ABSTRACT
Migration (see Box 7.1) is a part of everyone’s life cycle. Children migrate with their parents, or on their own to be educated, on marriage and when seeking a living. Population movements have always been part of Latin American urban and rural life: there is little evidence that overall mobility changed greatly either during the colonial period or in the present century. What merits special attention is the composition and direction of migration. Migration at any given moment mirrors stresses in households, in society in general and in different regions. What is migration?
Here we mean migration to refer to any change of residence that takes place for more than a few days, whether or not the migrant is accompanied by other members of the household. Census definitions such as habitual residence may alternatively be used and it is important to realize that for every change in definition, a different measure of human mobility is being taken. Another term frequently used in migration studies – permanent migration – deserves elaboration. Migration permanency is a very elusive concept. Long-term Mexican migrants to Chicago may refer to their migration as temporary even after 25 years’ residence because they perceive their home village in Mexico as the place to which they will ultimately return. If they die in Chicago, can their migration to the USA then be seen as permanent because of the accident of their death there? Some forms of migration – journey to work, holiday, marketing – may be cyclic and thus clearly temporary but the use of a word to qualify migration, which refers to probability of future mobility, is hazardous and thus best avoided.
