Abstract
We present theoretical arguments and empirical research to suggest that the principal mechanisms of cumulative causation do not function in large urban settings. Using data from the Mexican Migration Project, we found evidence of cumulative causation in small cities, rural towns and villages, but not in large urban areas. With event-history models, we found little positive effect of community-level social capital and a strong deterrent effect of urban labor markets on the likelihood of first and later U.S. trips for residents of urban areas in Mexico, suggesting that the social process of migration from urban areas is distinct from that in the more widely studied rural migrant-sending communities of Mexico.
The text of this article is only available as a PDF.
References
Alarcón, R. (
1992
). Norteñización: Self-Perpetuating Migration From a Mexican Town
. In Bustamante, J., Reynolds, C., & Hinojosa, R. (Eds.), U.S.-Mexico Relations: Labor Market Interdependence
(pp. 301
–18
). Stanford, CA
: Stanford University Press
.Andreas, P. (
2000
). Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide
. Ithaca, NY
: Cornell University Press
.Bourdieu, P. (
1986
). The Forms of Capital
. In Richardson, J.G. (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education
(pp. 241
–58
). New York
: Greenwood Press
.Calavita, K. (
1992
). Inside the State: The Bracero Program, Immigration, and the I.N.S
. New York
: Routledge
.Cerrutti, M., & Massey, D.S. (
2001
). On the Auspices of Female Migration From Mexico to the United States
. Demography
, 38
, 187
–200
. 10.1353/dem.2001.0013Chavez, L.R. (
1998
). Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society
. 2nd ed.Fort Worth, TX
: Harcourt Brace College Publishers
.Coleman, J.S. (
1988
). Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital
. American Journal of Sociology
, 94
, 95
–121
. 10.1086/228943Durand, J., Massey, D.S., & Parrado, E.A. (
1999
). The New Era of Mexican Migration to the United States
. Journal of American History
, 86
, 518
–36
. 10.2307/2567043Durand, J., Massey, D.S., & Zenteno, R. (
2001
). Mexican Immigration to the United States: Continuities and Changes
. Latin American Research Review
, 36
, 107
–27
.Durand, J., Parrado, E.A., & Massey, D.S. (
1996
). Migradollars and Development: A Reconsideration of the Mexican Case
. International Migration Review
, 30
, 423
–44
. 10.2307/2547388Espinosa, K., & Massey, D.S. (
1998
). Undocumented Migration and the Quantity and Quality of Social Capital
. Soziale Welt
, 12
, 141
–62
.Fischer, C.S. (
1972
). Urbanism as a Way of Life: A Review and an Agenda
. Sociological Methods and Research
, 1
, 187
–240
. 10.1177/004912417200100203Fischer, C.S. (
1975
). Toward a Subcultural Theory of Urbanism
. American Journal of Sociology
, 80
, 1319
–41
. 10.1086/225993Fischer, C.S. (
1982
). To Dwell Among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City
. Chicago
: University of Chicago Press
.Fischer, C.S. (
1995
). The Subcultural Theory of Urbanism: A Twentieth-Year Reassessment
. American Journal of Sociology
, 101
, 543
–77
. 10.1086/230753Fussell, E. (
2004
). Sources of Mexico’s Migration Stream: Rural, Urban, and Border Migrants to the United States
. Social Forces
, 82
(3
), 937
–67
. 10.1353/sof.2004.0039Heath, J. (
1998
). The Impact of Mexico’s Trade Liberalization: Jobs, Productivity, and Structural Change
. In Wise, C. (Ed.), The Post-NAFTA Political Economy: Mexico and the Western Hemisphere
(pp. 171
–200
). University Park, PA
: Pennsylvania State University Press
.Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografia e Informática (National Institute of Statistics, Geography, and Information, Mexico). 2001. Available on-line at http://www.inegi.gob.mx
Kanaiaupuni, S. (
2000
). Reframing the Migration Question: An Analysis of Men, Women, and Gender in Mexico
. Social Forces
, 78
, 1311
–48
. 10.2307/3006176Kandel, W., & Massey, D.S. (
2002
). The Culture of Mexican Migration: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis
. Social Forces
, 80
, 981
–1004
. 10.1353/sof.2002.0009Lozano-Ascencio, F., Roberts, B., Bean, F., & Pries, L. (
1999
). The Interconnections of Internal and International Migration: The Case of the United States and Mexico
Migration and Transnational Social Spaces
. Brookfield, VT
: Ashgate
.Lustig, N. (
1990
). Economic Crisis, Adjustment, and Living Standards in Mexico, 1982–85
. World Development
, 18
, 1325
–42
. 10.1016/0305-750X(90)90113-CLustig, N. (
1992
). Mexico: The Remaking of an Economy
