Silvia E. Giorguli

Occupational Mobility among Returned Migrants in Latin America: A Comparative Analysis

This article draws on data from the Mexican Migration Project and the Latin American Migration Project to study patterns of occupational mobility among male migrant household heads who have returned from the United States to Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico. In general, migration to the United States increases the likelihood of upward mobility relative to nonmigrants if it begins at a relatively young age (before twenty-five), particularly in Costa Rica and Guatemala, where mobility is generally more fluid. In all countries, but especially Mexico, mobility prospects depend on a migrant’s own characteristics and the characteristics of the U.S. trip, as well the context of return. Education generally enhances occupational achievement upon return, as does greater U.S. experience and the holding of a nonmanual U.S. job, but taking more trips and having legal U.S. documents are generally associated with lower odds of occupational achievement at home.

Mexican Adolescent Migration to the United States and Transitions to Adulthood

This article contributes to our understanding of how the motivation to migrate varies depending on the stage in the life course, particularly during the youth-to-adult transition. Using data from the Mexican Migration Project, we estimate discrete-time-hazard models of the probabilities of a first migration, using individual, household, community, and macroeconomic variables during and after adolescence for both men and women. We show that the determinants of migration are different for adolescents than they are for adults. While migration-related social capital has proved to be an important factor in increasing and perpetuating migration, we find that its effect is even stronger for teenagers than for other age groups. We also shed light on how adolescent migration is influenced by other major markers of the transition to adulthood, such as education, labor force experience, and family formation.

International Migration, Gender and Family: A Miroir from Latin America

Most of the studies on the links between gender and migration of the last four decades focus on understanding how it may lead to changes in women’s status and in gender relations, especially between spouses. Using information from the United Nations database and a review of the literature on gender and migration, we analyze the sex and age composition of migration flows and stocks, we assess the feminization of migration among different regions and we suggest that migration patterns reflect gender ideologies, norms and family systems in sending and receiving countries. Based on an approach that links international migration to family dynamics, we look at recent research on how migration and the start of a union interact with women’s status and gender relations and how looking at international migration and the family life cycle as linked processes may add to the understanding of the potential role that international migration plays in changing gender and generational relations. Although the chapter recovers empirical evidence and cases studies from all over the world, it is mainly based on research results from Latin American countries.

Accounting for spatial heterogeneity in educational outcomes and international migration in Mexico

This paper analyzes the link between international migration and educational attainment of the Mexican youth at the municipality level in 2000. This approach examines spatial heterogeneity in such relationship by testing two regionalization proposals, through spatial regime models. On one hand, we test well-known hypothesis that geographical differences obey to the historical-migratory trajectory of each region. On the other hand, we propose a model that accounts for the spatial differences based on the interface of migration and labor markets performance. Results suggest a large, negative effect of international migration on educational achievement, and strong spatial heterogeneity in that association. Results from groupwise heteroskedastic spatial regimes support the second hypothesis, since it captures better the spatial variability, as well as the behavior of the international migration variable across these regimes. These outcomes highlight the need to use proper geostatistical methods to examine territorial disparities.