Migration and Cultural Change: A Role for Gender and Social Networks?

To incorporate the insights from the literature on gender and migration we focus upon three key concepts that have emerged regarding the role of social networks households and communities for affecting migration processes. The three key concepts we interrogate are: “social embeddedness” (Portes and Sensenbrenner 1993) “circular and cumulative causation” (Massey 1990) and “relative deprivation” (Stark 1991). We propose considering these three concepts through the lens of a third area of research the sociology of culture and we draw upon ideas about identity formation trust and normative expectations. Our empirical examples come primarily from Thailand where we draw upon both secondary and primary data but also from secondary data from Latin America and the Caribbean migrant experiences. In our effort to demonstrate that social networks and gender are essential elements for understanding migration and cultural change our discussion refers to international internal permanent and temporary migration. We begin our analysis through a brief review of the three developments in the migration field. We then conceptualize how these three literatures might be usefully synthesized with each other and relevant work in the sociology of culture. In our view culture is an essential component for understanding the meaning given to individuals (gender) their actions (migration) and their relationships (network ties). This in turn influences the way inequality is produced or redressed. In the conclusion we discuss how measurement of networks might be improved by these insights and synthesis. We also suggest that by synthesizing these literatures we can refine theories of social change and the structuring of inequality in relation to migration processes. (excerpt)