of U.S. migration are associated with lower aspirations to attend a university at all academic levels. We find, however, a positive relationship between U.S. migration and grades. We conclude that while U.S. migration provides financial benefits that allow children to continue schooling and perform well, it may also reduce the motivation to attain above‐average years of schooling.     

Moving Through Social Networks: The Case of Armenian Migrants in the Czech Republic

This paper brings attention to the role of social networks in the migration of asylum seekers and explores how the embeddedness of the migrants in social networks both facilitates and constrains their mobility in different phases of the migration process. It reconstructs the migration paths of eight Armenian migrant families who arrived in the Czech Republic as asylum seekers during the 1990s and the beginning of the twenty‐first century. By examining the narrated stories of the Armenian migrants it shows that social networks formed an important context for employing various migration strategies in all phases of the migration process, and that the meaning and character of migrants’ social networks changed over time. In the initial phase of decision‐making about migration as well as on their journey, it was mainly weak ties of random acquaintances that played a dominant role. The position of the migrants in those networks was rather insecure. They held a little control over the information they received, but in these vulnerable situations they had to rely on their weak ties, which strongly influenced their mobility. In the arrival and settlement phases the social context of the refugee camp hindered the cultivation of social ties outside the migrants’ circle on one hand, and facilitated development of bonding ties among the migrants on the other. Bonding social networks enabled inclusion of the Armenian migrants into various social spheres especially at the beginning of the settlement process. However, the bounded character of these networks was also recognized as excluding them from access to resources of the dominant society and preventing their social mobility in later phases of their settlement. Thus, bridging networks that provide access to certain resources of the dominant society were sought.     

Re‐Thinking Migrants’ Networks and Social Capital: A Case Study of Iranians in Turkey

Existing research on international migration has focused on the importance of social networks and social capital in the countries of origin and destination. However, much less is known about the importance of social networks and associated social capital in transit countries. Drawing on ethnographic research on Iranian transit migrants in Turkey, this paper argues that migrant networks and social capital are equally important in transit countries. These networks, however, do not always generate positive social capital for Iranian migrants as there are scarce resources and there is no “enforceable trust”. Iranian migrant networks reorganized in a transit country like Turkey are not static structures and they are largely affected by macro‐variables such as current immigration and asylum policies of Turkey and Europe, transnationalism and globalization, and other place‐specific features like Turkey’s location bridging East and West, the existence of human smuggling networks, and its proximity to Iran. But Iranian migrant networks in Turkey are also affected by micro‐variables, such as gender, religion, and ethnicity of individual migrants.     

Migration,development and remittances in rural Mexico

The argument is that remittances to Mexico from migrants in the US contribute to household prosperity and lessen the balance of payments problem. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the incentives and constraints to development and individual economic well-being in rural Mexico. Examination is made of the financial amount of remittances, the use of remittances, the impact on development of remittances, models of migration, and migration historically. The viewpoint is that migration satisfies labor needs in developed countries to the detriment of underdeveloped countries. $2 billion a year are sent by illegal migrants from the US to Mexico. This sum is 4 times the net earning of Mexico's tourist trade. 21.1% of the Mexican population depend in part on money sent from the US. 79% of illegal migrants remitted money to relatives in Jalisco state. 70% of migrant families receive $170/month. In Guadalupe, 73% of families depended on migrant income. In Villa Guerrero, 50% of households depended on migrant income. Migrant income supported 1 out of 5 households in Mexico. Money is usually spent of household subsistence items. Sometimes money is also spent on community religious festivals, marriage ceremonies, and education of children or improved living conditions. Examples are given of money being used for investment in land and livestock. Migration affects community solidarity, and comparative ethic, and the influence on others to migrate. Employment opportunities are not expanded and cottage and community industries are threatened. Land purchases did not result in land improvements. Migration models are deficient. There is a macro/micro dichotomy. The push-and-pull system is not controllable by individual migrants. The migration remittance model is a product of unequal development and a mechanism feeding migration. Mexican migration has occurred since the 1880's; seasonal migration was encouraged. There was coercion to return to Mexico after the economic recession of World War I; the door was firmly closely during the Great Depression of 1929-35. The 1980 estimates of illegal Mexican migrants totaled 2-9 million, which is the largest flow in the world. US industrial presence and Mexican development have reinforced migration flows. Regional and international capitalist requirements govern migration.     

