Doctoral Dissertation Research: Migration, Social Mobility, and Self-Employment

这项研究直接为缩小收入差距的政策提供信息。世界上80%以上的人口生活在低收入到中等收入国家。这些地区的特点是社会经济分层程度高，代内和代间流动性低。尽管广泛的研究记录了分层的模式，但很少有研究考虑不同阶层工人可用的特定流动路径。正如著名经济学家加里·菲尔兹(Gary Fields，2013)在最近提交给联合国的报告中指出的那样，2015年后发展政策的一个关键目标应该是确定“促进自营职业者从一个领域毕业到另一个领域、收入更高的就业形式的干预措施”。本文通过识别与个体户向上和向下的经济流动性相关的因素来响应这一号召。在用来解决收入差距的主要战略中，教育改革是一项重要的战略，但初步结果表明，为没有受过多少教育的自营职业者提供商业资本和获得信贷的政策，可能在短期内具有促进流动性的最大潜力。这项研究也有助于当代关于美国移民融入的辩论。通过记录墨西哥移民在其原籍社区可获得的经济流动路径，这项研究将结合派遣国经济不平等的更广泛模式来说明经济融合的过程。如果不首先了解新移民的来源地，就不可能真正理解和接纳他们。这个项目调查了两种流动途径--自营职业和国际移民--墨西哥是一个高度不平等的国家，不同社会阶层的工人通常使用这两种流动途径。为此，联合投资委员会将1)收集2008-2012年具有全国代表性的墨西哥个体户小组数据集；2)分析对城市和工业社区的个体户返乡移民进行的52次深入访谈，以及对农村和农业社区的个体户返乡移民进行的30次访谈；3)制定个体户的类型，确定边缘、临时和成功的企业；以及4)使用定量方法分析社会阶层和市场部门如何影响所有个体户的企业失败风险。这项拟议的研究将解决两个相关的研究问题：第一，在高度分层的劳动力市场中，自雇是一种流动途径吗？第二，在美国的移民经历如何影响城市和农村派遣社区的返乡劳工移民的自谋职业轨迹？

This research directly informs policies to reduce income disparities. More than 80% of the world's population live in low- to middle-income countries. These regions are characterized by a high degree of socioeconomic stratification and low levels of intra- and intergenerational mobility. Although extensive research documents patterns of stratification, few studies consider particular mobility pathways available to different classes of workers. As the noted economist, Gary Fields (2013), observed in his recent report to the United Nations, a critical aim of post-2015 development policies should be identifying "interventions to promote the graduation of the self-employed from one segment to another, higher-earning form of employment." This dissertation responds to that call by identifying factors associated with both upward and downward economic mobility among the self-employed. Of the major strategies used to address income disparities, educational reform is an important one, but, initial results suggest that policies that provide business capital and access to credit to self-employed workers with little schooling may have the greatest short-term potential to promote mobility. This research also contributes to contemporary debates about immigrant incorporation in the United States. By documenting economic mobility pathways available to Mexican immigrants in their origin communities, this study will contextualize the process of economic incorporation within broader patterns of economic inequality in sending countries. It is impossible to truly understand and incorporate new arrivals without first understanding their origins.This project investigates two mobility pathways--self-employment and international migration--commonly used by workers of varying social classes in Mexico, a highly unequal country. To do so, the Co-PI will 1) assemble a nationally representative panel dataset of self-employed Mexican workers in 2008-2012; 2) analyze 52 in-depth interviews that were conducted with self-employed return migrants in an urban and industrial community, and 30 interviews that were conducted with self-employed return migrants in a rural and agrarian community; 3) develop a typology of self-employment that identifies marginal, temporary, and successful businesses; and 4) use quantitative methods to analyze how social class and market sector affects the risk of business failure among all self-employed workers. The proposed research will address two related research questions: First, is self-employment a mobility pathway in highly stratified labor markets? Second, how does migration experience in the United States shape self-employment trajectories among returning labor migrants in urban and rural sending communities?