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Gender, networks and Mexico-US migration

Year of publication 2002

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Product type Document

Series title FAO Agricultural Economics Working Paper

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) The paper examines whether the causes and patterns of Mexican rural female migration differ significantly from rural male migration. A number of hypotheses are discussed to explain why female migration may differ from male migration, with a particular emphasis on the role of migrant networks. Using data from a national survey of rural Mexicon households in the ejido sector, significant differences between the determinants of male and female migration are found. While evidence suggests that netwo rks play an important role in female migration, we find that, contrary to case study evidence, female networks are not more influential than male networks in female migration. In fact, female and male networks are found to be substitutes, suggesting they serve similar functions in female migration. Although female migrant networks do not play a special role in the female migration decision, the destination of female migrants is strongly influenced by the location of female network migrants.

Language Trilingual

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