International migration from the (poor) periphery of Mexico City

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International migration from the (poor) periphery
of Mexico City

• Dr. Cristóbal Mendoza
• Dpto. de Sociología
• Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
• Ciudad de México
• cmp_at_xanum.uam.mx
• cristobalmendozaperez_at_yahoo.com.mx

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Outline

• Mexico City in the current US-Mexico migration
  flows.
• Transnational approach and the role of place.
• Methodology.
• Places deleted by migration spaces.
• Conclusions The transnationalisation of poverty.

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Out-migration from Mexico Placing Valle de
Chalco-Solidaridad

• Around 400,000 Mexico citizens emigrated annually
  to the US in the period 2000-05.
• Mexican migration profile is increasingly urban.
• Mexico City, specifically its poor periphery, is
  the origin of new international migration
  out-flows to the US.
• Worsening of living conditions of middle and low
  urban classes.
• Valle de Chalco-Solidaridad, our area of study,
  is a municipality of the Metropolitan Area of
  Mexico City.

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Debate on changes in US-Mexico profileCornelius
(1992) Marcelli/Cornelius (2001)

• The length of stays in the US is longer and
  return rates are lower in the 1990s.
• The geographical origin of migrants is more
  heterogeneous. In fact, the whole country expels
  migrants to the North nowadays.
• Education levels are higher amongst international
  migrants.
• Migration out-flows are increasingly composed of
  families and more women.

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Transnational approach (90)

• The literature has largely ignored the role of
  place, despite the fact that the bulk of the
  empirical studies are based on localities with
  very well-defined limits (for instance, Georges,
  1990 Rouse, 1992 Goldring, 1992 Smith, 1998).
• Transnational migrants construct social spaces in
  neutral spaces, de-territorialized
  nation-states (Basch et al.), delocalized
  transnations, ethnoscapes (Appadurai) third
  spaces (Bhabha) or hyperspaces (Gupta
  Ferguson).
• Transnational localities are social and cultural
  communities, no places.

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Transnational approach and place The mobility
turn

• Cultural geography Paradigm of new mobilities,
  mobility turn (Creswell, 2006 Sheller y Urry,
  2006)
• Immigrants everyday practices are themselves
  transnational, but they are transformed and
  constructed in different places (Campbell, 1996
  Mitchell, 2004 Ehrkamp, 2005).
• Changes on the cultural constructions on nation,
  citizenship and society, as consequence of
  transnational migration (Mitchell, 2004).

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Methodology

• Survey Migration, place and employment in Valle
  de Chalco-Solidaridad (UAM, 2007).
• Representative household survey. Sample size 759
  households, confidence limits 95, survey error
  3.6.
• Migration stories, plus views on the different
  places that formed immigrants spaces.
• In-depth interviews with previously selected
  households from survey. We carried out 30
  interviews until June 2009.

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Patterns of mobility and migration

• Valle de Chalco-Solidaridad is a new
  municipality. It has recently been created with
  migrants from other parts of Mexico City (53).
  The poor have been put aside to the periphery.
• High impact of international migration on Chalco
  households (20 of them have at least one
  emigrant).
• High return rate (30), despite the bulk of
  migrants have gone in the period 2000-07. Number
  international migrants/household 1.4
• 70 of migrants did only one international trip.

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Demographic subjects

• Classical profile of migration men (77) 15-24
  year-old (48).
• Secondary schooling (38.4). The percentage of
  migrants without studies (16.9) is three times
  the number of those holding a university degree
  (6.7).
• The large number of young people amongst migrants
  suggest that migrations is quickly expanding from
  household heads to their children.
• To illustrate that, Luisa in interview told us
  that her only son must follow this father to the
  US (reunirse con su padre), because she cannot
  hold it anymore, I feel tired (ya no aguanto,
  me encuentro cansada). She says If he (her
  son) wants to follow his studies, he must pay for
  it

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Fragmented migration routes

• We found both classical destinations
  (California, Texas, Illinois) with new ones on
  the East coast, mid-West or even Canada in equal
  numbers.
• This fragmented pattern points out that
  international migration flows are not
  well-established and suggests that information is
  not shared on the community
• Networks are constituted within families and
  households. Only 47 declare that they have
  friends in Valle de Chalco-Solidaridad.

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Clear pattern of irregular migration

• Crossing points moved from cities to more
  dangerous places (i.e. deserts), but irregular
  migration still is the dominant pattern (83
  crossed illegally the US border, and a further 8
  entered as a tourist, but worked in the country).
• Incorporation in poor to low-qualified jobs in
  the US (65). Professionals hardly sum up 2. The
  other categories are skilled manual workers and
  unemployed workers who did not find a job in the
  US.
• Migration helps us to make a good living La
  migración sirve para vivir bien (Juan Luis)

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Weak sense of place identity and strong
placelessness

• We contrasted views on the places that constitute
  people's migration spaces with adjectives about
  these places. Adjectives were clustered according
  their intensity (from very negative to very
  positive). Spearman's correlations were applied
  to se coherence between answers on opinions and
  adjectives (ordinal variables). Correlations were
  significant (lt0.01) and high.
• Positive views on home (44, I like it),
  which is consistent with the fact that the main
  reason for migration to Valle de Chalco was to
  buy a property. This contrasts with a general
  desire to move out of the municipality (43)
• Lack of interest on the US. A third declare that
  they are not interested on the US, and the
  percentage of those who wish to live in the
  country hardly amounts to 12.

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Conclusions

• More than permanent migration, precarious work in
  secondary market niches heavily exposed to
  economic swings has a clear impact on a pattern
  of high mobility Mexico-US.
• The diversity of routes, plus difficulties for
  migrants to constructing networks in adverse
  situation of poverty and marginality, indicate
  that migration flows are not consolidated.
  Networks are established at family (no community)
  level.
• Placeless Mexican working poor urban class
  accepts labour instability and precariousness and
  sees transnational migration as a limited way for
  improving living standards.