Region of Origin and Rural-Urban Migration in Mexico: Some General Comments and a Case Study of Entrepreneurial Migration from the West *

Abstract

This article examines the question of the representativeness of the findings on rural-urban migration in Mexico and the effect that the selection of cases from one greographical region has upon generalizations about rural-urban migration in Mexico in general. The conclusion presented is that generalizations about migration based on research in any one region of Mexico lead to biased statements concerning the total process of rural-urban migration in Mexico. Data on rural-urban migration from a village in western Mexico is presented and compared with material contained in three published studies of migration from villages in southern Mexico to illustrate region-related variations.