The Impact of Migration and Remittances on Distribution and Sources of Income: The Mexican Rural Case

The objective of this research is to determine the impact of migration and remittances on rural households' income sources, as well as the implications of these impacts on the income distribution of the source communities. Using data from the Mexico National Rural Household Survey (Encuesta Nacional a Hogares Rurales de México, ENHRUM), the results show that national remittances and the predicted number of internal migrants impact in a positive way the incomes obtained from livestock activities. However, international remittances impact negatively on this income source due to the household's loss of one of its members. Also, the results support the new economics of labor migration (NELM) hypothesis that points out that the remittances eliminate restrictions in different types of rural households' productive activities.