Kin Ties and Migration Channels: Evidence of Cumulative Patterns from the Case of French Overseas-Mainland Migrations

Marine Haddad , French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED)

This paper investigates the effect of kin ties on migration from the French Overseas departments (Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guyana and La Réunion) to metropolitan France. Since the 1960’s, the French state has provided DOM migrants with mobility aid, which makes DOM-mainland migrations a great case to study networks effects in the presence of institutionalized migration intermediaries. Using discrete-time event history analysis and a multilevel structure, this paper assesses the respective influence of ties with migrants who used mobility aid and ties with migrants who did not use mobility aid on chances of migration with and without aid. Results highlight the role of kin ties in shaping segmented channels of migration: when their siblings migrate using public aid, individuals become more likely to migrate and to use public aid; when their siblings migrate without public aid, individuals become more likely to migrate without public aid. This work is the first to compare systematically movers and stayers from the French overseas, accounting for the role of family relations and migration policies. It broadens the scope of results on migrant networks: differentiating both ties and migration outcomes based on the use of public aid shows how migrant ties not only influence the chances of migration, but the type of migration as well. While previous literature has mainly focused on the choice of location, our results stress the impact of migrant network on the resources mobilized by migrants to facilitate their journey, which are as likely to influence migrants’ integration paths.

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 Presented in Session 63. International Migration