Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Cross-Border Discussions and Political Behavior in Migrant-Sending Countries

  • Published:
Studies in Comparative International Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Even when émigrés living abroad versus returning migrants share similar norms, knowledge, practices, and ideas with non-migrants living in their origin country, émigrés have a stronger influence on non-migrants’ political beliefs and behaviors. The reason is that outmigration affects the social ties in which discussions between émigrés abroad and non-migrants are embedded, making them more cohesive and asymmetrical. In contrast, returning permanently to the origin country reverses these effects.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Many individuals who move back to their origin country intending to settle ultimately remigrate. Others migrate and return numerous times. Knowing the contingent nature of migrants’ choice to move home permanently, my intention is to distinguish between those who move home to live as opposed to those regularly or sporadically travel to their origin country for business or visits.

  2. A notable exception is the scholarship on international diffusion, which focuses on how domestic elites’ interactions with various actors in the international system affect their policy choices (see, e.g., Acharya 2004; Bourdieu 1984, Checkel 1997; Elkins 2009; Weyland 2005).

  3. Cross-border interactions between migrants and non-migrants do not comprise all international interpersonal interactions, but their prevalence is striking. In 2008, about 30 % of the voting-age citizens living in Latin America reported that they communicated with family members living outside their country at least once a week (Americas Barometer 2008). Nearly 70 % of Dominicans, Cubans, Salvadorans, Mexicans, and Colombians living in the USA phone home weekly (Soehl and Waldinger 2010); between 10 and 25 % of Guatemalans, Salvadorans, Hondurans, Bolivians, Haitians, and Guyanese do so everyday (Americas Barometer 2008), and, among Mexicans in the USA, 82 % of phone calls home last more than 20 min (Orozco et al. 2005).

  4. My sample sacrificed representativeness in favor of diversity. For each type of respondent—émigrés, returning migrants, and non-migrants—I selected as diverse a sample as possible along both independent and dependent variables of theoretical interest. In selecting émigrés, I sought diversity along two dimensions: personal attributes (education, English language skills) and conditions of emigration (reason for leaving, duration of their stay). In selecting returning migrants, I considered a third dimension: condition of return (forced or voluntary repatriation and return to community with high or low levels of emigration). These three dimensions have the potential to affect one or more of the following: (1) migrants’ ability to learn new political beliefs and behaviors in the USA (Bean et al. 2006) and propensity to discuss politics across borders (McCann et al. 2007); (2) migrants’ levels of interest in importing change to their sending community and perceptions of non-migrants toward migrants. In selecting non-migrants, I sought diversity on those dimensions known to shape political beliefs and behaviors, including age, education, income, and interest in politics. For more details about the sample, consult the technical appendix at https://bates.academia.edu/PerezArmendarizClarisa.

  5. Pérez-Armendáriz (2009) further shows that communication between migrants and non-migrants influences the latter’s political behaviors, while return migrants’ behaviors do not.

  6. Note that return visits are a form of long-distance interaction since migrants remain settled in the receiving country.

  7. I have described the prevalence earlier in this paper. Outside of Mexico, about 30 % of the voting-age citizens of Latin America communicated with family members living outside of their country at least once a week (The Americas Barometer 2008). Between 10 and 25 % of Guatemalans, Salvadorans, Hondurans, Bolivians, Haitians, and Guyanese communicated everyday (The Americas Barometer 2008).

  8. I asked participants, “What do you mainly talk about with your friends and family? Please write the number 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 next to the topics of conversation that you discuss with your family in order of importance. For example, if when you speak with your friends or family living in the USA you talk with them more than anything about the people’s health and well-being, then write a one (1) next to that response below. You should mark only five responses, each with a different number.” The choices where, “other (please explain); employment possibilities in the USA; political affairs in the USA; political affairs in Mexico; your daily life in the USA; your job in the USA; future plans; the economic situation of the family and household expenses; the Mexican economy; your family’s health and well-being.”

  9. In my discussions with respondents, I learned that most understood discussions about politics narrowly, as specifically about elections; particular candidates; institutions such as the presidency, parties, the legislature, and electoral authorities; and political scandals. Large-n survey studies such those by Bravo (2009), which ask respondents whether they talk to émigrés about politics, may thus underestimate the volume of cross-border political discussions.

  10. The difference between civic responsibility and political efficacy is between citizens’ belief that they can, versus should, engage in certain types of activities, with the latter representing responsibility.

  11. I asked participants: “Do you think your ways of thinking or seeing things changed as a result of having emigrated to the USA? Or, do you think that they did not change at all? Explain. If respondents claimed that their ways of seeing or thinking had change, I asked if they had conserved your new ways of thinking? Since you returned, have you shared your new ways of thinking with friends, family, or people at work?”

