Sara R. Curran, University of Washington SES 0550628 Douglas S. Massey, Princeton University
This research project seeks to better understand how to anticipate, direct, or stem migration flows -- a leading dilemma for policymakers confronting a broad range of social and economic concerns. In response to this dilemma, demographers and other social scientists have devoted significant efforts to growing better information about migration. Past research has demonstrated that migration develops a momentum of its own that is particularly hard to slow and results primarily from the way migrant networks fuel migration. The precise underlying mechanisms for understanding how migrant networks fuel migration momentum have not been systematically explored, primarily because of data limitations. The current study provides a comprehensive examination of how migrant networks fuel migration momentum through: 1) an investigation of the quality and quantity of migrant network resources; 2) the distribution of migrant experiences within a community; and, 3) a quantitative and qualitative investigation of the social, economic and cultural institutions that shape both migration momentum and migrant networks, and vice versa. The PIs analyze rural-urban migration in Thailand where a prospective village study provides the only data in the world to completely characterize 21 communities and community migrant networks over a 16-year period. These communities exhibit significant variability in patterns of migration and migrant networks over the time period, providing an excellent opportunity to design quasi-experimental analyses, evaluating the effect of institutional changes upon migration. In addition to analyzing extant data, the PIs are conducting field work in 21 communities to record community histories and gather purposive, qualitative information about social, economic and cultural institutions from migrant and non-migrant members.
Broader Impacts: The study will provide policy insights for many world regions, where rural to urban migration presents political challenges, and rich theoretical and methodological insights for future studies in other regions. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will gain valuable training and experience in analyzing complex data, conducting field work, and combining qualitative and quantitative data in an international setting. The data collected by the investigators will become publicly available.
