Spatial Redistribution of Poverty through Migration of Poor People to Depressed Rural Communities1

Recent demographic studies document movement of poor people from both urban and rural places to depressed rural communities. Such migration redistributes poverty to rural areas and further concentrates it within them. This article presents a case study of one depressed community in New York that became a migration destination for urban poor people, causing dramatic increases in poverty rate, welfare rolls, and service needs. On-site research showed that the community's attraction was inexpensive rental housing that had become available after loss of manufacturing jobs prompted a middle-class exodus. The lack of jobs was not a deterrent for low-income inmigrants, though, because many of them had limited job skills and other employment barriers and would have had difficulty getting or holding a job anyway. Similar processes of economic decline, population loss, and poverty inmigration appear to be occurring elsewhere also. The article identifies community-level impacts and policy implications; it concludes with suggestions for further research needs.     

The Impact of Migration on Poverty Concentrations in the United States, 1995–2000

Poverty is frequently conceptualized as an attribute of either people or places. Yet residential movement of poor people can redistribute poverty across places, affecting and reshaping the spatial concentration of economic disadvantage. In this article, we utilize 1995 to 2000 county‐to‐county migration data from the 2000 United States decennial census to explore how differential migration rates of the poor and nonpoor affect local incidence of poverty, and how migration reconfigures poverty rates across metropolitan, micropolitan, and noncore counties. We further examine the impact of differential migration rates on African American and Latino poverty rates, two groups that have experienced higher than average poverty rates and have a sizable presence in rural areas. Our analysis indicates that during the 1990s the poor moved at rates equal to or greater than the nonpoor, and that, especially in micropolitan counties, this movement tended to deepen existing poverty concentrations. Both African American and Latino migration patterns tended to reinforce existing poverty concentrations, a result similar to that of the population as a whole, although the migration patterns of both groups more severely exacerbated poverty in high‐poverty noncore counties.     

Rural Migration,Rapid Growth,and Fear of Crime*

Abstract Although much research on rural “boomtowns” explores differences between rapid‐growth communities and more stable communities, it is logical to consider that residents within rural boomtowns experience community transitions in different ways. We examine a specific outcome, fear of crime, across three categories of community residents with different migration histories: lifetime residents, migrants who joined the boomtown community during its period of rapid growth, and post‐boom period migrants. This perspective is particularly interesting, given the likelihood that these three different categories of residents have had substantially different community experiences. Making use of survey data from two intermountain West communities that represent resource‐dependent transitions during the 1970s and 1980s (Evanston, Wyoming and Delta, Utah), we find that boom migrants express greater fear of crime than longer‐term residents or post‐boom migrants. The findings suggest that the longer‐term decline in fear of crime in “post‐boom” periods is not equal among residents.     

Impacts of Return Migration on Rural U.S. Communities

Rural population loss is caused as much by low in‐migration as by high out‐migration, and for geographically disadvantaged nonmetropolitan counties in the United States, return migration plays a crucial role. This research captures impacts of return migrants on population, economy, and society in declining rural U.S. communities using a qualitative, multisited approach. Interviews conducted at high school reunions with rural returnees in their late 20s to late 40s show that the vast majority of returnees brought spouses and children back with them, increasing the short‐term and long‐term population. They also brought back much needed human capital, including education, job skills, and life experiences, and filled professional positions that are often hard to fill in rural communities. Entrepreneurial activities and self‐employment of many return migrants favorably affected rural economies by improving the employment base and expanding available services. Interviews show how decisions to move back were grounded in social relations that promoted civic engagement. While they mainly moved back for their children and their families, return migrants valued involvement in familiar social networks and the opportunities to make a difference in their rural hometowns.     

Father's Labour Migration and Children's School Discontinuation in Rural Mozambique

We examine how the discontinuation of schooling among left‐behind children is related to multiple dimensions of male labour migration: the accumulation of migration experience, the timing of these migration experiences in the child's life course, and the economic success of the migration. Our setting is rural southern Mozambique, an impoverished area with massive male labour out‐migration. Results show that fathers’ economically successful labour migration is more beneficial for children's schooling than unsuccessful migration or non‐migration. There are large differences, however, by gender: compared with sons of non‐migrants, sons of migrant fathers (regardless of migration success) have lower rates of school discontinuation, while daughters of migrant fathers have rates of school discontinuation like those of daughters of non‐migrants. Furthermore, accumulated labour migration across the child's life course is beneficial for boys’ schooling, but not girls’. Remittances sent in the past year reduce the rate of discontinuation for sons, but not daughters.     

