Abstract
Using the Mexican Migration Project sample, this paper explores the patterns of trip duration for Mexican immigrants to the United States and the reasons for the patterns observed. I found that the most important factors leading to changes in trip duration are US immigration policy, the conditions of the Mexican economy, and the development of social networks. It appears that the legalization of many immigrants after passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act encouraged short-term migration, but the build-up at the US-Mexico border may have changed this pattern leading to longer duration in the United States. Furthermore, changes in the exchange rate, a devaluation of the peso relative to the dollar, for example, leads to more return migration, as immigrants are able to get more value for his dollars in Mexico. On the other hand, an expansion of networks and resources for immigrants in the United States leads to longer duration in the United States.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alarcón, R. (1995a). Transnational communities, regional development, and the future of Mexican immigration, Berkeley Planning Journal 10: 36–54.
Alarcón, R. (1995b). Immigrants or transitional workers? The settlement process among Mexicans in rural California. Davis, CA: California Institute for Rural Studies.
Bean, F.D., Telles, E.E. & Lowel, B.L. (1987). Undocumented migration to the United States: Perspective and evidence, Population and Development Review 13: 671–690.
Berg, E.J. (1961). Backward-sloping labor supply functions in dual economies: The African case, Quarterly Journal of Economics 75: 468–492.
Calavita, K. (1994). US immigration and policy responses: the limitations of legislation, pp. 55–82, in: W.A. Cornelius, P.L. Martin & Ja. F. Hollifield (eds.), Controlling illegal immigration: A global perspective, Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.
Cornelius, W.A. (1976). Outmigration from rural Mexican communities, pp. 1–39. Interdisciplinary Communication Program Occasional Monograph Series 5, Vol. 2. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute.
Cornelius, W.A. (1998). The structure embeddedness of demand for Mexican immigrant labor: New evidence from California, pp. 114–144, in: M. Suarez-Orozco (ed.), Crossings: Mexican immigration in interdisciplinary perspective. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press/David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.
Cornelius, W.A. (2002). Death at the border: unintended consequences of US immigration control policy, Population and Development Review 27: 661–685.
Cross, H.E. & Sandos, J.A. (1981). Across the border: Rural development in Mexico and recent migration to the United States. Berkeley, CA: Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California.
Djajic, S. & Milbourne, R. (1988). A general equilibrium model of guess-worker migration: A source-country perspective, Journal of International Economics 25: 335–351.
Durand, J. & Massey, D. (1992). Mexican migration to the United States: a critical review, Latin American Research Review 27: 3–42.
Durand, J., Massey, D.S. & Zenteno, R.M. (2000). Mexican immigration to the United States: Continuities and change, Latin American Research Review 34: 765–792.
Heckman, J. & Singer, B. (1984). Econometric duration analysis, Journal of Econometrics 24: 63–132.
Hill, J.K. (1987). Immigrant decisions concerning duration of stay and migratory frequency, Journal of Development Economics 25: 221–234.
Hugo, G.J. (1982). Circular migration in Indonesia, Population and Development Review 8: 59–83.
Jenkins, J.C. (1977). Push–pull in recent Mexican migration to the US, International Migration Review 11: 178–189.
Johnson, H.P. (1996). Undocumented immigration to California: 1980–1993. San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California.
Jones, R.C. (1982). Undocumented migration from Mexico: some geographic questions, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 72: 77–87.
Kalbfleinsch, J.D. & Prentice, R.L. (1980). The statistical analysis of failure time data. New York: Wiley and Sons.
Kossoudji, S.A. (1992). Playing cat and mouse at the US–Mexican border, Demography 29(2): 159–181.
Lancaster, T. (1990). The econometric analysis of transition data. San Diego, CA: Cambridge University Press Economics, UC San Diego.
Lindstrom, D.P. (1996). Economic opportunities in Mexico and return migration from the United States, Demography 33: 357–374.
Lindstrom, D.P. & Massey, D.S. (1994). Selective emigration, cohort quality, and models of immigrant assimilation, Social Science Research 23: 315–349.
López, G. (1986). La casa dividida: Un estudio de caso sobre migracio´n a Estados Unidos en un Pueblo Michoacano, Zamora, Michoacan, México: Colegio de Michoacan.
Marcelli, E. & Cornelius, W. (2001). The changing profile of Mexican migrants to the United States: new evidence from California and Mexico, Latin American Research Review 36: 105–131.
Martin, P.L. (1994). Good intentions gone awry: IRCA and US agriculture, Annals of the American Academy 534: 44–57.
Massey, D. (1987). Understanding Mexican migration to the United States, American Journal of Sociology 92: 1403–1472.
Massey, D. (1990). Social structure, household strategy, and the cumulative causation of migration, Population Index 56: 3–26.
Massey, D. & Espinosa, K. (1997). What's driving Mexico–US migration? A theoretical, empirical and policy analysis, American Journal of Sociology 102: 939–999.
Massey, D. & Lian, Z. (1989). The long-term consequences of a temporary worker program: The US Bracero experience, Population Research and Policy Review 8: 199–226.
Massey, D. & Singer, A. (1995). New estimates of undocumented Mexican migration and the probability of apprehension, Demography 32: 203–213.
Massey, D., Alarcón, R., Durand, J. & Gonzalez, H. (1987). Return to Aztlan: The social process of international migration from Western Mexico. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Massey, D., Luin P., Goldring, L.P. & Durand, J. (1994). Continuities in transnational migration: An analysis of 19 communities, American Journal of Sociology 99: 1492–1533.
Massey, D., Durand, J. & Malone, N.J. (2002). Beyond smoke and mirrors: Mexican immigration in an era of economic integration, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Mines, R. (1981). Developing a community tradition of migration, Monograph. University of California, San Diego, La Jolla: Program in United States Mexico Studies.
Mines, R. & de Janvry, A. (1982). Migration to the United States and Mexican rural development: a case study, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 64: 444–454.
Orrenius, P.M. (2001). The effect of migration costs on length-of-Stay: The case of return migrants from Mexico. Unpublished manuscript.
Piore, M.J. (1979). Birds of passage: Migrant workers and industrial society. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ranney, S.I. & Kossoudji, S.A. (1983). Profile of temporary Mexican labor migrants to the US, Population and Development Review 9: 415–493.
Reichert, J.S. & Massey, D. (1979). Patterns of US migration from a Mexican sending community: a comparison of legal and illegal, International Migration Review 13: 599–623.
Reyes, B.I. (2001). Immigrant trip duration: the case of immigrants from Western Mexico, International Migration Review 35: 1185–1205.
Reyes, B.I., Johnson, H.P. & Van Sweringer, R. (2002). Holding the line? The effect of the recent border build-up on unauthorized immigration, San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California Report.
Roberts, B.R. (1995). Socially expected durations and the economic adjustment of immigrants, pp. 42–86, in: A. Portes(ed.), The economic sociology of immigration: essays on networks, ethnicity and entrepreneurship. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Warren, R. (2000). Annual estimates of the unauthorized population residing in the United States and components of changes: 1987 to 1997. Washington, DC: US Immigration and Naturalization Service.
White, M.J., Bean, F.D. & Espenshade, T.J. (1990). The US 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act and undocumented migration to the United States, Population Research and Policy Review 9: 93–116.
Zenteno, R. & Massey, D.S. (1998). Especificidad versus representatividad: Enfoques metodológicos para el estudio de la migración internacional, Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos 40: 75–116.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reyes, B.I. Changes in Trip Duration for Mexican Immigrants to the United States. Population Research and Policy Review 23, 235–257 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:POPU.0000034101.62839.06
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:POPU.0000034101.62839.06