ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the rationale behind continuing high levels of circular migration patterns. It examines three major sources of data on Mexican migration: legal flows, net-migration to the resident unauthorized stock, and apprehension data as a loose indicator of more circular flows. M. J. Piore argues that migration in developing societies often begins with the active recruitment of the workers by employers in developed, western nations. While most recruited workers take jobs in a lower-paying sector of the economy, Piore argues that the frequency with which migrants return home has little to do with an inability to hold onto stable, higher-paying employment. Specific communication and transportation linkages reinforce the tendency for members of a community to travel to the same places. This organization of migration creates distinctive flows between specific origin and destination communities known as channelized migration streams.
