ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on a longitudinal study of urban and rural migrant families from the municipality of Jalostotitlqan, in the Altos de Jalisco region of Mexico. The basic objective of the study was to detect changes in the area's international migration patterns in the wake of the US Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), commonly known as the Simpson-Rodino Law. The number of departures for the United States did increase substantially after the enactment of IRCA; however, the rupture with the previous trend occurred in 1985 and was surely linked to the deterioration in Mexico's economic situation. New migrants may be individuals seeking work or people who are joining working migrants in the United States, that is, family rather than individual migration. The importance of nonworker or family migration can be calibrated by the weight of migrants from other age groups and by the growing participation of women.
