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General Theory in the Study of Migration: Current Needs and DifficultiesAuthor(s): J. J. Mangalam and Harry K. SchwarzwellerReviewed work(s):Source: International Migration Review, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Autumn, 1968), pp. 3-18Published by: The Center for Migration Studies of New York, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3002178.

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General Theory in the Study of Migration:Current Needs and Difficulties1

by J. J. Mangalam and Harry K. Schwarzweller*The need for a more comprehensive, generaltheoreticalapproach to the study of migrationis widely recognized by sociologists and otherbehavioral scientists.At present,no major syn?thesizing effort,directly relevant to the con*cerns of sociologists, exists. Against a back*ground of recent trends and lines of inquiry inmigration research, drawn from an extensivereview of the current literature,probable rea?sons are suggested for this lag in generaltheory-building. n addition to a number ofmisconceptions about the nature of migration,which continue to prevail, and difficultiestem?mingfromthe sources of migrationdata, whichreinforce those misconceptions, the study ofmigrationhas suffered rom a lack of concernon the part of our leading sociological the?orists.

The need for a general theory, systematic in its approach and rele?vant to the concerns of behavioral scientists, that offers useful guidelinesfor research dealing with and delving into the complex phenomena of mi?gration, is expressed in various ways by many contemporary scholars.Some, enthusiastically blunt and optimistically direct, call for a multi-disciplinary reorientation in the study of migration.2 Other scholars,1. This is one of a series of papers from the Beech Creek Study sponsored bythe National Instituteof Mental Health in cooperation with the Kentucky Agri?cultural Experiment Station. The authors gratefully cknowledge the suggestionsof our colleague, James S. Brown, and the patient work of our able assistant,Mrs. Cornelia Morgan, Sociology Department, Universityof Kentucky.2. See, e.g., George L. Wilber, Determinants of Migration Research and TheirConsequences, Population Research and AdministrativePlanning, ConferenceSeries No. 10, State College: Mississippi State University,Division of Sociologyand Rural Life, pp. 52-61.* J. J. Mangalam, Department of Sociology and Anthropology,University ofGuelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada; Harry K. Schwarzweller, Department of So?ciology, West Virginia University,Morgantown, West Virginia.

There

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4 THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEWsomewhat more discreet in their choice of foci of interest, advocate abroadening of theoretical perspectives but within their disciplines.3More often, however, the need for a general explanatory svstem tohelp organize, i.e. to make sense out of the steadily accumulating massof migration data and, further, to help orient new research towardproblems that are strategically important for the elaboration and verifica?tion of knowledge about migration, is manifested in what scholars do andare doing relevant to that goal. Efforts at model-building to study variousaspects of migration4 for example, and the numerous attempts to con?struct typologies of migration,5 indicate an existing need for a moregeneral, systematic approach. Indeed, there appears to be considerableagreement among scholars from various disciplines that continued prog?ress in migration study is hampered by serious inadequacies in thetheories of migration; that migration theory tends to be time-bound,culture-bound, and discipline-bound; that, as a social phenomenon,migration cannot be understood in meaningful or practical terrn^ withouta comprehensive grasp of the dynamic interplay among demographic,economic, social, psychological, and other relevant factors and dimen?sions that converge in the process of migration and in the act of mi?grating.

As a preliminary, albeit necessary, step toward correcting this situa?tion and toward fostering the difficult task of building a general theoreticalframework that can efficiently interpret migration data of diverge kindsand weld them into a useful explanatory system, one must take into ac-3. See, e.g., Rupert B. Vance, Is Theory for Demographers? no. 88-90 andPhilin M. Hauser, Present Status and Prospects of Research in Population. pp.70-85, in JosephJ. Spengler and Otis Dudley Duncan (Eds.), Population Theoryand PnJirv.Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1956.4. Albert F. Anderson, Theoretical Considerations in the Analysis of Miration,Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, owa State Universityof Science and Technology,1962; John K. Folger, Models in Migration, in Selected Studies of MigrationSince World War Two, Proceedings of the 3^th Annual Conference of theMilbank Memorial Fund, New York: Milbank Memorial Fund, 1957, pp. 155-164; Harold Frank Goldsmith, The Meaning of Migration: A Study of theMigration Expectations of High School Students, Unpublished Ph.D. disserta?tion, Michigan State University,1962: Eleanor Noble Nishiura, Internal Migra?tion in Indiana, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, urdue University,1959; RonaldTaft, A Psychological Model for the Study of Social Assimilation, HumanRelations, 10 (May, 1957), pp. 141-156.5. Otis D. Duncan, The Theory and Consequences of Mobility of Farm Popula?tion, in Spengler and Duncan, op. cit.,pp. 417-434; Ajit Das Gupta, Types andMeasure of InternalMigration, nternationalPopulation Conference Proceedings,Vienna: International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, 1959, pp.619-624; Rudolf Heberle, Types of Migration, Southwest Social Science Quar?terly36 (June, 1955), pp. 65-70; William Petersen, A General Tvpology ofMigration, American Sociological Review, 23 (June, 1958), pp. 256-266; WilliamPetersen, The General Determinants of Migration, in the author's Population,New York: MacMillan Company, 1961, pp. 592-621.

