Search of Peace: Structural Adjustment, Violence, and International Migration

Steven Elías Alvarado and Douglas S. Massey
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Steven Elías Alvarado: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Douglas S. Massey: Princeton University

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2010, vol. 630, issue 1, 137-161

Abstract: The authors analyze the effects of structural adjustment and violence on international migration from selected countries in Latin America by estimating a series of event history models that predicted the likelihood of initial migration to the United States as a function of the murder rate, economic openness, and selected controls in the country of origin. Although several theories posit a connection between structural economic change and violence, such a pattern held only in Nicaragua, where the homicide rate increased as the economy was opened to trade and average incomes deteriorated. Moreover, only in Nicaragua was lethal violence positively related to out-migration. In Mexico, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, rising violence reduced the likelihood of emigration. Violence does not appear to have uniform effects on patterns of international migration but depends on broader social and political conditions within particular countries.

Keywords: international migration; political violence; homicide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:630:y:2010:i:1:p:137-161

DOI: 10.1177/0002716210368107

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