Immigration among Latin American countries fails to improve income

Although immigration to the United States from Latin American countries, particularly Mexico, has captured much public attention, immigrants who move between countries in Latin America have more difficulty than those moving to the United States. Donald Bogue, professor emeritus in sociology and a distinguished scholar of demography, has found that unlike immigrants to the United States, immigrants between nations in Latin America frequently do not improve their lives by moving. A popular theory on immigration contends that immigrants are self-selected achievers who move to another country and improve their economic status after a few years of residency. While that story is largely true for people moving from developing to developed countries, migration between developing nations is quite different, Bogue contends. "When we shift our focus from the developed world to the less-developed nations, the migration context changes and many generalizations made from the viewpoint of industrialized nations no longer are valid," Bogue writes in the recently published monograph, The Economic Adjustment of Immigrants to Twelve Nations of Latin America and Comparison with United States. It is posted on the Social Science Research Network webpage. His work has led him to draw new conclusions to shape new theories of immigration.