Interstate Mobility Patterns of Mexicans and Central Americans in the United States as a Response to the Political and Economic Scenarios (2004-2013)

Eduardo Torre-Cantalapiedra, El Colegio de México
Silvia Giorguli-Saucedo, El Colegio de México

There is an increasing literature on the impact of restrictive public and migration policies on the lives of undocumented immigrants and their families across US. Less research has been conducted on the mobility patterns—specially internal migration—as a possible strategy to face a more restrictive environment and the economic swings. In this research we estimate multi-level logistic models with data from the American Community Survey to analyze the residential mobility patterns of Mexican and Central American immigrants in US between 2004 and 2013. During this period there were two major events that could have led to different mobility patterns: the increase on restrictive migration policies in different states and the economic crises. We expect to find differences on the decisions to move to another state by period, by state of residence and by sociodemographic and family characteristics of the migrants.