Weak ties, strong ties: Network principles in Mexican migration

Five network principles are elaborated from Literature on Mexican immigrant s and from research that I conducted on immigration from a rancho in Jalisc o state to a variety of destinations within the United States. These princi ples are, first, that networks are multilocal, encompassing a number of geo graphical destinations. The importance of destinations, however, may change over time. Second, the anchoring points at any given geographical location are the work sites where immigrants find employment. Thus, labor market co nditions structure where immigrants go and where they stay. Third, new geog raphical locations are often accessed through the "strength of weak ties," leading to geographic dispersion. Over time, some weak ties may be converte d to strong ties though marriage or compadrazgo. Fourth, both dense network s and diffuse, weak-tie, or acquaintance networks constitute "social capita l" for their members. Fifth, given the geographical dispersion at the work site and/or work type clustering found among immigrants from any particular source community, the latter can best be explained by job recruitment prim arily through dense network members, especially close relatives.