Socioeconomic Returns to Migration Among Married Women

The aim of the present study is to (1) examine the effect of migration on changes in earnings among a cohort of older married women, and (2) assess whether "1returns" to migration vary systematically by the wife's educational and occupational resources in a manner consistent with the tenets of family resource theory. Using the older women cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey, we find that migration has a significant negative effect on earnings in the short-term, but that the longer-term effects are minimal. Contrary to our hypothesis, however, the negative effect of migration on married women's earnings is not diminished regardless of levels of educational and occupational resources. The implications of these results are discussed. A central tenet of sociological conceptualizations of migration is that it serves to loosen the ascriptive economic and social constraints of one's present location (Blau and Duncan; Lane). Migration allows individuals to take advantage of opportunities in other localities, thus serving as a mechanism for upward social mobility.I Indeed, this assumption underlies most cost-benefit or human capital models of geographic mobility. Economic models regard migration as an outcome of a rational assessment whereby individuals balance the benefits of migration against the costs or, alternatively, view migration as an investment expected to reap a socioeconomic "return" (Greenwood; Shaw). Utility-maximizing perspectives of migration decision-making have provided considerable impetus for research on