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This article contributes to our understanding of how the motivation to migrate varies depending on the stage in the life course, particularly during the youth-to-adult transition. Using data from the Mexican Migration Project, we estimate discrete-time-hazard models of the probabilities of a first migration, using individual, household, community, and macroeconomic variables during and after adolescence for both men and women. We show that the determinants of migration are different for adolescents than they are for adults. While migration-related social capital has proved to be an important factor in increasing and perpetuating migration, we find that its effect is even stronger for teenagers than for other age groups. We also shed light on how adolescent migration is influenced by other major markers of the transition to adulthood, such as education, labor force experience, and family formation.

This article draws on data from the Mexican Migration Project and the Latin American Migration Project to study patterns of occupational mobility among male migrant household heads who have returned from the United States to Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico. In general, migration to the United States increases the likelihood of upward mobility relative to nonmigrants if it begins at a relatively young age (before twenty-five), particularly in Costa Rica and Guatemala, where mobility is generally more fluid. In all countries, but especially Mexico, mobility prospects depend on a migrant’s own characteristics and the characteristics of the U.S. trip, as well the context of return. Education generally enhances occupational achievement upon return, as does greater U.S. experience and the holding of a nonmanual U.S. job, but taking more trips and having legal U.S. documents are generally associated with lower odds of occupational achievement at home.

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