U.S. Migration from Latin America: Gendered Patterns and Shifts

Since the second half of the twentieth century, studies have documented the presence of women and men among migrants to and from Latin America. This study analyzes gendered patterns of U.S. migration from a variety of nations south of the border and examines how the probabilities of migrating on a first U.S. trip shift over the life course and by legal status. Using life history data from the Mexican and Latin American Migration Projects (MMP and LAMP), the author estimates the conditional likelihoods that male and female household heads and spouses of a given age migrate with or without documents on a first U.S. trip from four nations (Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica) and from Puerto Rico. On the whole, findings suggest that the male-led process of undocumented migration from Mexico differs sharply from the female-led process of documented migration from the Dominican Republic and that the gendered patterns of U.S. migration from Nicaragua and Costa Rica fall somewhere in between. In contrast, Puerto Rico—U.S. mainland migration does not vary sharply by gender. These diverse gendered migration systems have implications for our understanding of migration in the Americas.