Social Networks & Migration 1999 - 2004
Background
This research explores interrelationships among migration,
contraceptive choice, and social networks using a unique set of social
surveys collected in Nang Rong, Thailand. Using a census approach
in villages of origin, complete social network data were collected on
multiple relations and at multiple levels of observation (individual,
household, and village). Social network data were collected from
out-migrants also, who can be explicitly linked to their households and
villages of origin. The network data in conjunction with
prospective panel design that followed up in 1994 and 2000 all
households and individuals covered in 1984, make possible a rich array
of analyses. The proposed work is "bridge" work, linking for
separate, yet related fields.
Purpose
The distinctive Nang Rong data permit for the following four specific aims:
1. All longitudinal data sets lose some panel members in
follow-up data collection, and these losses are unlikely to be
random. The first specific aim asks whether household and
community position in social networks influence success in finding
migrants, traditionally the most difficult to follow.
Investigators examine the influence of social networks at each stage in
the follow-up process.
2. Remittances from migrants to their origin households and
villages has long been of interest to the migration field.
Investigators examine whether the migrant's position and the migrant's
family's position in social networks affect remittances (whether,
composition, amount). They also ask about migrant support, the
flow of money and goods from the place of origin to support the migrant
in the place of destination. Investigators allow for change in
the migrant's origin household and examine the flow of resources
between the migrant and all households that might have resulted from
the fissuring of the original household. In preparation for the
substantive analyses, they will capitalize on redundancy in the data to
see if the giving and receiving parties agree in their reporting.
3. Building upon work that the population field started in
the 1960s, but then suspended, investigators examine the extent to
which contraceptive choices are related to position in the household
network and the characteristics of that network at the village
level. Earlier work in Nang Rong provided strong indirect
evidence for the role of social networks. Explicit measures of
social network variables are now available. This specific aim
meshes will with the work of others in Kenya, Korea, and
elsewhere (including colleagues' work on Adolescent Health) probing the
role of networks in the fertility process.
4. Finally, investigators explore the consequences of
migration for social networks, comparing the social position of recent
and more established households within rural villages and also
examining the effects of gains and losses in household
membership. Among the other benefits of this work is that it will
address the exogeneity of social networks in models.
Analytical Methods
Click
here to learn about the construction of social networks variables and analyses.
Contributions to the Field
This research merges traditions in the study of social networks, social
demography the life course framework, and survey methodology. It
examines the potential of the social network framework, social network
data and techniques of analysis to bring fresh insights into social
demography, the life course framework,a nd survey methodology.
And conversely, it uses social demography and the life course framework
to understand aspects of the determinants of the shape of social
networks.
Funding
This project is funded by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.