Mechanisms of Migration: Poverty and Social Instability in the Postwar Expansion of Central American Migration to the United States

摘要

How does migration affect the conditions in which Central Americans live and decide whether to migrate? Network theories have dominated explanations of exponentially growing migratory flows. These theories have inspired many studies on mechanisms of perpetuated migration that tend to suggest such migration can occur without any connection to poverty in sending conditions. However, fieldwork conducted in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Southern California reveals several mechanisms linking complex changes in sending conditions with Central Americans’ decisions to migrate over time. This article emphasizes how deteriorating local conditions, to some degree an effect of prior migration itself, are crucial to Central Americans’ decisions to migrate.View full textDownload full textKEYWORDSCentral America-U.S. migration, development, local conditions, cumulative causation in migrationRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2010.501295