Post‐Socialist Restructuring and Population Redistribution in Hungary*

Abstract This research focuses on pathways by which national level macro‐social transformations are transmitted to local communities. Our case is Hungary where we examine the relationship between post‐socialist economic restructuring, widespread industrial dislocations, and urban‐rural migration. Using secondary data from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) and survey data from a study of 49 villages in 4 distinct rural regions, we demonstrate that post‐socialist population deconcentration involved both suburbanization and net movement to villages, especially villages that are located relatively close to cities. Contrary to our expectations, movement to villages was from nearby settlements, not from large industrial centers. Moreover, migrants to villages were substantially better off than longer term village residents in terms of their human capital and attachment to the labor force. Consequently, post‐socialist population deconcentration is not contributing to rural poverty as feared by some scholars.     

Poverty,Residential Mobility,and Student Transiency within a Rural New York School District*

Abstract Human capital models assume residential mobility is both voluntary and opportunity‐driven. Residential mobility of low income households, however, often does not fit these assumptions. Often characterized by short‐distance, high frequency movement, poverty‐related mobility may only deepen the social and economic instability that precipitated the movement in the first place. Children may be particularly affected because of disrupted social and academic environments. Among community institutions, schools often experience significant student turnover as a consequence. This paper presents a case study of student transiency and residential instability within an impoverished rural New York school district, examining both enrollment change data and residential histories collected from economically disadvantaged parents of mobile students. It finds that poverty‐related mobility is frequently not voluntary but the consequence of precipitating social and economic crises at the household level in combination with the inability to obtain adequate and affordable housing. Hence, poverty‐related hypermobility may be interpreted as both a consequence and determinant of rural community disadvantage.     

Changing Childrearing Beliefs Among Indigenous Rural‐to‐Urban Migrants in El Alto,Bolivia

Sociologists have long noted that childrearing shapes young people's life chances. Worldwide, rural‐to‐urban migration is growing, yet we know little about whether or how migrants adopt new childrearing beliefs during this rapid social transformation. Using interviews with 63 parents and ethnographic observation at a public school, I examine how rural‐to‐urban migration affects the childrearing beliefs of indigenous peasants who move to the city of El Alto, Bolivia. Many migrants reject rural childrearing's reliance on corporal punishment and limited verbal communication, instead embracing more open communication, limited physical punishment, and parent–child trust. Urban organizations and social ties expose parents to a new childrearing model, and parents find this model credible when they observe that it buffers children from urban dangers that threaten young people's mobility chances. Adopting urban childrearing ultimately entails accepting an underlying model of children's agency, wherein children need internal motivation instead of external impulsion. This case shows that individuals’ childrearing beliefs are more malleable than previous sociological studies suggest. I close with policy implications for parental education and child well‐being initiatives.     

Migration,urbanization, and fertility in the Philippines

3 groups of women are compared in this study of the effect of migration on fertility in a less developed country: 1) rural sedentary; 2) rural to rural migrants; and 3) rural to urban migrants. The data are from a 1970 household interview study conducted by the Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado in Magsayay and Matanao, Davao Province, Mindanao, the Philippines. Social, economic, and mortality data were gathered from the household head and/or spouse for each household member and each child living elsewhere. Reproductive histories were obtained only from women for all women 15 years of age and older living in the 2 rural communities and living elsewhere. Age specific fertility rates and child woman ratios showed a declining gradient of fertility with social distance from the rural home communities. Age at marriage and education were positively associated with distance from the home communities and negatively associated with fertility. The data provide support for the hypothesis that recent migration is innovative, engaged in by more modernized persons who are motivated by aspiration to new goals, thus migration has a negative effect on fertility. Urbanization had its major impact after peak fertility years, 20-29, influencing urban migrants to bring their fertility under voluntary control. No such curtailment appeared in the late reproductive behavior of rural sedentary or migrant women. Urbanization seems to have a negative effect on fertility independent of migration. Young migrant women, in their teens, particularly those migrating to urban areas, did not fit the social mobility model; they tended to complete fewer years of school and married at an earlier age. These young urban migrants also had higher fertility than both rural sedentary and rural migrant females while in their teen years.     

Rural Out‐migration in the Drought Prone Areas of Ethiopia: A Multilevel Analysis1

This article presents a multilevel analysis of rural out‐migration in Ethiopia over the 1984–1994 period. Using a recent household survey carried out in the drought prone rural areas of Ethiopia, discrete‐time hazard models are used to examine the impact of individual, household and community factors on migration. Incorporating a life‐course and the “new economics of migration” perspectives, our findings suggest that rural out‐migration in these areas can be viewed as a function of individual, household and community characteristics. We find that mobility of people for schooling in the impoverished rural communities is minimal. Migration of both sexes was possible mainly through marriage, although females tend to depart their residences more than males. Our findings also reveal substantial period effects on out‐migration trends.     

