Temporary Migration to the United States and the Pathways to Upward Occupational Mobility in Mexico

David Lindstrom, Brown University
Sunghoon Kim, Brown University

Substantial research has been conducted on the occupational mobility of Mexican migrants in the United States, but very little is known about the impact of time spent working in the United States on the occupational mobility of migrants who return to Mexico. This paper uses retrospective migration and occupational histories collected by the Mexican Migration Project for a sample of 5330 male household heads interviewed in 35 Mexican communities. The objectives of the paper are (1) to determine the impact of cumulative U.S. migration experience and the timing of return migration on occupational mobility in Mexico, and (2) to determine whether and how the local structure of investment and employment opportunities in Mexico influences the types and chances of occupational mobility for return migrants. We define six occupational categories and use multistate hazards models to assess the influence of individual and place characteristics on occupational transitions.