Measures to facilitate the reintegration of returning migrants into their countries of origin

Migration movements are presently a worldwide phenomenon; all groups of migrant workers, regardless of their origin or generation, have common problems. Return migrants' problems and their solution concern the emigration countries as well as the immigration countries. 3 proposals for an integrated approach to solving return migrants' problems follow. 1) Provide general assistance to the returning migrants. a) Statistical information about migrants and causes of their return should be gathered. b) Job placement assistance should be available to the returnees. c) Migrants should be assisted with travel and removal expenses. d) Their children's education should be facilitated by education in their mother tongue, travel to the home country during vacations, readaptation courses, and acceptance of diplomas and certificates obtained abroad. e) All emigration countries should accept a simplified and extended form of second retirement program to protect emigrants' social security rights. 2) Provide vocational training and readaptation. a) Home countries should seek ways to profit from the skill and knowledge returning migrant workers offer. b) Young skilled returnees should be employed as teachers and trainers. c) Vocational training centers should be developed and maintained. d) Course certificates obtained abroad should be accepted in the home country. 3) Create new job opportunities for returnees. a) Small businesses and grants to start private businesses should be encouraged. b) Technical and financial assistance should be provided to workers' companies. c) Migrant workers' savings should be directed to areas that are productive and that create employment possibilities. d) Possible return migration may be facilitated by issuing shares in investment projects with preferences, guaranteeing exchange rates, allowing accounts in foreign currencies, issuing government bonds with preferences, developing special aid funds for housing schemes, guaranteeing migrant workers' enterprises, and by offering returning migrants the option to buy shares in companies against foreign currency.     

Gender,class, and network: social structure and migration patterns among transnational Israelis

A growing body of research and theorising explores the experience of groups who maintain ties to multiple nations. However, this research often overemphasizes the fluidity and freedom available to migrants and neglects the differential access to networks available to co‐nationals who vary in their class, ethnic, gender and affiliational characteristics. Drawing on fieldwork and in‐depth interviews with Israeli migrants in the USA and Britain, and returnees in Israel, this study considers how social characteristics and settlement contexts shape access to the networks through which migrants acquire resources and information. Findings suggest that highly educated Israelis of European origins often maintain distinct social networks from their less educated and Middle Eastern or North African co‐nationals. Further, middle‐class Israelis have greater legal and economic access to migration and return than those with less human and financial capital. Israeli men and single women often prefer life abroad, while married women, especially those with children, wish to return. Finally, destinations influence migrants’ relations with the country of origin: Los Angeles fosters greater assimilation than London. In conclusion, because Israeli migrants are a diverse population, they maintain multiple networks and exhibit dissimilar patterns of connection to both the country of origin and places of destination.     

Migrant careers and well-being of women

This article deals with the psychosocial adjustment of Latin American female migrants in the US. The analysis focuses on how changes in employment, marital status, family structure, and life-style affect subjective assessments of well-being. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, the role of these social factors was explored. The psycho-social well-being of migrant women was found to be worse than that of men. Never-married women were equally as demoralized as married women. The disruption of social networks entailed in migration from one country to another may have a greater impact on unmarried than married women. The results of this study are offered as a contribution to the formulation of policy for relocated populations and to the design and implementation of support programs for women in the US regardless of national origin.     

Social Stigma, Social Capital Reconstruction and Rural Migrants in Urban China: A Population Health Perspective

In this study, we examine migrant stigma and its effect on social capital reconstruction among rural migrants who possess legal rural residence but live and work in urban China. After a review of the concepts of stigma and social capital, we report data collected through in-depth interviews with 40 rural migrant workers and 38 urban residents recruited from Beijing, China. Findings from this study indicate that social stigma against rural migrants is common in urban China and is reinforced through media, social institutions and their representatives, and day-to-day interactions. As an important part of discrimination, stigma against migrant workers creates inequality, undermines trust, and reduces opportunities for interpersonal interactions between migrants and urban residents. Through these social processes, social stigma interferes with the reconstruction of social capital (including bonding, bridging and linking social capital) for individual rural migrants as well as for their communities. The interaction between stigma and social capital reconstruction may present as a mechanism by which migration leads to negative health consequences. Results from this study underscore the need for taking measures against migrant stigma and alternatively work toward social capital reconstruction for health promotion and disease prevention among this population.     

