Family Position and Family Networks in Mexican and Senegalese Migration

Mao-Mei Liu, Brown University
Mathew J. Creighton, University of Massachusetts at Boston
Fernando Riosmena, University of Colorado, Boulder

This paper looks at the role of family position and network-derived social capital in Mexican and Senegalese international migration. Specifically, we investigate how expectations for men and women based on their birth order relate to migration decisions net of their family networks, or if family position does not matter too much, e.g., once a younger vs. an older sibling has previously migrated. We analyze two comparable household surveys in very distinct settings and in which family obligations may vary: the Mexican Migration Project (1998-2012) and the Migration between Africa and Europe – Senegal (2008) and apply discrete-time event history analysis. In addition, part of this project will include efforts to estimate network "effects" using sibling-level fixed effects to control for common family background, and see how networks matter in this context.