 "Photo: Mary Kang/The Daily Texan")
In an “era of restriction” when immigration policies of countries around the world are becoming more strict, dramatic changes can be seen in rates of return migration, according to UT sociology professor Bryan Roberts.
“The migration system from U.S. to Mexico is a good example,” Roberts said. “A decade ago, approximately 80 percent of migrants to the U.S. came back to Mexico, but now the rate has reversed and only 20 percent of migrants come back.”
Roberts spoke at “Migration During an Era of Restriction,” a three-day conference on campus from Nov. 4-6 that features scholars and legal experts from the U.S., France, Germany, Spain, Peru, Russia, Turkey and Mexico.
Speakers participated in panels and focused on topics such as changing immigration policies, border control, remittances and legal and human rights issues affecting migrants.
“It is generally agreed upon by scholars that the major reason to migrate abroad is to send remittances back to families in the origin country,” said Teófilo Altamirano, an anthropology professor from Lima, Peru.
In 2005, the amount of migrant remittances in Peru reached $2.47 billion, according to a study by the Inter-American Development Bank, Altamirano said. This was the second most important source of income in Peru after the export of materials.
Remittances may provide economic stability but do not necessarily ensure development in the country, especially because most migrants are young to middle-aged men and women from the working class, said UT geography professor Rebecca Torres.
Torres studied neoliberalism in Mexico, focusing on agricultural policies enacted in the country that have shifted resource distribution from small farms to larger ones and resulted in mass migration to large, urban Mexican cities and the U.S.
“The theme of hardship and struggle has been expressed to me many times by migrant families, especially women,” Torres said. “With the increased militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, migration has weakened family ties.”
Based on Torres’ research in Veracruz, families headed by females because of males migrating to find work were significantly poorer than male-headed households. More than 50 percent of female-headed households depend on remittances, while only 27 percent of male-headed households do.
“Most people do not realize that migration and development are highly gendered processes,” Torres said.
Migration can also increase the flow of skills from one country to another, said Jacqueline Hagan, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Acquiring American entrepreneurship skills was expressed repeatedly by the migrants from Mexico that I interviewed as a reason to go to the U.S.,” Hagan said.
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