The Culture of Migration in Southern Mexico

The Culture of Migration in Southern Mexico Jeffrey H. Cohen (2004) University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, USA, 207 p. (ISBN: 0-292-70592-1)

Migration is everyday life for many individuals and families in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Some move only as far as to the state capital, while many others migrate far longer distances to the United States. Most are concerned about improvement of life back home and send money to their families, and eventually return to their homes after a few years.

Cohen explores the complex web of factors that motivate rural Oaxacans to migrate, patterns of their migration, the meaning of migration on families and communities, and the reasons why not many more Oaxacans do not migrate. His work is convincingly showing us that no single model can explain the patterns of migration in southern Mexico.

The Culture of Migration in Southern Mexico explores the potentials of a cultural approach benefiting from the household model to understand migration in the central valleys of Oaxaca in Mexico. Drawing on fieldwork and survey data from twelve communities in the central valleys of Oaxaca, he tells us the story of a "culture of migration, an everyday experience and as an effective means to an end -economic well-being (p.147)."

He starts with a reappraisal of the role of household in migration movements. Choosing household as the unit...