Patterns of Migration to Monterrey, Mexico

Abstract

Monterrey, Mexico is a rapidly growing industrial metropolis, about half of whose growth in the last decades is due to net in-migration. A 1965 survey of 1640 men shows that a majority of migrants originate in rural or small urban places. However, size of place in itself is insufficient to identify differences in areas of origin by socioeconomic level, so a classification of zonas (a socioeconomically homogeneous grouping of municípios) is provided and the different circumstances of out-migration from these different areas are described. There is a low conformity to the stage (step) migration model due to the lack of a fully developed urban hierarchy, the unfavorable opportunity structure of intermediate size places, and the fact that migration takes place within a kinship network that favors direct migration.