Migration, business formation, and the informal economy in urban Mexico

Conditions under Which Rural-to-Urban Migration Enhances Social and Economic Sustainability of Home Communities: A Case Study in Vietnam

Rural-to-urban migration contributes to the economic and social sustainability of sending communities. The aim of this study was to obtain quantitative evidence supporting the theoretical argument that (i) rural-to-urban migrants contribute to the sustainability of their sending communities, and (ii) once they return, they are likely to behave prosocially as return migrants because they feel a responsibility to apply the knowledge and skills they acquired during migration for the sake of others in their sending communities. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Hanoi, Vietnam, a typical destination city of domestic rural-to-urban migrants. Three hundred rural-to-urban migrants participated in this survey. The ultivariate regression analysis results indicate that rural-to-urban migrants contribute more to the social and economic sustainability of their rural home communities when they have spent longer in their migration destinations and have accumulated skills and knowledge because their experiences foster a sense of responsibility toward their home communities. This is the first quantitative investigation of the relationship between rural-to-urban migrants’ characteristics representing their accumulation of skills and knowledge in their destination cities and their supportive attitudes toward their home communities. This investigation seemed important because it was expected to clarify the conditions under which rural-to-urban migration stimulates migrants’ sense of responsibility and thus their contributions to the social and economic sustainability of their sending communities.

Out of Sight and Uninsured: Access to Healthcare Among US-Born Minors in Mexico

To examine health insurance coverage among the 550,000 U.S.-born minors living in Mexico. Representative data from Mexico's 2018 National Survey of Demographic Dynamics was used to describe health coverage among persons aged 0-17 living in Mexico (N = 78,370). Multinomial logistic regression models were estimated to identify the association between birthplace (Mexico versus the United States) and health insurance coverage in Mexico. 39% of U.S-born minors living in Mexico in 2018 lacked health insurance compared to just 13% of Mexican-born minors. Logistic regression found that, net of potential confounders, being born in the United States was associated with 87% lower odds of being insured among minors in Mexico. U.S.-born minors disproportionately rely on private insurance programs and are particularly likely to be uninsured in the first year back from the United States. Special attention is needed to ensure access to care among U.S.-born minors in Mexico.

Offspring Educational Attainment and Older Parents' Cognition in Mexico

Population-level disparities in later-life cognitive health point to the importance of family resources. Although the bulk of prior work establishes the directional flow of resources from parents to offspring, the "linked lives" perspective raises the question of how offspring resources could affect parental health as well. This paper examines whether adult children's education influences older parents' (aged 50+) cognitive health in Mexico, where schooling reforms have contributed to significant gains in the educational achievements of recent birth cohorts. Harnessing a change in compulsory school laws and applying an instrumental variables approach, we found that each year of offspring schooling was associated with higher overall cognition among parents, but was less predictive across different cognitive functioning domains. More offspring schooling improved parents' cognitive abilities in verbal learning, verbal fluency, and orientation, but not in visual scanning, visuo-spatial ability, or visual memory. The beneficial effects of offspring schooling on those cognitive domains are more salient for mothers compared to fathers, suggesting potential gendered effects in the influence of offspring schooling. The results remained robust to controls for parent-child contact and geographic proximity, suggesting other avenues through which offspring education could affect parental health and a pathway for future research. Our findings contribute to growing research which stresses the causal influence of familial educational attainment on population health.

How local community context shapes labour market re-entry and resource mobilisation among return migrants: an examination of rural and urban communities in Mexico

Recent estimates suggest that nearly half of all international migrants return to their communities of origin within five years of emigration. Motivated by high levels of return migration, scholars are increasingly investigating the ways in which return migrants mobilize resources they acquire abroad, such as human and financial capital, to achieve economic mobility upon return. Yet, resource mobilization and labor market reintegration unfold in heterogeneous community contexts. To understand the labor market reintegration of return migrants in various local contexts, we draw on an eight-year study that included interviews with 153 Mexican returnees to examine how labor market reintegration and resource mobilization vary across three types of communities: urban, urban-adjacent, and rural. U.S.-Mexico migration is the largest binational return flow in the world, providing a unique opportunity to explore variations in the reintegration experiences of returnees. We find that labor market reintegration and resource mobilization are contextually embedded processes that respond to the social, economic, and spatial features of migrants' origin communities. Following our analysis, we extend three testable hypotheses that can guide future research on international migration and return.