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GENERAL THEORY IN MIGRATION 5count the current state of migration theory and research, and attemptto provide a rationale for the presumed lag in general theory-building.Those are the aims of this paper.Our appraisal of current migration theories and theory-buildingresearch activity is based upon a systematic search of the contemporarymigration literature; i.e. since 1955, instigated in conjunction with thedesign of an empirical research study dealing with the social and psy?chological adjustments of rural migrants in urban industrial settings.This search brought to our attention a vast amount of relevant literaturefrom sundry sources. Focusing, in the main, on the major sociologicaland the appropriate demographic journals, but drawing into our review asmany of the recent books, dissertations, and special reports on the sub?ject as possible, we prepared and analyzed an elaborate catalog of ab?stracts.6 These materials are being published separately, as an annotatedbibliography and over-view of current migration literature.7 The presentpaper summarizes our impressions, derived from an orderly gleaning ofthe literature selected for review, supported by documentary referenceswhenever possible, but, of course, molded by and formulated vis-a-visour own sociological perspectives. Let it be understood, at the outset,that our leaning is toward a functional approach to the study of socialorganization within an action framework.

RECENT TRENDS AND LINES OF INQUIRYOur discussion about the reasons for the current paucity of general theoryin the study of migration should be prefaced by a thorough, sensitizingreview of the recent migration literature. Since this is not possible, given6. This systematicreview included all articles on migrationpublished from 1955through1962 in the following ournals: American Journalof Sociology, AmericanSociological Review, Human Relations, Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly,Population Studies, Rural Sociology, Social Forces, Social Problems, Sociologyand Social Research, SouthwesternSocial Science Quarterly. Further materialswere located, such as books, monographs,dissertations, nd reports,from generalreference ources such as, Agricultural ndex, Dissertation Abstracts,SociologicalAbstracts,and the like. In addition, various bibliographic sources were consulted,such as: GuntherBeijer, Rural Migrants in Urban Setting,The Hague: MartinusNijhorr ,963; Hope T. Eldridge, The Materials of Demography: A Selected andAnnotated Bibliography, New York: Columbia University Press, 1959; andothers.For purposes of the presentpaper, some of the more recent articles andbooks on migration, .e. since 1962, were reviewed and considered in our ponder-ings. A brief mention should be made of the method of abstraction.Abstracterswere instructed o indicate the following: universe and sample studied, generalfoci of the study,hypotheses,major variables, measurementtechniques employed,and general conclusions ventured. Each abstract was typed on a 5x8 UnisortAnalysis Card, coded, and subjected to analysis as part of the currentmigrationliterature.7. J. J.Mangalam, Human Migration: A Guide to MigrationLiteraturein EnglishDuring 1955-1962, to be published by University of Kentucky Press.

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6 THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEWthe spatial dimensions of a journal article, we shall merely indicate bysome brief remarks the tone of research activity in this field of inquiryand by means of illustration the progress being made in sociologicalthought and general theory-building on this subject.

