The article presents a theory that accounts for uniformities and discrepancies in the way that transnational migration develops over time and proposes a method to compare the process of migration across communities. Data from 19 Mexican communities show that predictable demographic, social and economic changes accompany increases in migratory prevalence. Although international migration begins within a narrow range of each community’s socioeconomic structure, over time it broadens to incorporate other social groups. Guided by the proposition that the nature of migration shifts as it becomes more widespread in a community, the authors describe the demographic, social, economic, and geographic character of international migration as communities go from low to high prevalence.
Transnational migration unfolds in a relatively consistent way over time. Migration affects individual motivations and social structures in ways that encourage additional migration.
i) The theoretical argument is meant to apply to cases of transnational labor migration where host country immigration policies are relatively open, particularly those cases where clandestine migration is feasible.
ii) Over time, migrant communities become culturally “transnationalized”, incorporating ideologies, practices, expectations, and political claims from both societies to create a “culture of migration” that is distinct from the culture of both the sending and receiving nation.
iii) If the process of migration continues long enough, networks reach a point of numerical saturation. Larger and larger shares of the transnational community reside in the branch communities, more births occur abroad, and virtually all who remain in the home community are connected either to someone living abroad or to someone with substantial foreign experience.
The article outlined a cumulative theory of migration that accounts for empirical regularities observed by earlier investigators. Migration tends to increase in prevalence and become more diverse because transnational movement causes relatively permanent changes in individual motivations, social structures, and cultural milieus, and these changes cumulate over time to change the context within which subsequent migration decisions are made.
","Communities","Community","International Migration","Mexican Communities","Migration","Social Change","Sociology","Transnational Migration","journal"