Caribbean migration to Puerto Rico: a comparison of Cubans and Dominicans

"The purpose of this article is to address the questions posed by intra-Caribbean migration in the context of Cuban and Dominican migration to Puerto Rico since 1960. The essay's point of departure is an estimate of the size of the Cuban and Dominican populations on the island. The [first] section compares the mode of incorporation of Cubans and Dominicans into the Puerto Rican housing and labor markets. Finally, the article analyzes the socioeconomic background as well as the political and economic motivations of Cuban and Dominican migrants. The article concludes with suggestions for some avenues for further research and reflection."     

Cohort size effects and migration

"This article explores whether changes in the size of [U.S.] cohorts entering the labor force affect the propensity to migrate and the socioeconomic circumstances of migrants at destination. The flow of young in-migrants to large SMSAs declined during the 1965-76 period, but the relative socioeconomic standing of migrants at destination was unaffected by either cohort size or regional differentials in economic growth. It is suggested that a significant reduction in the volume of migration among members of the baby boom cohort was the primary adjustment mechanism, hence reducing the need for degrading the opportunities available to migrants."     

Labour Migration in the Global Division of Labour: Migrant workers in Mauritius1

Workers who temporarily leave their country to perform semi‐ and unskilled work under contract in another country are a distinct category of labour migrants in the global division of labour (GDL). The small island of Mauritius is a relatively new destination for contractual international labour migrants. The Mauritian state is intimately involved in the labour migration system, playing a mediating role in positioning the island within the GDL and trying to optimise the routing of global production chains through Mauritius. The migrants originate mainly in China and India and are overwhelmingly concentrated in the island’s clothing and textile factories where they now comprise one‐fifth of the export processing zone workforce. The migrant space occupied by expatriate workers in Mauritius is tightly circumscribed, with little social interaction between them and Mauritian society. A chronicle of their collective protest between 2002 and 2005 highlights grievances that arise from the conditions they face as migrants. Pointing largely to the failure of industrial relations institutions, and having stirred xenophobic sentiments, these protests represent a catalyst for reform. While the numerical incidence and scale of labour migration to small islands may be small, their significance for GDL analysis and for the politics of migration demands attention.     

Cartographies of Cape Verdean transnationalism

In this article I explore the geographical structure of transnational practice by means of cartographic representations of statistical data. Using the case of Cape Verde, data on emigrant relatives, remittances, and migration aspirations are combined to produce a visual representation of a transnational social field. A second figure employs remittance statistics to show how the geography of transnational connections varies from island to island within the archipelago.     

Mobile Livelihoods: The Sociocultural Practices of Circular Migrants between Puerto Rico and the United States1

This article focuses on the bilateral flow of people between Puerto Rico and the United States ‐ what has come to be known as circular, commuter, or revolving‐door migration. It documents the migrants' livelihood practices based on a recent field study of population flows between Puerto Rico and the mainland. Specifically, the basic characteristics of multiple movers, one‐time movers and nonmovers residing in Puerto Rico are compared. More broadly, the article assesses the implications of circular migration for Puerto Rican communities on and off the island. The author's basic argument is that the constant displacement of people ‐ both to and from the island ‐ blurs the territorial, linguistic, and juridical boundaries of the Puerto Rican nation. As people expand their means of subsistence across space, they develop multiple attachments to various localities. In the Puerto Rican situation, such mobile livelihoods are easier to establish than in other places because of the free movement of labor and capital between the island and the mainland. The author hypothesizes that circulation does not entail major losses in human capital for most Puerto Ricans, but rather often constitutes an occupational, educational, and linguistic asset.     

Migration Plans and Received Remittances: Evidence from Fiji and Tonga1

This paper investigates the relationship between remittances and migration intentions in the source country using data from households in the Pacific island countries of Tonga and Fiji. Unlike previous research it accounts for potential endogeneity in the relationship between remittances and intentions and also includes households that receive remittances but do not have current migrants. We find a positive impact of remittances on intentions. The impact of remittances on intentions is stronger in a country with a longer history of migration and stronger in households with current migrants than those without migrants. These results provide new evidence on the role of remittances in the development of migration chains.     

