Family and community networks in Mexico-US migration

A household's decision to send migrants is based on information it has on t he entry costs, expected returns, and risks of migration. Information and a ssistance flow from both family migrant networks and community migrant netw orks. Using data from a national survey of rural Mexican households, we sho w the importance of networks in both the decision to migrate and the level of migration. We find that community and family networks are substitutes in assisting migration, suggesting that, once migration is well established i n a community family networks become less important. In addition, the devel opment of strong community networks erases the role Of household characteri stics in migration, allowing those initially least favored to also particip ate in migration. Finally, we show that network density at points of destin ation in the United States strongly affects where individuals choose to mig rate.