French connections: the networking strategies of French highly skilled migrants in London

Although the migration studies literature often takes social networks for granted, these social ties are not spontaneous but require effort and nurturing. There has been insufficient research on the actual process of networking, especially among highly skilled migrants. Our understanding of why and how migrants form networks with particular characteristics is still poor. In this article, we argue that it is necessary to consider both the structure and content of networks – the nature of the relationships as well as the flow of resources within various social ties. Drawing on qualitative data from a study of highly skilled French migrants in London's business and financial sector, we use a microanalysis of network‐making processes. In the context of London as a dynamic and highly competitive financial centre, we examine the importance of opportunities, skills and shared interests in building new social relationships from scratch. In addition, we also assess how mobility and proximity, virtual communication and co‐presence impact on geographically dispersed networks and why some long distance relationships endure while others fade over time. By bringing together classic literature on professional networking and wider discussions on how relationships are managed across time and space, our work contributes to a fuller understanding of why and how highly skilled migrants form networks with particular characteristics.     

Can Migration Foster Development in Mexico? The Case of Poverty and Inequality

The impact of migration on development can be analysed from a number of perspectives. This article focuses on poverty and inequality. It assesses the relative contribution of migrants to Mexico′s economy through remittances, compared to other Latin American countries; analyses the distributional impact of remittances (with an emphasis on the poor), and compares this impact to the counterfactual impact of migrants’ stay‐at‐home income. It explains the processes leading to scant economic success rates among poor international migrants. Finally, it describes the nature and impact of current Mexican migrant‐oriented policies, and recommends a shift in focus, to lessen emigration, increase the income of migrants, promote returns, and bolster the economic impact of returning migrants.     

The Changing Spatial Concentration of America's Rural Poor Population*

Abstract This paper documents changing patterns of concentrated poverty in nonmetro areas. Data from the Decennial U.S. Census Summary Files show that poverty rates—both overall and for children—declined more rapidly in nonmetro than metro counties in the 1990s. The 1990s also brought large reductions in the number of high‐poverty nonmetro counties and declines in the share of rural people, including rural poor people, who were living in them. This suggests that America's rural pockets of poverty may be “drying up” and that spatial inequality in nonmetro America declined over the 1990s, at least at the county level. On a less optimistic note, concentrated poverty among rural minorities remains exceptionally high. Roughly one‐half of all rural blacks and one‐third of rural Hispanics live in poor counties. Poor minorities are even more highly concentrated in poor areas. Rural children—especially rural minority children—have poverty rates well above national and nonmetro rates, the concentration of rural minority children is often extreme (i.e., over 80% lived in high‐poverty counties), and the number of nonmetro counties with high levels of persistent child poverty remains high (over 600 counties). Rural poor children may be more disadvantaged than ever, especially if measured by their lack of access to opportunities and divergence with children living elsewhere. Patterns of poverty among rural children—who often grow up to be poor adults— suggest that recent declines in concentrated rural poverty may be short‐lived.     

Embedding or Uprooting? The Effects of International Labour Migration on Rural Households in Armenia

The impact of international labour migration on human wellbeing and socioeconomic development in communities of origin is an important yet understudied issue in contemporary migration research. This study examines whether men's labour migration from rural Armenia to Russia and other international destinations enhances the economic and social connections of the left‐behind households to their communities or, on the contrary, undermines those connections and encourages household members' own migration. Using survey data, it compares families of migrants and non‐migrants with respect to ownership of productive and major non‐productive assets in the community and women's non‐farm labour force participation, their social engagement in the village, and their desires to migrate abroad. The results of statistical tests indicate that men's migration is negatively associated with households' asset ownership and with women's non‐farm employment. The results for women's social engagement in their villages are less consistent. Finally, regardless of economic attachment, social engagement, and a host of other factors, wives of migrants were significantly more likely to wish to move abroad than women married to non‐migrants, and the difference in propensity to emigrate between migrants' and non‐migrants' wives increases with duration of husband's migration. We situate these findings in the context of Central Eurasia's international labour migration system and discuss their implications for future migration trends and for socioeconomic development of Armenia and similar settings.     