The developmental implications of migration from and between small island nations

This article discusses the role of migration in relieving population pressures, thus making continuing development possible, using small nations in the Caribbean and the South Pacific as examples. The Caribbean islands and many Pacific islands have used out-migration to ease population pressures in this century. Surplus labor has been emerging in various Caribbean nations, independent of the international marketing problems of plantation agriculture. Rural populations alienated from plantations have had to make do on questionable and/or remote land. Population surpluses appear to originate in rural areas, but little evidence exists to suggest that those surpluses are the basis for the emigration patterns of the Caribbean islands. Emigration does not solve population problems because when ambitious, skilled workers leave their country, their actions have little to do with the existence of domestic surplus labor and their leaving may do little to facilitate domestic labor absorption. Thus, if mini-states wish to sustain their hopes of economic expansion, they must find the means to employ their surplus labor. Since mainly skilled migrants leave, their going may actually slow development and retard opportunities for labor absorption. Population movements internal to the Caribbean region may further complicate surplus labor and/or population problems. If protective entry requirements impede normal inter-island relations, they may interfere with developmental processes. In general, migration is not a feasible strategy for population control for small island nations. While temporary migration has a more positive impact than other forms of migration, problems do exist. For example, temporary migration 1) can impose significant economic costs on the source-country, and 2) may result in the source country being unable to capitalize on its initial investment in training and education of temporary migrants. In conclusion, import substitution through cooperation between small island nations, production for export where feasible, and more attention to more sophisticated international service linkages hold a better prospect for material progress than relying on the export of surplus populations.     

Trends in International and Internal Teacher Mobility in Three Pacific Island Countries

High‐skilled migration has increasingly been the subject of migration research over the past decade, but the focus has tended to be on health and IT professionals. In this paper, we address the mobility of schoolteachers in a region that has so far received little attention, the Pacific Islands. It is timely to examine trends in teacher mobility in the Pacific, given the shortages that are occurring elsewhere. In particular, the tailoring of immigration policies to attract highly skilled workers in areas of shortage could impact on the Pacific. The focus of the paper is on emigration and we argue that of three countries studied, only Fiji is negatively affected by teacher mobility. The Cook Islands and Vanuatu are currently experiencing low levels of international teacher emigration. Levels of internal mobility are also investigated in an attempt to see if remote areas and outer islands are experiencing teacher shortages. The preference for working near one’s land or on one’s home island is a strong drawcard in bringing people back home to teach. A problem arises, however, when not enough people are trained from a region/island and the incentives to encourage others to go and work there are less than effective.     

Land Ownership as a Determinant of International and Internal Migration in Mexico and Internal Migration in Thailand1

This study focuses on the effect of land ownership on internal and international out‐migration in Mexico and on internal out‐migration in Thailand. Land can impact migration in four ways: as wealth; as employment; as an investment opportunity; and through inequality in ownership. Discrete time event history models of individual migration, using data from the Mexican Migration Project (covering Western Mexico) and data from the Nang Rong Project (covering one district in Northeast Thailand), show the effects of size of landholdings on internal out‐migration of men. They also estimate the independent effects of relative deprivation in land ownership on migration. Results show that the size of landholdings has a negative effect on out‐migration for smaller landholders (the majority of landholders). The size of landholdings has a positive effect on out‐migration for larger landholders. Results suggest that the purchase and improvement of land are opportunities for investing the proceeds of migration.     

A Dynamic Approach to the Determinants of Immigrants’ Language Proficiency: The United States, 1980–20001

This article proposes a dynamic perspective on immigrants’ language proficiency. Hypotheses are formulated about immigrants’ language skills at arrival and about the speed with which immigrants learn the language thereafter. It pools data from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 U.S. Censuses, and uses a synthetic cohort design to analyze the language skills of immigrants within the first 20 years after migration. Multilevel models show that higher educated immigrants arrive with better language skills and learn the language quicker. Group size has a double‐negative effect: it attracts less skilled immigrants, and it hampers language learning. These and other determinants are discussed in light of current research on immigrants’ second‐language proficiency.     

Sponsorship of Relatives for Migration and Immigrant Settlement Intention

The paper examines how important family reunification is in immigrants' decision to settle permanently in their country of destination. Using longitudinal data for a cohort of recent immigrants to Australia, it examines whether migrants' permanent settlement intention reported soon after arrival is related to their family sponsorship patterns and intention to sponsor, and whether family sponsorship patterns and intention in turn have an effect on immigrants' permanent settlement/return migration decision. The results show that a significant relation exists between sponsorship of close family members for migration and immigrants' permanent settlement intention and that the relation is particularly strong among skilled migrants. The study demonstrates the importance of kinship ties in permanent settlement and return migration decisions and suggests that liberal policies on family reunion migration may minimize settle loss, especially among skilled immigrants.     

