The Effect of Social Context, Social Structure, and Social Capital on International Migration from Mexico.

It is often not clear whether "social capital" is used to explain the presence of a social structure or the operation of a social process, or whether the resource at play is tangible or intangible. Although social capital as a theoretical concept may carry considerable potential for explanation and understanding in sociology, it is still in its early stage of formulation and needs to be developed further. This paper examines how the effects of social capital depend on the network structure from which the capital emerges. I argue that, depending on the context in which networks form, social capital is more or less powerful in determining migratory outcomes. I use special network data collected in four communities in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico (two rural villages, a town, and a city) to examine how social context - in this case community size - affects the structure and organization of social networks and the way networks, in turn, operate to produce social capital. My results suggest characteristic interrelationships between social context, social structure, and social capital and that migration theorists, therefore, must pay greater attention to network structure when attempting to understand how social capital is created and diffused and when modeling its effects. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]