Conceptualizing international labor migration: a structuration perspective

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Economics

Background:

• Traditional functional and structural approaches to labor migration present a theoretical impasse.
• Existing solutions like systems and networks approaches have theoretical and empirical limitations.

Observation:

• The article examines international labor migration from the Philippines.
• It critiques existing theoretical frameworks for understanding migration.

Findings:

• Structuration theory provides a suitable framework for analyzing international labor migration.
• Migrant institutions are proposed as a more effective mid-level analytical concept than households or social networks.

Implications:

• This framework can guide future research on international labor migration.
• Understanding migrant institutions is key to articulating different levels of migration analysis.