Sibship size and educational attainment in peninsular Malaysia: do policies matter?

This study examines the effects of sibship size on secondary school attainment in Malaysia. Data were obtained from the 1989 Malaysian Second Family Life Survey among a sample of individuals aged 19-38 years in 1989 who were born during 1938-69. The sample included 1749 Malays, 1071 Chinese, and 523 Indians. Subsamples divided persons into those born during the period 1950-59 and those born during 1960-69. 98% of the sample had a primary education. Almost 66% had attained a secondary school education: 23% of Malays, 34% of Chinese, and 30% of Indians. 97% had at least one sibling. The percentage of non-Malays with a secondary school education (SSE) decreased with an increase in sibship size. Sibship size was unrelated to SSE among Malays. It is pointed out that the preferential policies were probably a stronger impetus for secondary attainment among Malays than sibship size. Finer analysis by cohort revealed that only in the cohort born during 1950-59 did sibship size have no significant effect on SSE. Sibship size had a significantly negative impact among children born during 1960-69 and the impact was greater for Malays than non-Malays. The magnitude of the effect for Malays was twice as large in the 1960-69 cohort as in the 1950-59 cohort, while the magnitude of the impact of sibship size for non-Malays was the same for both birth cohorts. Average sibship size for non-Malays declined sharply over time, while it remained stable for Malays. Logistic analysis revealed few differences between ethnic groups in the predicted probabilities for the 1950-59 cohort when individual and family factors were accounted for. Findings suggest that non-Malays' adjustment by decreasing their fertility or changing family resource allocations could not entirely compensate for increases in the cost of education or reductions in the return to education. The benefit was the closing of the gap between Malays and non-Malays with regard to children's likelihood of SSE.     

Horizontal and vertical island biogeography of arthropods on green roofs: a review

From an ecological perspective, urban green roofs can be viewed as green islands embedded in an urban matrix. Island biogeography theory suggests that species richness on an island is the outcome of dynamic equilibrium between immigration and extinction. Immigration is affected by the size of an island and distance of an island from a colonizing source. In the context of green roofs, building height and horizontal distance from green areas can potentially be a limiting factor for many species. Here, we considered two distance components of green roofs - vertical (building height) and horizontal (distance of building from open green areas). Based on island biogeography theory, we would expect species richness or community similarity to be negatively related to horizontal or vertical distances from colonizing sources. The green roof literature addressing such questions is currently sparse. In our review comprised of 10 studies, we were unable to identify consistent statistically significant richness-distance or community similarity-distance (vertical or horizontal) relationships. The absence of statistically significant relationships could be due in large part to low statistical power as a consequence of both the paucity of roofs and limited range of vertical distances in many of the existing studies. In addition, these roofs differ in numerous aspects (e.g. roof size, age, substrate type, plant composition and building height). The low number of replicates, combined with the lack of homogeneity among replicates combines to reduce statistical power and our ability to detect differences.     

A critical review of theory and practice: the case of Turkey

"This article makes use of empirical research and studies to investigate migration and development in Turkey. The size and nature of the international labor migration from Turkey is presented. The effects of international labor migration on the national, local and regional levels are then discussed in relation to economic development, the congruence between contributions of migration and needs for development and whether the economic system is willing and able to use the potential advantages of migration."     

Emigration dynamics of eastern African countries

This examination of emigration dynamics focuses on 13 countries extending from Eritrea to Zimbabwe and Mozambique on the eastern African mainland and on 5 Indian Ocean island nations. The first part of the study looks at the temporal, spatial, and structural perspectives of emigration dynamics. Part 2 considers international migration in the region according to Appleyard's typology (permanent settlers, labor migration, refugees, and illegal migrants) with the additional category of return migration. Measurement issues in emigration dynamics are discussed in part 3, and the demographic/economic setting is the topic of part 4. The demographic factors emphasized include spatial distribution, population density, population structure, population dynamics, demographic transition, and the relationship between internal and international migration. Other major topics of this section of the study are the economic base, the human resource base, population and natural resources, the sociocultural context (emigration, chain migration, return migration, and migration linkages and networks), political factors (including human rights, minority rights and security, regional integration and economic cooperation, and the impact of structural adjustment programs), and a prediction of future emigration dynamics. It is concluded that refugee flows remain a major factor in eastern African countries but the development of human resources in the northern portion of the region indicates development of potential labor migration from this area. Data constraints have limited measurement of emigration in this region and may contribute to the seeming indifference of most eastern African countries to emigration policies. Emigration in this region has been triggered by deteriorating economic and political conditions and is expected to increase.     