Not only has there been a steady increase during the past decade inthe number of publications added to the burgeoning literature on migrationbut, more important, current research reports evidence a greater sophisti?cation in the techniques used for collecting and processing migrationdata, a greater diversification in the variables employed to study thephenomenon, and a growing concern with theoretical aspects in theapproach to migration research. Furthermore, an increasing awareness ofthe utility for social planning of factual information and general knowl?edge derived from migration studies, which in turn stimulates in?creased support for such research activity, is not solely a North Ameri?can and European trend. As the nations of Asia, Africa and LatinAmerica press toward economic development and encounter difficultiesfrom the reallocation of labor and relocation of families, the prac?tical importance of being able to understand, predict, and explain thispopulation movement and the forces of social change unleashed in theprocess, becomes more obvious. Indeed, migration is recognized nownot only as a problem-creating phenomenon, but also as a problem-solving social process.8 The current state of interest in migration, par?ticularly rural to urban migration within the emerging nations,9 is suchthat one can safely predict a rapid proliferation of migration researchin the years ahead.10A considerable improvement has been made in the measurement of8. Jaffee nd Wolfbein,for example, call migration a necessary, if not sufficientcondition to the attainment of full employment in the post-war period. A. J.Jaffee nd Seymour Wolfbein, Internal Migration and Full Employment in theU. S., Journal of the American Statistical Association, 40 (September, 1945),pp. 351-363.Whereas the processes and effects of internal migration in the United Statesare not necessarily applicable as such to other nations, it is generallyagreed thatboth in technologically developing and developed nations, migration plays animportantpart in their economic growth.9. As examples of this concern, see JanetAbu-Lughod, Migrant AdjustmenttoCity Life: The Egyptian Case, American Journal of Sociology, 67 (January,1962), pp. 22-32; StigAnderson and D. Banerji, Report on a Study of Migrationin Four Taluks of Bangalore District, Population Review, 6 (January, 1962),pp. 69-77; Kunniparampil C. Zachariah, Historical Study of Internal Migrationin the Indian Sub-Continent, 1901-1931, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,Uni?versityof Pennsylvania, 1962.10. Indeed, in seeking a solution to world's population problem, at least onestudentof migrationhas turnedhis thoughtstoward outer space. Gilbert Hardin,Interstellar Migration and the Population Problem, Journal of Heredity, 50(March-April, 1959), pp. 68-70.

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GENERAL THEORY IN MIGRATION 7internal migration as a demographic phenomenon. To some extent, this isa function of the sheer numerical increase of demographicaUy-orientedsocial scientists. However, one must also give a great deal of credit tothe demographer's recognition of migration as fundamental dimensionin the study of population and its changes, their respect for and excellenttraining in the use of statistics, and, of course, the amenability of demo?graphic variables to statistical manipulation. Though demographersadvocate still better methods of analysis11 and still more improvement ofprimary data-collection techniques,12 great technical strides have beenmade in recent years and there is, in the contemporary literature, asatisfying operational elegance and mathematical neatness in the mannerby which the demographic dimensions of migration are studied. Thedevelopment of mathematical models for computer simulation studies ofmigration has been underway for some time.13 Yet, by the same token,these improvements in the techniques of demographic analyses have notbeen matched by similar progress in methodological strategies. Migrationstudies for the most part continue to be based upon data derived fromsecondary sources and, too often, the availability of data sources dictatesthe specification of problems and formulation of research hypotheses.

Another development in the study of migration, paralleling thatin the social sciences as a whole, is the greater diversity of variables usedin researches dealing with this complex phenomenon. This is especiallytrue in studies on the selectivity of migration. In addition to such tradi?tional (i.e. demographically-relevant) variables as age, sex, distancetravelled, race or ethnic origins, education, occupation, income, and thelike, recent studies reveal an expansion of interest in attitudes, aspira?tions, motivations, values, community identification, institutional influ?ences, and other social and sociopsychological factors intrinsic to anadequate explanation of migration. Furthermore, in the attempt to ex?plain the dynamics of migration and their linkages with population andsocial change, greater effort s being made to explore the complex inter?relationships, for example, among sociological and demographic variables11. C. Horace Hamilton, Some Problems of Method in Internal MigrationResearch, Population Index, 27 (October, 1961), pp. 297-307.12. Karl E. Taeuber, Duration-of-Residence Analysis of Internal Migration inthe United States, Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly,39 (January, 1961), pp.116-131; James D. Tarver, Bureau of the Census Data on the Selectivity ofMigration from Farms, Rural Sociology, 22 (June, 1957), pp. 162-163.13. See, e.g., Daniel O. Price, A Mathematical Model for Migration Suitablefor Simulation on an Electronic Computer, The International Population Con?ference Proceedings, Vienna: International Union for the Scientific Study ofPopulation, 1959, pp. 665-673.

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8 THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW(long after Durkheim's suggestions for charting the morphological struc?ture of society).14What are the major themes or lines of inquiry emphasized by cur?rent research on migration? As a basis for reflection one should recallThomas and Znaniecki's Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1927),considered a classic in sociological theory, research, and writing, andundoubtedly one of the most important studies of migration ever pub?lished.15 They argue, in a now famous Methodological Note, that afundamental problem in the study of migration?one which should re?ceive high priority in the design of research?is how values act upon thepreexisting attitudes of the migrant. Furthermore, through their ownresearch, by actually studying the conditions and characteristics of thesocial organizations in which migrants were involved, they demonstratedthe need to understand migrants and their problems in terms of boththeir areas of origin and destination. The latter theme is repeated byDorothy Thomas in her oft-quoted research memorandum of 1938.16Yet, in spite of the relevance of these recommendations for migrationresearch, there is little evidence explicit in the recent literature that con?temporary students have benefited from or built upon those suggestedlines of inquiry.

