The Role of Households in International Migration and the Case of U.S.- Bound Migration from the Dominican Republic

Analysis of the role of the household in migration necessitates a theoretical framework that encompasses both variables. This study of Dominican migration contributes to this goal by exploring several propositions. Principal among these is the claim that the structure within which Dominican migration occurs is capital's requirement for a continuous stream of cheap, vulnerable labor and the need of households to reproduce themselves at an historically and culturally prescribed level of maintenance. The article's emphasis on household strategies clarifies several important issues, such as variation in the rates of migration among groups in the same peripheral area, the increased improvishment of nonmigrant members of sending communities, and the intensified dependency of emigrant households on the core economy.