Foreign Student Emigration to the United States: Pathways of Entry,Demographic Antecedents,and Origin‐Country Contexts

This study uses data from various sources to examine the determinants of trends in international student migration to the United States. Our results highlight the differential contributions to these trends made by various entry pathways. For example, we find that the overall growth was driven by students using visas that offered the least possibility of US employment following the completion of their studies. We also find that overall student migration trends were significantly affected by global demographic changes. For example, student emigration from Europe was negatively affected by declining fertility trends, percentage of youths, and youth population size. In Asia and Africa, contrasting demographic trends explained the substantial student migration increases observed from these regions. Increases in youth population size had a particularly positive effect on student migration in contexts of economic growth. Finally, the analysis finds a declining significance of English language contexts for fueling overall student migration trends.     

Migration, social support and perinatal health: an origin-destination analysis of Puerto Rican women

Using pooled origin-destination data from the Puerto Rican Maternal and Infant Health Study, we investigate linkages between migration, social support, and perinatal health. We document differences in social support between three groups of Puerto Rican women: non-migrant women in Puerto Rico, first-generation migrants to the U.S. mainland, and mainland-born women. The role of social support in producing differences in perinatal health outcomes between the groups is assessed. The analysis shows striking differences in social support between island and mainland women, but little systematic variation among mainland women by generation of U.S. residence. The lower level of social support available to mainland women is not reflected in the health outcomes examined, which do not generally worsen with migration to the United States (with the exception of maternal smoking). Nonetheless, we show that social support has important implications for stress, which in turn increases the risk of poor health behavior and compromised infant health.     

Temporary versus permanent population mobility in Melanesia: a case study from Vanuatu

A case study of temporary and circular Melanesian population mobility and labor migration focuses on the island of Paama in the Republic of Vanuatu (an archipelago of 80 islands) in Melanesia and on urbanization, which is a relatively recent phenomena. A critical analysis is provided of temporary and permanent migration and methodological inadequacies in explanations of mobility. Mobility is neither a cause nor a result of economic, social, and political change; it is the interrelationship among the general structural setting, people's personal and social environment, and their perceptions and actions. In the case of Paamese mobility, changes appeared in the source of migration and destination areas. There was a period of original land acquisition, when migrants returning from Queensland with tools were the only ones who could actually acquire land. Inequalities of land access date from this period. The population is dependent on external income sources as well as the need for plantation migration and a huge increase in bridewealth. Concurrently, "kampani" or community work, which ensures the continuous authority of local chiefs and village elders, creates problems for those seeking work for their own families. These conditions encourage out-migration. Rapid urban growth began in the 1960s with a diversified economy. Employment opportunities were available for women; single employee residence spaces declined. This meant families could permanently settle in urban areas. Retirement benefits were also available and contributed to securing permanent migration. There were growing needs for a stable, skilled labor force. Another change was the abolishment of the tripartite colonial administration. Rural disasters and price declines also triggered urban migration. Migration to the town of Port Vila by Paamese men and women between 1953 and 1982 is analyzed, based on 258 employment related mobility histories collected in 1982-83. Two processes are evident: continued periodic, short-term, rural-based circulation and permanent urban migration among Paamese to Port Vila. A major reversal of mobility is unlikely in the future. The reasons why are indicated.     

The labor supply of military wives in the US

Despite a slight increase in the labor force participation rate of women age 18–55 in the U.S. between 1990 and 2010, the labor force participation rate of military wives in this age cohort fell from 63 to 57?%. The goal of this paper is twofold: to document and analyze the labor force participation of military wives between 1990 and 2010, using the U.S. Census and American Community Survey data, and to compare the relationship between migration and labor force participation for military and non-military wives. We find that the primary suspects to explain the widening gap are the repeated migration for military wives, and the deepening of the recession.     

IMMIGRANT AND EMIGRANT EARNINGS: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

This paper analyzes the relationship between earnings and the extent of assimilation, cohort quality change, and return migration experienced by the foreign-born population. The study uses the longitudinal data available in the Survey of Natural and Social Scientists and Engineers. The analysis reveals that there was a sizable decline in the skills of this population over the last two decades. In addition, the study shows that return migration is more likely among immigrants who did not perform well in the U.S. labor market.