Occupational and spatial mobility of temporary Mexican migrants to the U.S.: a comparative analysis

"U.S. job and spatial mobility are compared here for recent returnee migrants from two Mexican areas--Rio Grande, Zacatecas, in the interior; and Nueva Rosita-Muzquiz, Coahuila, near the U.S. border. Results suggest that the interior migrants fit a hierarchical migrant model: they move up the urban hierarchy from U.S. rural areas to towns and cities, experiencing substantial job mobility at first, but little after reaching the urban sector. Border migrants fit a shuttle migrant model: they return to the same job and place year after year, experiencing little or no spatial and occupational mobility, although they tend to hold somewhat higher status jobs."     

Migrant Remittances and Household Division: The Case of Nang Rong,Thailand

Using data from the Nang Rong Projects social survey (N = 4,989), this work examines the effect of migrant remittances on household splits in an agrarian district of Thailand, a developing country experiencing tremendous economic, demographic, and social transformations. Results show that remittances sent from migrants (especially female migrants) to their origin households affect changes in household affiliation. Findings are consistent with a household allocation model, whereby money sent by migrant siblings significantly affects the movement of the migrant’s sisters and their husbands into a new household. Results suggest that remittances are a significant determinant of household nucleation, especially in the latter stages of the Thai household life cycle. Results also suggest that rural Thais still follow traditional postnuptial residence patterns.     

Social Capital is Associated with Earnings among Foreign‐born Mexican Men but not Women in Los Angeles County

The mechanisms through which social capital is accumulated may influence its relationship with hourly earnings. Because Mexican men and women accumulate social capital differently, for instance, gender may be an important factor for understanding social capital’s association with Mexican migrant earnings. Unlike past research that often fails to differentiate between various social capital metrics (e.g., social network member reciprocity, participation in civic group organizations, neighbourhood trust), this article estimates two of these associations with wages while controlling for individual‐, household‐ and neighbourhood‐level characteristics. Results suggest that foreign‐born Mexican men receive a wage premium from civic participation (bridging social capital) and a wage penalty from reciprocal social network exchange (bonding social capital). We also find that unauthorized legal status (among Mexican men and all migrants) and having children (among women) were negatively associated with hourly wages. We conclude with a discussion of the relative association of human and social capital with Mexican migrant wages.     

Strategic Migrant Network Building and Information Sharing: Understanding ‘Migrant Pioneers’ in Canada

This article explores the migrant networks that develop between migrants, non‐migrants and the larger Indian diaspora. Specifically, it examines the decision to migrate to Toronto, Canada and how this decision is shaped by, and in turn shapes the migrant network. Based on 35 interviews with migrants from Karnataka, South India, two main findings are presented. First, migrants are deliberately choosing settlement countries in which their families are not yet located, thereby becoming “migrant pioneers” in their country of settlement, which is an attempt to expand their migrant networks globally. Second, the narratives these migrants receive and subsequently impart to others are often inaccurate, which can lead to miscommunication flows among these migrant networks. These findings are considered in light of the large body of research on migrant networks and the ways they develop and transmit information. This paper argues that existing understanding of migrant networks is somewhat static. Findings indicate that these “migrant pioneers” may be engaging in global risk‐diversification strategies for subsequent generations, but may themselves suffer from the more immediate consequences of misinformed networks.     

Fortune,Risk, and Remittances: An Application of Option Theory to Participation in Village‐Based Migration Networks1

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The Industry of Illegal Migration: Social Network Analysis of the Brazil‐US Migration System

In this article, we analyse the process of migration by applying a social network methodology. Using the personal network approach, we focus on a case study of the Brazil‐US migration system to analyse the formation of the so‐called “industry of illegal migration”. We suggest that in migration systems, brokerage evolves not only because of historical and cultural changes, but also because the changes emerge within a structured environment in which brokerage can thrive, and this, in turn, causes the social networks to support and produce specialized actors (individuals and organizations) embedded in the “right positions” of the social structure in the migration process. In this particular case study, we suggest that brokerage seems to take place through gender‐oriented networks and the personal experience and structural power of returned migrants. These returned migrants usually have more varied social contacts and types of relationships from which they can obtain richer information about the migration system.