PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] – For thirty years, the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) has been collecting survey data in Mexico and the United States on Mexico-U.S. migration. It is the longest on-going study of Mexico-U.S. migration and has transformed the way migration is studied. To celebrate the MMP’s thirtieth anniversary, a bi-lingual conference was convened in Mexico City at El Colegio de México (Colmex) October 26-27.

The PSTC was well-represented among the approximately 50 participants. Professor of Sociology David Lindstrom, who has been involved with the MMP since its beginnings and currently serves as an advisor to the project, presented two papers. One was co-authored with PSTC alumna Silvia E. Giorguli Saucedo, a PSTC alumna and current president of Colmex. Lindstrom and Giorguli will become co-directors of the MMP in 2019, at which time the project will move to the PSTC.

Other presenters included Mao-Mai Liu (former PSTC postdoc and lecturer in Sociology at UC Berkeley), Bryan Moorefield (PSTC trainee in Anthropology), and Gabriela Sánchez-Soto (PSTC alumna and assistant professor of Demography at UT San Antonio).

According to Lindstrom, the MMP and the study of Mexico-U.S. migration have been important bases for collaboration between the PSTC and El Colegio de México.

The Mexican Migration Project employs the Ethnosurvey approach, combining ethnographic fieldwork and representative survey sampling to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. The projects aims “to provide a picture of Mexican-US migration that is historically grounded, ethnographically interpretable, quantitatively accurate, and rooted in receiving as well as sending areas.”

Conference presentations by PSTC affiliates:

• “Patrones de participación económica femenina y estrategias de migración familiar en México,” Edith Gutiérrez Vázquez, Silvia Giorguli Saucedo, David Lindstrom
• “Mexican Migrant Integration in the United States: Fifty Years of Evidence from the Mexican Migration Project,” David Lindstrom
• “Las interacciones entre las experiencias migratorias de los padres y el logro educativo de los hijos,” Silvia Giorguli Saucedo, Bryant Jensen, María Adela Angoa Pérez
• “Inserción y continuidad de migrantes de retorno en los mercados de trabajo urbanos y rurales de México,” Salvador Cobo Quintero, Silvia Giorguli Saucedo
• “The Roles of Gender, Birth Order, Family structure, and Conditions in Sending Communities on the Structure of International Migrant Sibling Networks in Mexico and Senegal,” Fernando Riosmena, Mao-Mei Liu
• “Adjustment of Status through Guest-Worker Migration: A Case Study from Pinal de Amoles, QRO,” Bryan Moorefield
• “Perfiles ocupacionales de los migrantes de retorno. Análisis binacional sobre los efectos de la migración sobre las ocupaciones durante la transición a la vida adulta,” Andrea Bautista León, Gabriela Sánchez-Soto

Photo (l to r): Kathryn Klaas, graduate student El Colegio de México and former Brown Visiting Research Fellow; Bryan Moorefield, PSTC trainee in Anthropology; Gustavo Vega, Professor of International Relations and Secretary General, El Colegio de México and former Brown Visiting Professor; Silvia E. Giorguli Saucedo, Professor of Demography. President El Colegio de México, and PSTC alumna; Mao-Mei Liu, Lecturer University of California Berkeley and former PSTC postdoc; Ricardo Mora, Postdoctoral Fellow Princeton University and  former Brown-BIARI Visiting Research Fellow; David Lindstrom, PSTC faculty associate; and Enrique Martinez, Assistant Professor University of Guadalajara and former Brown Visiting Research Fellow. Photo courtesy of Bryan Moorefield.