Family-propelled migration and the appearance of social networks

This chapter discusses several ideas about social networks and family-propelled migration. It engages the authors’ recent work on family separation and reunification of youth migrants, as well as new findings from a project about refugee resettlement. The chapter combines various literatures about the causes and consequences of migration to show how family-propelled migration operates as a useful and generative concept when attempting to understand the complex dynamics of migration today. It concludes with a multi-tiered explanation of how community integration is helped or hindered, and a broad policy analysis with suggestions for how societies help migrant families integrate into their communities.