The more strictly demographic studies continue to focus, in largemeasure, on research determining the characteristics of migrants, thereasons for their spatial mobility or the factors responsible for migration,the direction of migration, and the description (in economic or demo?graphic terms) of the areas of destination. Explicitly or implicitly, thepush-pull hypothesis dominates the mode of thinking about migration.Behavioral scientists, on the other hand, tend to emphasize thesocial problems aspects of migration, spanning a wide range from the

migrants' lack of participation in formal social organizations through theproblems of family disorganization in migrant labor camps. Indeed, theone theme on which more researches of general theoretical import havebeen done is the problem of assimilation of migrants into the host society.Hence, an examination of this area of migration research may be usefulto illustrate contemporary advances in general theory-building.14. See, e.g., James D. Tarver, Predicting Migration, Social Forces 39 (March,1961), pp. 207-214; Wilbert Moore Sociology and Demography in Philip M.Hauser and Otis Dudley Duncan (Eds.), The Study of Population, Chicago:The University of Chicago Press, 1959; Kingsley Davis, Human Society, NewYork: MacMillan Company, 1949.15. W. I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, Polish Peasant in Europe and America,New York: Alfred Knopf, 1927. Second revised edition reprinted by DoverPublications, Inc. 1958.16. Dorothy Swaine Thomas, Research Memorandum on Migration Differentials,New York: Social Science Research Council, 1938.

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GENERAL THEORY IN MIGRATION 9In the more than a dozen or so of these recent studies that have as?

similation as the central focus, there is none that is formulated within anexplicitly sociological frame of reference. Excellent as these studies arewithin the limits imposed by their problems and data, they have eitheremployed sociopsychological frames of reference,17 or set up ad hochypotheses on the basis of available knowledge, 18 or attempted to doboth in combination.19 Where sociopsychological frames of referenceare used, the emphasis is on migrants as individuals; in the case of ad hochypotheses, the concern is with finding immediate solutions to pressingproblems. Without taking issue with the relevance and comparativeutility of these approaches, we wish to suggest that, in either case, thenet result is a highly segmented view of a complex phenomenon and arather limited perspective of its various dimensions.For exanple. one would sav that Eisenstadt's studv of the absorptionof Tewich immigrants into the state of Tsrael comes close to being couchedwithin a framework of. what we wonld c^ll. a general sociological theoryof migration 20 Eisenstadt focuses on the immigrants' basic motivationsand role-expectations, as developed throughout the migratory process,and the various demands made upon and facilities offered to them inthe country of absorption. 21 This point of view, to be sure, has a greatdeal to contribute toward a more general theory of migration. Yet, let itbe noted that Eisenstadt himself is more concerned about the socio-psycholoeical nature of the processes of immigration than in developinga more comprehensive a pproach to the study of migration phenomena.22

Jones, in a constructively critical review of Eisenstadt's study, pointsout the sociop^vcholodcal nature inherent in that approach and, in turn,suggests two related sociological approaches for the study of the mi-17. See, e.g., Dudley E. DeGroot. The Assimilation of Postwar Immigrants inAtlanta, Georgia, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,Ohio State University,1957;Samuel N. Eisenstadt, The Absorption of Immigrants, Glencoe, Illinois: TheFree Press, 1955.18. See, e.g., Nancy M Krueger, Assimilation and Adjustment of Postwar Im?migrants in Franklin County, Ohio, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, OhioState University, 1955; Bertram Hu*chinson, Some Evidence Related to Matri?monial Selection and ImmigrantAssimilation in Brazil, Population Studies, 11(November, 1957), pp. 149-156; Alan Richardson, The Assimilation of BritishImmigrants n Australia, Human Relations, 10 (May, 1957), pp. 157-166.19. See, e.g., Melvin DeFleur and Chang-Soo Cho, Assimilation of Japanese-Born Women in an American City, Social Problems, 4 (January, 1957), pp.244-256.20. Eisenstadt, op. cit.21. Ibid., p. 10.22. We are not objecting to a sociopsychological frameworkper se, but to thefact that such an approach seems to exclude equally important aspects of themigrationphenomenon. The same criticismcan be raised with respect to Thomasand Znaniecki's approach in The Polish Peasant.