  12. Note that these returnees did not belong to a formal hometown association or migrant club.

References

  • Acharya A. How ideas spread: whose norms matter? Norm localization and institutional change in Asian regionalism. Int Organ. 2004;58(2):239–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adams R, Cuecuecha A. Remittances, household expenditure and investment in Guatemala. World Dev. 2010;38(11):1626–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basch L, Blanc-Szanton C, Schiller N. Nations unbound: transnational projects, postcolonial predicaments, and deterritorialized nation-states. London: Gordon and Breach; 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bean FD, Brown SK, & Rumbaut RG. Mexican immigrant political and economic incorporation. Perspectives on Politics, 2006;4(02):309–13.

  • Berelson B, Lazarsfeld P, McPhee W. Voting: a study of opinion formation in a presidential campaign. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 1954.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borraz F. Assessing the impact of remittances on schooling: the Mexican experience. Glob Econ J. 2005;5(9):1–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu P. Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste Harvard University Press; 1984.

  • Brady H, Sniderman P. Attitude attribution: a group basis for political reasoning. Am Polit Sci Rev. 1985;79(4):1061–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bravo J. Emigración y compromiso político en México. Política y Gobierno: Volumen Tematico 2009; 273–310.

  • Brubaker R. Citizenship and nationhood in France and Germany. New York: Cambridge Univ Press; 1992.

  • Burt R. Social contagion and innovation: cohesion versus structural equivalence. Am J Sociol. 1987;92(6):1287–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campos Vázquez RM, Lara Lara J. Self selection patterns among return migrants: Mexico 1990-2010. 2011. Paper provided by El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos in its series Serie documentos de trabajo del Centro de Estudios Económicos with number 2011-09. Retrieved from http://ideas.repec.org/p/emx/ceedoc/2011-09.html#biblio.

  • Checkel JT. International norms and domestic politics: bridging the rationalist–constructivist divide. Eur J Int Relat. 1997;3(4):473–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chwe MS. Communication and Coordination in Social Networks. Rev Econ Stud. 2000;67(1):1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • CIDAC-Zogby. Encuesta: México y Estados Unidos. Cómo miramos al vecino. Mexico, D.F.: Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo en México; 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen J. Transnational migration in rural Oaxaca, Mexico: dependency, development, and the household. Am Anthropol. 2001;103(4):954–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conway D, Cohen J. Consequences of migration and remittances for Mexican transnational communities. Econ Geogr. 1998;74(1):26–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Córdova A. & Hiskey J. Migrant Networks and Democracy in Latin America. Unpublished working paper, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN; 2010

  • Coutin S. Nations of emigrants: shifting boundaries of citizenship in El Salvador and the United States. Ithaca: Cornell University Press; 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards AC, & Ureta, M. International migration, remittances, and schooling: evidence from El Salvador. J Dev Econ. 2003;72(2);429–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elkins Z. Constitutional networks. In: Kahler M, editor. Networked politics: agency, power, and governance. Ithaca: Cornell University Press; 2009. p. 43–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faist T. The volume and dynamics of international migration and transnational social spaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2000.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • FitzGerald DS. A nation of emigrants: how Mexico manages its migration. Berkeley: University of California Press; 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  • FitzGerald DS. Immigrant impacts in Mexico: a tale of dissimilation. In: Eckstein SE, Najam A, editors. How immigrants impact their homelands. Durham: Duke University Press; 2013. p. 114–37.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • George A, Bennett A. Case studies and theory development in the social science. Cambridge: MIT Press; 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • George A, McKeown T. Case studies and theories of organizational decision-making. In: Coulam R, Smith R, editors. Advances in information processing in organizations, vol. 6. Greenwich: JAI Press; 1985. p. 21–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Granovetter MS. The strength of weak ties. Am J Sociol. 1973;78:1360–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hafner-Burton EM, Kahler M, Montgomery AH. Network analysis for international relations. Int Organ. 2009;63(3):559–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huckfeldt R, Beck P. Political environments, cohesive social groups, and the communication of public opinion. Am J Polit Sci. 1995;39(4):1025.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huckfeldt R, Sprague J. Discussant effects on vote choice: intimacy, structure, and interdependence. J Polit. 1991;53:122–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huckfeldt R, Sprague J. Citizens, politics and social communication: information and influence in an election campaign. New York: Cambridge University Press; 1995.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Itzigsohn J, Saucedo SG. Immigrant incorporation and sociocultural transnationalism1. Int Migr Rev. 2002;36(3):766–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapur D. Diaspora, development, and democracy: the domestic impact of international migration from India. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katz E, Lazarsfeld P. Personal influence. Glencoe: The Free Press; 1955.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenny C. The microenvironment of attitude change. J Polit. 1994;56(3):715–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kenny C. The behavioral consequences of political discussion: another look at discussant effects on vote choice. J Polit. 1998;60(1):231–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klofstad C. Talk leads to recruitment: how discussions about politics and current events increase civic participation. Polit Res Q. 2007;60(2):180–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kotler-Berkowitz L. Ethnicity and political behavior among American Jews: findings from the National Jewish Population Survey 2000–01. Contemp Jew. 2005;25:132–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latané B. The psychology of social impact. Am Psychol. 1981;36(4):343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazarsfeld P, Berelson B, Gaudet H. The people’s choice: how the voter makes up his mind in a presidential campaign. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce; 1944.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitt P. The transnational villagers. Berkeley: University of California Press; 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitt P, Jaworsky B. Transnational migration studies: past developments and future trends. Annu Rev Sociol. 2007;33(1):129–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lupia A, McCubbins M, editors. The democratic dilemma: can citizens learn what they need to know? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahler S. Theoretical and empirical contributions toward a research agenda for transnationalism. In: Smith M, Guarnizo L, editors. Transnationalism from below. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers; 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann M. The autonomous power of the state: its origins, mechanisms and results. European Journal of Sociology; 1984;25(02):185–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marsden PV. Restricted access in networks and models of power. Am J Sociol. 1983;88(4):686–717.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Massey D. Social structure, household strategies, and the cumulative causation of migration. Popul Index. 1990;56(1):3–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Massey D, Arango J, Hugo G, Kouaouci A, Pellegrino A, Taylor J. Theories of international migration: a review and appraisal. Popul Dev Rev. 1993;19:431–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCann JA, Cornelius W, & Leal D. Engagement in campaigns and elections south of the border pull Mexican immigrants away from US politics? Evidence from the 2006 Mexican expatriate study. Article presented at the Latin American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Montreal; 2007.

