Half a Century of Migration and Family Formation in Latin America and the Caribbean
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2019 Half A Century Of Migration And Family Formation In Latin America And The Caribbean Andrés Felipe Castro Torres University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, and the Family, Life Course, and Society Commons Recommended Citation Castro Torres, Andrés Felipe, "Half A Century Of Migration And Family Formation In Latin America And The Caribbean" (2019). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3420. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3420 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3420 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Half A Century Of Migration And Family Formation In Latin America And The Caribbean Abstract Migration and family formation dynamics were fundamental factors in the societal transformation of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries during the second half of the twentieth century. A holistic understanding of how these two demographic phenomena relate to one another and how this association is embedded in gender and class systems is needed to understand modern societies. The first chapter of this dissertation lays out the theoretical premises of a gender- and class-based analysis of these dynamics. The following chapters use quantitative information to examine family formation trajectories among migrants from three different perspectives: immigration, transnational, and internal. Family formation paths for individuals of age 39 and above are reconstructed using the National Survey of Family Growth in chapter 2 (immigration), the Mexican and Latin American Migration projects in chapter 3 (transnational), and the LAC Demographic and Health Surveys in chapter 4 (internal). Together, these sources cover 12 LAC countries and the three main destinations of LAC international migrants: United States, Canada and Spain. A typology of family formation trajectories is built for each of these three data sources and the distribution of men and women in each typology is computed by age at migration and socioeconomic status. I termed these distributions family profiles. The heterogeneity in family profiles across the three perspectives is examined considering the major societal and economic changes that occurred during this time period in the region. This joint examination shows that social class and gender differences are the primary basis of distinction in family profiles and that migration constitute a secondary source of disruption. Put formally, the processes by which family formation trajectories unfold among migrants are segmented. This does not mean migration is powerless in terms of triggering social change. Migration is associated with change in family formation dynamics in the origin and reception societies; yet, its potential is modest, and it will hardly take the shape of a revolutionary leap. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Demography First Advisor Herbert L. Smith Keywords Family formation, Latin America and the Caribbean, Migration Subject Categories Demography, Population, and Ecology | Family, Life Course, and Society | Sociology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3420 HALF A CENTURY OF MIGRATION AND FAMILY FORMATION IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Andrés Felipe Castro Torres A DISSERTATION in Demography and Sociology Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2019 Supervisor of Dissertation ______________________ Herbert L. Smith, Professor of Sociology Graduate Group Chairperson, Demography ______________________ Hans-Peter Kohler, Frederick J. Warren Professor of Demography& Professor of Sociology Graduate Group Chairperson, Sociology ______________________ Jason Schnittker, Professor of Sociology Dissertation Committee Herbert L. Smith, Professor of Sociology Emilio A. Parrado, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology Frank F. Furstenberg, Zellerbach Family Professor of Sociology i ACKNOWLEDGMENT I am thankful to my family, friends, colleagues, faculty members, and all the staff members of the Population Studies Center (PSC), PSC library, Graduate Group in Demography, and the Department of Sociology. Thanks for supporting me in all kinds of ways during the past five years. I thankfully acknowledge the financial support of the Fulbright commission for Colombia. Owing to the unconditional support of my family I can devote my life to the social sciences; thank you Mary, Lucho, Pablo, and Marine for taking care of me. I am especially grateful to my friends Alejandra and Luca. These last five years were full of happiness and personal and intellectual growth thanks to you two. To my cohort mates, Carmen, Menghan and Yushin, and other colleagues, Nikkil, Megan, Hannah, thanks for your friendship. Having you as friends made the experience of living in the U.S. easier, more contented, and full of enriching cultural exchange. Thanks to Piedad Urdinola, her research and classes inspired me to pursue a Ph.D. in Demography; and to Mauricio and María, who made me believe this was possible for someone like me. I am deeply indebted to my advisor Herbert Smith. His advice, guidance, and support were key elements for the academic development of my research. Thank you very much Herb for have confidence in my ideas, for pushing me to think hard, and to aim high; being intellectually ambitious and humble at the same time is one of the main lessons I learned while working with you. I truly appreciate the role of Emilio Parrado in showing me the importance of migration, and the necessity to study it from a critical perspective. Thanks to the French National Institute for Demographic Studies (Ined) for allowing me to expand the scope of my research during my two visits. Thanks to Laurent Toulemon for his time and disinterested support. Thanks to the scholarly community of the Global Family Change project, to Hans-Peter Kohler and Frank Furstenberg for making me part of this endeavor; it has been a great source of intellectual inspiration. For their advice, thanks to Annette Laureu and Chenoa Flippen, and to all the faculty members that shared their knowledge in classes and seminars. A special thanks to Michel Guillot and Irma Elo for being role models of academic integrity, discipline, and work ethic. To the person that welcomed me the very first day I came to Philadelphia: thanks for all your support Edith. ii ABSTRACT HALF A CENTURY OF MIGRATION AND FAMILY FORMATION IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Andrés Felipe Castro Torres Herbert L. Smith Migration and family formation dynamics were fundamental factors in the societal transformation of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries during the second half of the twentieth century. A holistic understanding of how these two demographic phenomena relate to one another and how this association is embedded in gender and class systems is needed to understand modern societies. The first chapter of this dissertation lays out the theoretical premises of a gender- and class-based analysis of these dynamics. The following chapters use quantitative information to examine family formation trajectories among migrants from three different perspectives: immigration, transnational, and internal. Family formation paths for individuals of age 39 and above are reconstructed using the National Survey of Family Growth in chapter 2 (immigration), the Mexican and Latin American Migration projects in chapter 3 (transnational), and the LAC Demographic and Health Surveys in chapter 4 (internal). Together, these sources cover 12 LAC countries and the three main destinations of LAC international migrants: United States, Canada and Spain. A typology of family formation trajectories is built for each of these three data sources and the distribution of men and women in each typology is computed by age at migration and socioeconomic status. I termed these distributions family profiles. The heterogeneity in family profiles across the three perspectives is examined considering the major societal and economic changes that occurred during this time period in the region. This joint examination shows that social class and gender differences are the primary basis of distinction in family profiles and that migration constitute a secondary source of disruption. Put formally, the processes by which family formation trajectories unfold among migrants are segmented. This does not mean migration is powerless in terms of triggering social change. Migration is associated with change in family formation dynamics in the origin and reception societies; yet, its potential is modest, and it will hardly take the shape of a revolutionary leap. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT .............................................................................................................. II ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. III LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................... VII LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .................................................................................................. VIII CHAPTER 1. A