In this paper, I analyze how the association between Mexico-U.S. migration and marriage varies across socioeconomic settings in origins. Using Mexican Migration Project data and employing bilevel survival analysis with controls for socioeconomic, migrant network, and marriage market characteristics and family size, I find that single people are most likely to migrate relative to those married in areas of recent industrialization, where the Mexican patriarchal system is weaker and economic opportunities for both men and women make post-marital migration less attractive. Marital status is not significant in agriculture-dependent areas, where the bargaining power of husbands might be higher relative to other settings; their age-profiles of earnings flatter; and remunerated female work scarcer, making migration attractive later in the life course. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Migration Gender United States marriage Mexico Family

statistical analysis industry human statistics ethnology Mexico family size Family Characteristics marriage United States Young Adult Humans Adolescent male female Socioeconomic Factors socioeconomics Article Retrospective Studies adult migration multilevel analysis Emigration and Immigration Transients and Migrants retrospective study