ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces Charles Tilly's work on migration and inequality. It discusses the work of other relevant authors and different approaches to the issue, including social boundary theory, categorical inequality, social psychological approaches, and theories of race and ethnicity. Charles Tilly published insightful empirical and theoretical pieces on migration: he was one of the first social scientists to document the important role that social networks play in migration. Tilly explains why migration is not the movement of individuals—as it is commonly understood—but the movement of families, townships, and trust networks. Cities and migrants have a "love-hate" relationship because economic forces push people out of rural areas and pull them into cities, where labor is in demand and where immigrants are necessary for economic growth. Individual migration may lead to family reunification in faraway cities. Chain migration reunites friends, former neighbors, and acquaintances.