A DYNAMIC MODEL OF SELF-EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIOECONOMIC MOBILITY AMONG RETURN MIGRANTS: THE CASE OF URBAN MEXICO

Return migrants engage in high rates of self-employment, which scholars commonly attribute to the accumulation of financial and human capital while working abroad. Central to this scholarship is the assumption that self-employment is positive and leads to upward economic mobility among return migrants. This scholarship is limited, however, because it relies on large surveys and cross-sectional census data that treat self-employment as a single uni-dimensional status measured at one point in time. To improve conceptualization and measurement of self- employment, we engage three bodies of research that have thus far had little cross-fertilization: the literature on work and self-employment in Latin America, the scholarship on return migration and self-employment, and developments in economic theories of international migration. Drawing on results from the first longitudinal analysis of the labor market trajectories of Mexican return migrants in a large urban area in central Mexico, we identify three types of self-employment - survivalist, temporary, and prosperous. To explain these divergent self-employment pathways, we draw on biographical narratives and identify two sets of mechanisms - human capital formation and life-course stage. Overall, our investigation of self-employment types suggests a complex relationship between international migration experiences and the labor market mobility of return migrants which cannot be understood without taking into consideration migrants' social and economic circumstances before, during, and after migration. Consequently, our study yields insights into economic theories of international migration and provides direction for future research on return migration and labor market reintegration.

Uninsured Migrants: Health Insurance Coverage and Access to Care Among Mexican Return Migrants

BACKGROUND

Despite an expansive body of research on health and access to medical care among Mexican immigrants in the United States, research on return migrants focuses primarily on their labor market mobility and contributions to local development.

OBJECTIVE

Motivated by recent scholarship that documents poor mental and physical health among Mexican return migrants, this study investigates return migrants' health insurance coverage and access to medical care.

METHODS

I use descriptive and multivariate techniques to analyze data from the 2009 and 2014 rounds of Mexico's National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (ENADID, combined n=632,678).

RESULTS

Analyses reveal a large and persistent gap between recent return migrants and non-migrants, despite rising overall health coverage in Mexico. Multivariate analyses suggest that unemployment among recent arrivals contributes to their lack of insurance. Relative to non-migrants, recently returned migrants rely disproportionately on private clinics, pharmacies, self-medication, or have no regular source of care. Mediation analysis suggests that returnees' high rate of uninsurance contributes to their inadequate access to care.

CONCLUSION

This study reveals limited access to medical care among the growing population of Mexican return migrants, highlighting the need for targeted policies to facilitate successful reintegration and ensure access to vital resources such as health care.

Adult children's education and changes to parents' physical health in Mexico

The well-being of older adults is frequently tied to support from their adult children. Here, we assess whether the education of adult offspring is associated with changes to older parents' short- and long-term health in Mexico, a rapidly aging context with historically limited institutional support for the elderly. Educational expansion over the past half century, however, provides older adults with greater resources to rely on via the education of their children. Using longitudinal data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (2001-2012), we find that offspring education is not associated with short-term changes in parents' physical functioning, but is associated with increased parental longevity, net of children's financial status and transfers. In addition, we find that mothers' longevity is more sensitive to offspring education than fathers. Our findings add to a growing body of literature that urges policy-makers to consider the multi-generational advantages of expanding educational opportunities in Mexico.

Adult Children's Education and Parents' Functional Limitations in Mexico

This article asks how adult children's education influences older parents' physical health in Mexico, a context where older adults often lack access to institutional resources and rely on kin, primarily children, as a main source of support. Using logistic and negative binomial regression models and data from the first wave of the Mexican Health and Aging Study (N = 9,661), we find that parents whose children all completed high school are less likely to report any functional limitations as well as fewer limitations compared to parents with no children who completed high school. This association remains significant even after accounting for parent and offspring-level characteristics, including parents' income that accounts for children's financial transfers to parents. Future research should aim to understand the mechanisms that explain the association between adult children's education and changes to parents' health over time.

New Skills, New Jobs: Return Migration, Skill Transfers, and Business Formation in Mexico

Numerous studies have documented a high propensity for self-employment and business formation among return migrants relative to non-migrants. The literature points to the importance of remitted savings, migration duration, and number and types of jobs abroad for business formation upon return. Implicit in this scholarship is the assumption that migrants acquire not only financial capital, but also human capital, which expands their opportunities upon return. Empirical work has demonstrated how the transfer of formal human capital, such as language skills and professional credentials, influences the mobility pathways of professional return migrants. More recent research has also found that the transfer of informal human capital, such as social and technical skills learned on the job, shape the mobility pathways of return migrants with little schooling. Absent from this scholarship, however, are studies that directly test the relationship between the transfer of informal human capital and the odds of business formation among return migrants. In this paper, we address this gap. Using a multidimensional skills variable, which includes social, technical, and English language competences, we measure and test the relationship between skill acquisition and transfer and business formation among return migrants. Drawing on findings from a survey of 200 return migrants and 200 non-migrants in Mexico, we show that return migrants who successfully acquire and transfer new skills across the migratory circuit often leverage their new knowledge to launch businesses. Our findings have wide implications for how social scientists conceptualize and measure human capital formation across the migratory circuit.