Title

Migration and Social Change: Some Conceptual Reflections

Author(s)

Alejandro Portes Alejandro Portes (Princeton University)

Abstract

Examining the multiple ways in which migration relates to social change is a daunting task. It requires, first of all, defining what social change is and, secondarily, delimiting the scope of analysis to certain types of migration and not others. The greatest dangers that I envision in this enterprise are, first, getting lost in generalities of the "social change is ubiquitous" kind and, second, attempting to cover so much terrain as to lose sight of analytic priorities and of major, as opposed to secondary, causal linkages. I seek to avoid these dangers by discussing first the concept of social change, second identifying the types of migration to be considered, and third examining the major factors that link one to another. I conclude the paper with four theoretical and methodological considerations suggested by the analysis that may guide future work in this field.

Creation Date

2008-08

Section URL ID

CMD

Paper Number

wp0804.pdf

URL

http://cmd.princeton.edu/sites/cmd/files/working-papers/papers/wp0804.pdf

File Function

Jel

R22, F22

Keyword(s)

Suppress

false

Series

7