Agrarian Structure and Labor Mobility in Rural Mexico

This article examines the economic that affect labor allocation of rural landholding households in four areas of Mexico. The original research objective was considerably narrower, focusing on the push factors causing illegal migration to the United States. However, it soon became apparent that restricting the analysis to US migration would make it impossible to distinguish among that cause members of households to work off-farm in general, and those that condition this wage labor to take various forms, such as local labor, circular or permanent migration within Mexico, or migration to the United States. At its broadest level, this is a study of the relationship between rural development and labor mobility. Yet, as tempting as it is to focus entirely upon the theoretical issues involved, especially those raised by the emerging literature on circulation and on peasant household decision-making, this study will keep the issue of undocumented migration plainly in sight. Its conclusions, which challenge the assumption of an inverse relationship between rural economic development and undocumented migration, have important implications for the effectiveness of development programs in slowing the long-term outflow of rural migrants and for the suitability of a guest-worker program as an interim solution to the current situation of insufficient job opportunities in Mexico and high levels of illegal migration to the United States.