. Washington, DC
: Brookings Institution
.Lustig, N. (
1997
). The United States to the Rescue: Financial Assistance to Mexico in 1982 and 1995
. CEPAL Review
, 61
, 41
–62
.Marcelli, E.A., & Cornelius, W.A. (
2001
). The Changing Profile of Mexican Migrants to the United States: New Evidence From California and Mexico
. Latin American Research Review
, 36
, 105
–31
.Martínez, O.J. (
1994
). Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
. Tucson
: University of Arizona Press
.Massey, D.S. (
1987
). Understanding Mexican Migration to the United States
. American Journal of Sociology
, 92
, 1372
–403
. 10.1086/228669Massey, D.S. (
1990
). Social Structure, Household Strategies, and the Cumulative Causation of Migration
. Population Index
, 56
, 3
–26
. 10.2307/3644186Massey, D.S. (
1999
). Why Does Immigration Occur? A Theoretical Synthesis
. In Hirschman, C., Kasinitz, P., & DeWind, J. (Eds.), The Handbook of International Migration: The American Experience
(pp. 21
–52
). New York
: Russell Sage Foundation
.Massey, D.S., Alarón, R., Durand, J., & González, H. (
1987
). Return to Aztlan: The Social Process of International Migration From Western Mexico
. Berkeley
: University of California Press
.Massey, D.S., Arango, J., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Pellegrino, A., & Taylor, J.E. (
1998
). Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millenum
. Oxford, England
: Clarendon Press
.Massey, D.S., Durand, J., & Malone, N.J. (
2002
). Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration
. New York
: Russell Sage
.Massey, D.S., & Espinosa, K. (
1997
). What’s Driving Mexico-US Migration?: A Theoretical, Empirical and Policy Analysis
. American Journal of Sociology
, 102
, 939
–99
. 10.1086/231037Massey, D.S., & Gárcia Espańa, F. (
1987
). The Social Process of International Migration
. Science
, 237
, 733
–38
. 10.1126/science.237.4816.733Massey, D.S., Goldring, L., & Durand, J. (
1994
). Continuities in Transnational Migration: An Analysis of Nineteen Mexican Communities
. American Journal of Sociology
, 99
, 1492
–533
. 10.1086/230452Massey, D.S., & Zenteno, R. (
1999
). The Dynamics of Mass Migration
. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, 96
, 5328
–335
. 10.1073/pnas.96.9.5328Massey, D.S., & Zenteno, R. (
2000
). A Validation of the Ethnosurvey: The Case of Mexico-U.S. Migration
. International Migration Review
, 34
, 765
–92
. 10.2307/2675944Mines, R. (
1984
). Network Migration and Mexican Rural Development: A Case Study
. In Jones, R.C. (Ed.), Patterns of Undocumented Migration: Mexico and the United States
(pp. 136
–58
). Totowa, NJ
: Rowman and Allanheld
.de Oliveira, O., & Roberts, B. (
1993
). La Informalidad Urbana en Años de Expansion Crisis y Restructuración Económica. Estudios Sociologicos
, 11
(31
), 33
–58
.Piore, M.J. (
1979
). Birds of Passage: Migrant Labor in Industrial Societies
. New York
: Cambridge University Press
.Portes, A., & Walton, J. (
1981
). Labor, Class, and the International System
. New York
: Academic Press
.Reichert, J.S. (
1981
). The Migrant Syndrome: Seasonal U.S. Wage Labor and Rural Development in Central Mexico
. Human Organization
, 40
, 56
–66
.Roberts, B.R., Frank, R., & Lozano-Ascencio, F. (
1999
). Transnational Migrant Communities and Mexican Migration to the US
. Ethnic and Racial Studies
, 22
, 238
–66
. 10.1080/014198799329477Sassen, S. (
1988
). The Mobility of Labor and Capital: A Study in International Investment and Labor Flow
. New York
: Cambridge University Press
.Stark, O., & Bloom, D.E. (
1985
). The New Economics of Labor Migration
. American Economic Review
, 75
, 173
–78
.Stark, O., & Taylor, J.E. (
1989
). Relative Deprivation and International Migration
. Demography
, 26
, 1
–14
. 10.2307/2061490Taylor, J.E. (
1986
). Differential Migration, Networks, Information and Risk
. In Stark, O. (Ed.), Research in Human Capital and Development
(pp. 147
–71
). Greenwich, CT
: JAI Press
.Taylor, J.E. (
1987
). Undocumented Mexico-U.S. Migration and the Returns to Households in Rural Mexico
. American Journal of Agricultural Economics
, 69
, 616
–38
.Wirth, L. (
1938
). Urbanism as a Way of Life
. American Journal of Sociology
, 44
, 3
–24
. 10.1086/217913Zenteno, R., & Massey, D.S. (
1999
). Especifidad Versus Representatividad: Enfoques Metodológicos Para el Estudio de la Migración Internacional
. Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos
, 40
, 75
–116
.© Population Association of America 2004
2004
Issue Section:
Articles