Understanding Persistent Poverty: Social Class Context in Rural Communities1

Abstract Urban and rural poverty researchers have been paying increased attention to the social context in which the poor are embedded. This paper argues that the scale, familiarity among social actors, and relatively bounded nature of poor rural communities offer unique advantages for understanding why poverty persists across generations in the same places. Rural sociologists can observe the social interaction associated with particular class and race relations, track the evolution of these patterns over time, and uncover the process through which the social class context perpetuates poverty and underdevelopment. Studies of poverty in rural Texas, rural Mississippi, and Appalachia are reviewed to illustrate how political economies that rely on low wages and extreme control over labor generate rigid stratification. This structure of inequality determines social interaction and the allocation of opportunities in rural communities, blocking upward mobility, and undermines investment and trust in social institutions, blocking development.     

Place of Origin,Types of Ties,and Support Networks in Mexico–U.S. Migration*

Previous studies explored how urban or rural place of origin influences the source of social capital. There remains a need to consider how the place of origin affects the type of ties—family, friends, or paisanos (countrymen)—with those who provide support to migrants. We use data from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP128) and perform multinomial logistic regression models to predict who (among family, friends, or paisanos) provides lodging to first‐time undocumented male migrants from Mexico, taking into account the size of their place of origin. We find that paisanos are important in providing lodging to those from rural areas, and family members are more likely to assist those from urban settings. Paisanos are more likely to help at the beginning of the migratory flow of the community (rural or urban), and family members to do so once the flow has matured. Also, paisanos are more likely to help those in rural areas during more difficult times, such as after the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement. We suggest that paisanos fulfill a role similar to that in Granovetter's (1973) concept of the strength of weak ties in which they act as substitutes for other ties (such as to friends and family) to provide social capital, making the first‐time undocumented migration possible.     

The Effects of Rural-to-Urban Migration on the Poverty Status of Youth in the 1980s1

Abstract The effects of rural-to-urban migration on the poverty status of migrants have not been adequately explored. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine poverty status before and after a rural-to-urban migration, a proportional hazards model of time spent in poverty that begins in rural areas is estimated to determine whether moving to an urban area reduces the time spent in poverty while controlling for individual educational and family characteristics. Results indicate that moving from a rural to an urban area reduces time spent in poverty for white and black women but the effects are not statistically significant for men. Further, to adequately understand the relationship between moving to an urban area and poverty, the analysis examines the effects of moving on the length of time spent not employed.     

Older people and poverty in rural Britain: Material hardships,cultural denials and social inclusions

This paper explores the relations between older people, poverty and place in rural Britain. It develops previous work on rural poverty that has pointed both to the significance of older people within the rural poor population and to their denials of poverty. The paper also connects with recent discussions on the complexity of relations between poverty and social exclusion in later life, as well as key themes emerging from studies of older people in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods. Drawing on findings from a survey of 4000 households in rural Wales and interviews with older people in poverty in three rural places, the paper provides a detailed examination of the materialities and experiences of poverty among older people in rural places. In particular, it highlights how older poor groups construct their lives in complex terms with references made to both social inclusions and exclusions. The research also points to the significance of the socio-cultural contexts of place in shaping older people's understandings of poverty in rural areas.     

Determinants of Savings, Remittances, and Spending Patterns among U.S. Migrants in Four Mexican Communities

In this paper we attempt to overcome several weaknesses of earlier field studies of the effect of international migration on sending communities. In general, these studies fail to employ representative samples of migrants, specify theoretical models of decision-making, or control for a variety of individual and household characteristics likely to affect how migrants dispose of their earnings, including sample selectivity. Representative samples of Mexican migrants from four sending communities are used to estimate a theoretical model that controls for a variety of individual, family, and trip characteristics; other stages of the analysis also control for sample selectivity. The findings suggest that migrant decision-making is strongly and consistently determined by social capital and community membership, with other variables playing ancillary roles in different decision processes. The propensities to save, remit, and invest productively generally rose as ties to the United States increased, and were generally higher in communities with well-developed local economies.     

Suspending,settling, sponsoring: the intimate chronomobilities of young Asian migrants in Australia

In this article, I develop the concept of ‘intimate chronomobilities’ to understand some of the intersections between the temporalities of intimate relationships and of migration in the lives of young and ‘middling’ transnational migrants from Asia to Australia. Drawing on in‐depth interview data, I reveal how romantic partnerships are highly significant to experiences of transnational mobility, and how such experiences take place in the context of a governance regime in Australia in which migration has become increasingly transient, transitionary and transitory, and in which sponsored partner and spouse visas can secure migration futures. The analysis explores how the lived and imagined timelines and timings of intimate partnerships play highly significant roles in defining and structuring migrants' mobilities, and reveals how intimate chronomobilities of ‘suspending, settling and sponsoring’ are understood by migrants through lived experiences of sequence, synchronicity and tempo.