Return to Aztlan: The Social Process of International Migration from Western Mexico.

Abstract

This book examines Mexican migration to the US. Chapter 1 introduces the study. Chapter 2 presents the rationale for the ethnographic survey and chapter 3 undertakes a comparative demographic social and economic profile of the 4 sample communities--2 rural and 2 urban Mexican communities. Interviews took place in 1982-1983. Chapter 4 examines the historical origins of US migration within each of the 4 communities under study explaining how and why migration grew from very modest beginnings to become the mass phenomenon it is today. Chapter 5 contains a detailed analysis of current migration patterns within each sample community. Chapter 6 shows how migrants social networks develop and grow over time and how they gradually support migration on a continuously widening scale. Chapter 7 analyzes the role that US migration plays in the household economy studying how it is manipulated as part of a larger strategy of survival. Chapter 8 considers the impact of US migration on the socioeconomic organization of Mexican communities. Chapter 9 shifts attention north of the border to analyze the process of US settlement in some detail. Finally chapter 10 summarizes the insights of the prior chapters by estimating 4 statistical models that measure how different factors determine key events in the migrant career. Chapter 11 briefly capitulates the findings and makes some concluding remarks.