Publication Date
6-1975
Advisor(s) - Committee Chair
Paul Wozniak, T.P. Dunn, J.R. Faine
Degree Program
Department of Sociology
Degree Type
Master of Arts
Abstract
Migration histories of a sample of the population in a small urban place--Creel, Chihuahua, Mexico were analyzed and compared to the results from studies of several large urban places in Latin America to see if patterns of migration and factors associated with the migratory process are similar or different. Seven basic hypotheses obtained from prior theoretical works and empirical studies were investigated.
The examination of migration to Creel and of Creel migrant characteristics revealed both similarities to and differences from previous examinations of larger urban areas in Latin America. Generalizations concerning reasons for migration, return migration, the northern push tendency, chain migration, duration of residence, and educational selectivity were confirmed in the Creel study. However, little support was found for the stage migration model, employment and age selectivity, and fertility characteristics. Furthermore, hypotheses that were consistent with those from large urban places, such as those concerning the reasons for migration and return migration differed in their magnitude.
This research demonstrated that the migration process in a small urban place in Latin America is not consistent in all aspects with those occurring in large urban places. Future
research is needed in studying the small urban place, and perhaps every stage of the stage migration model via migration and life histories. Work is also needed in reevaluating the stage migration model. When more extensive analyses are undertaken, then and only then, can adequate comparisons be made which hopefully will lend to the emergence of a more adequate middle range theory. Migration and life histories certainly seem to show theoretical and methodological promise in advancing the study of internal migration in Latin America Hopefully other studies of this nature will follow in order to further our understanding of this complex phenomenon.
Disciplines
Community-Based Research | Migration Studies | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Sociology
Recommended Citation
Adamchak, Donald, "Migration to a Small Urban Place: An Examination of Migration Histories in Creel, Chihuahua, Mexico" (1975). Masters Theses & Specialist Projects. Paper 2097.
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/2097