  • Mutz DC. The consequences of cross-cutting networks for political participation. Am J Polit Sci. 2002;46(4):838–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Niven D. The mobilization solution? Face-to-face contact and voter turnout in a municipal election. J Polit. 2004;66(3):869–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orozco M, Lowell BL, Bump M, Fedewa R. Transnational engagement, remittances and their relationship to development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University; 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pérez-Armendáriz C. Do migrants remit democratic beliefs and behaviors? A theory of migrant-led international diffusion. Doctoral Dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin; 2009.

  • Pérez-Armendáriz C, Crow D. Do migrants remit democracy? International migration, political beliefs, and behavior in Mexico. Comp Polit Stud. 2010;43(1):119–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Portes A, Landoldt P. Social capital: promise and pitfalls of its role in development. J Lat Am Stud. 2000;32:529–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pries L. The Disruption of Social and Geographic Space Mexican-US Migration and the Emergence of Transnational Social Spaces. Int Sociol. 2001;16(1):55–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam RD. Bowling alone. New York: Simon and Schuster; 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quintelier E, Stolle D, Harell A. Politics in peer groups: exploring the causal relationship between network diversity and political participation. Polit Res Q. 2012;65(4):868–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith R. Mexican New York: transnational lives of new immigrants. Berkeley: University of California Press; 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sniderman P, Brody R, Tetlock P. Reasoning and choice: explorations in political psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1991.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Soehl T, Waldinger R. Making the connection: Latino immigrants and their cross-border ties. Ethn Racial Stud. 2010;33(9):1489–510.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The Americas Barometer by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP); 2008. www.LapopSurveys.org.

  • Waldinger R. Between “here” and “there”: immigrant cross-border activities and loyalties. Int Migr Rev. 2008;42(1):3–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waldinger RD. A limited engagement: Mexico and its diaspora. The selected works of Roger D. Waldinger; 2009. Available at http://works.bepress.com/roger_waldinger/38.

  • Waldinger RD, FitzGerald D. Transnationalism in question. Am J Sociol. 2004;109(5):1177–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walzer M. Liberalism and the Art of Separation. Political Theory; 1984;12(3);315–330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warnes T. Migration and the course of life. In: Champion A, Fielding T, editors. Migration processes and patterns. London: Belhaven; 1992. p. 174–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weyland KG. Theories of policy diffusion: lessons from Latin American pension reform. World Politics. 2005;57(2):262–295.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong R, Palloni A, Soldo BJ. Wealth in middle and old age in Mexico: the role of international migration. Int Migr Rev. 2007;41:127–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Katrina Burgess, Covadonga Messeguer, and the anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier drafts, and Francisco Javier Martínez Rodríguez, Eva Rodríguez Rodríguez, Juan Pelcastre, Hilda Hernández, Clara Armendáriz Beltrán, Iván Pérez-Méndez, and Dhariana Gonzalez for their research assistance. I also am indebted to all who participated in interviews.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bates College, Lewiston, ME, 04240, USA

    Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz

Authors
  1. Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Pérez-Armendáriz, C. Cross-Border Discussions and Political Behavior in Migrant-Sending Countries. St Comp Int Dev 49, 67–88 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-014-9152-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-014-9152-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation