Not available / text

A large body of research documents the social, economic, and demographic sources of Mexican migration to the United States, but this research tends to use geographically limited survey data, to give little consideration to domestic migration within sending countries as an alternative to international migration, and to focus on men. Since the mid-1980's, however, the regional and rural-urban origins of Mexican emigrants have been diversifying, international and domestic migration flows may have become increasingly interconnected, and women make up a rising proportion of international migrants from Mexico to the United States. This dissertation uses relatively recent, nationally representative Mexican data to analyze the sources of U.S.-bound emigration from Mexico in three main ways. First, I test whether there are rural and urban differences in the correlates of emigration. I find that indeed there are, and that they reflect the articulation between urbanization and economic development in Mexico. Whereas high levels of socioeconomic development within Mexican cities retain emigrants, urban economic development may generate emigration out of neighboring rural places. Second, I document the connection between recent domestic migration and U.S. emigration in Mexico. I find that the relationship varies across Mexico's geography: in rural places and in the historic emigrant-sending region, the two migration flows are still differentiated by the destination-specific role of social networks. However, the two forms of migration are connected in urban areas in the border and center regions. And, third, I evaluate how gender structures the social process of domestic and international migration from Mexico. Migration may be an outcome of socioeconomic development, but social axes of differentiation structure that process above and beyond the economic and demographic forces at play. My research finds that while gender is the form of social difference that most strongly differentiates migration patterns, gendered differences in emigration vary with class, ethnic, and geographic disadvantage. The greatest inequality in emigration exists between those marked by the greatest social disadvantage. / text

Mexican migrants living in New York City have not uprooted themselves from their homeland as did migrants from previous generations. These contemporary migrants have engaged themselves in the phenomenon of transnationalism, which is characterized by the building and maintenance of simultaneous linkages in both the migrants' country of settlement and their country of origin. New York City is the destination of a large number of Mexican migrants from different regions of the state of Puebla. Leaders of this Mexican state are increasingly engaging in new practices so that the Poblano (people from Puebla) population abroad remains socially, politically, culturally and economically part of the state from which it originated. This thesis is an ethnography of Casa Puebla, an organization in New York created conjointly by the Poblano migrants and their state government. It explores and describes the practices and activities employed by the leadership of this organization for involving migrants in a transnational experience. It also explores the role of this organization as a venue for the construction of a deterritorialized state of Puebla in New York and an "imagined" Poblano community. By strengthening the migrants' identification with their state of origin, the state can make new claims for their loyalty and sustain political, social and economic relationships between the Poblano migrants and their state of origin despite their living in another country. The creation of transnational organizations sponsored by the state of origin reflects the growing institutionalization of migration orchestrated by the sending regional states and highlights the role of the middle entity--the regional state— in the construction of the transnational experience.

Mexican migrants living in New York City have not uprooted themselves from their homeland as did migrants from previous generations. These contemporary migrants have engaged themselves in the phenomenon of transnationalism, which is characterized by the building and maintenance of simultaneous linkages in both the migrants' country of settlement and their country of origin. New York City is the destination of a large number of Mexican migrants from different regions of the state of Puebla. Leaders of this Mexican state are increasingly engaging in new practices so that the Poblano (people from Puebla) population abroad remains socially, politically, culturally and economically part of the state from which it originated. This thesis is an ethnography of Casa Puebla, an organization in New York created conjointly by the Poblano migrants and their state government. It explores and describes the practices and activities employed by the leadership of this organization for involving migrants in a transnational experience. It also explores the role of this organization as a venue for the construction of a deterritorialized state of Puebla in New York and an "imagined" Poblano community. By strengthening the migrants' identification with their state of origin, the state can make new claims for their loyalty and sustain political, social and economic relationships between the Poblano migrants and their state of origin despite their living in another country. The creation of transnational organizations sponsored by the state of origin reflects the growing institutionalization of migration orchestrated by the sending regional states and highlights the role of the middle entity--the regional state— in the construction of the transnational experience. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

This research is an exploration of the applicability of a methodology to the study of decision making on migration in Mexican households. This thesis shows the importance of using multiple respondents in order to examine the role of women in decision making within Mexican households that have migrated. Women's roles in the processes of decision making and migration are varied, but individuals in all households studied indicated that migration is a family, rather than individual, decision. Gender differences appeared in responses to many questions, emphasizing men's and women's different priorities. The most striking differences emerged between spouses in the same household, and the results show the inaccurate picture that can develop if one household member is used to represent all members.

Living the vast majority of my life in an area that celebrates diversity but thrives because of illegal cross-border activities (undocumented workers, drug imports) at times the distance between the United States and Mexico is in fact as thin as the width of a fence. Though it is typical for a filmmaker to hope to present a unique take on a subject, given how I have seen the topics of immigration and the perspective of the purpose of homeland security portray, I am confident that there is an opportunity to show these issues in a more personal, less aggressive light with the use of first person accounts instead of a dependence on the most violent aspects of these topics. The main subject will give character to this agency by blurring the lines of his life as an agent and as a citizen.