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10 THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEWgrants' adjustment.23 One suggestion is to treat adjustment within thecontext of socialization; the other is to study the significance of newmembers to a social system with emphasis on the relation of the system'sfunctional requirements to its methods of dealing with new members. 24Though the Jones article appeared in 1955, to our knowledge no researchfollow-up on those suggestions has been reported.To sum up: Our brief review of trends and lines of inquiry in con?temporary research on migration, and our remarks about the theoreticalperspectives employed in pursuing one important aspect of migrationstudy, are intended to establish the tone of the current situation and thecontext of the theory-building problems toward which this paper is ad?dressed. On the one hand, we find a heightened awareness of the im?portance of migration study, an intensification of research activity, andan expansion of technical competencies in researching this phenomenon.On the other hand, we see a fragmented approach to the study of migra?tion, a lack of concern for developing a general, viz. sociological, theoryof migration, and, indeed, a paucity of theoretical activity and interest.To be sure, references to many excellent researches in the recent litera?ture, which possess considerable theoretical import, have been omittedfrom our discussion.25 Suffice it to note that none of these studies providean overall general theoretical point of view to aid in making sen^e outof the ever-increasing number of empirical and quasi-empirical researchesdealing with the various aspects of migration.26 As Wilber suggests,these studies, detached and isolated as they are in making conceptual andmethodological advances, ought to be regarded as an interim phase inbuilding toward a more comprehensive theory of migration. At present,no major synthesizing effort exists. The current lack of generalizedtheories of migration, given the obvious exigencies for a more compre?hensive approach, demands a consideration of the probable reasons forthis lag in theory-building.

SOME MISCONCEPTIONS IN THE STUDY OF MIGRATIONThe mode of abstracting a phenomenon affects, in various ways, itsconceptualization and, consequently, the approach to inquiry.27 Most of23. F. E. Jones, Sociological Perspective on Immigrant Adjustment, SocialForces, 35 (October, 1956), pp. 39-47.24. Ibid., p. 45.25. Those, forexample, by Leonard Blumberg and Robert Bell, Urban Migrationand Kinship Ties, Social Problems, (Spring, 1959), pp. 328-333; EugeneLitwak, Geographic Mobility and Extended Family Cohesion, AmericanSociological Review, 25 (June, 1960), pp. 385-394.26. Wilber, op. cit.27. The distinctiondrawn here between the abstraction of a phenomenon andits conceptualization is a simple but necessary one for our present purposes.

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GENERAL THEORY IN MIGRATION 11the migration studies reported in the recent literature reveal, in ourjudgement, serious inadequacies in the manner that migration, as aphenomenon, is abstracted. This, in turn, leads to misconceptions aboutthe nature of migration and, hence, to definitional difficulties, segmental-ized research activity (i.e., narrow and highly discipline-bound), and afragmented theoretical development. Let us examine some of these mis?conceptions and their loci.

Randomness of MigrationThe notions still persist, though no longer widely favored by contem?porary scholars, that migration is a random phenomenon, that the deci?sion to migrate is a unique individual response to a social interactionalor situational accident, and that prediction of migration is, at best, ofa low order. Sorokin, in an early work, contended that, although migrantswere predominantly young adults and females, net urban selection was,in the main, a chance selection.28 Some scholars, today, follow this lineof reasoning in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary;29 i.e., evidencefrom empirical studies utilizing sophisticated measures of a diversity ofvariables which, taken in total, support the view that some kind of basesfor selectivity exist or probably exist in almost all instances of migra?tion.30Abstraction implies what Lazarsfeld calls originating observations. Paul F.Lazarsfeld, Problems in Methodology, in Robert K. Merton, Leonard Broom,and Leonard Cottrell (Eds.), Sociology Today, New York: Basic Books, 1959, pp.39-78. Abstracting, n this sense, means drawing that part of the phenomenonwhich is sociological or sociologically-relevant from 'the concrete reality ofspecifics and considering it as a general object for study apart from specialcircumstances.By conceptualization we mean translating his original imagery tocommunicable words in the formof a workable definitionnot necessarily opera-tionalized. Abstractingand conceptualizing,therefore, re inextricablybound to?gether n the theory-building rocess.28. PitirimSorokin, Carle C. Zimmerman and Charles J. Galpin, A SystematicSource Book in Rural Sociology, Volume 3, Minneapolis: The University ofMinnesota Press, 1932, p. 507.29. Petersen, for example, talks about the random movements of millions ofpersons in the United States. He wisely notes, however, that these movementsare random only because we lack data and skill to order them into meaningfulpatterns.William Petersen, Internal Migration, in the author's op. cit., pp.153-178.30. In some cases, migrationis found to be selective of young people; YoshikoKasahara, The Influx and Exodus of Migrants Among the 47 Perfectures inJapan, 1920-1935, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan,1958; Joe Allen Martin, The Impact of Industrializationupon Agriculture: AStudy of Off-FarmMigration and AgriculturalDevelopment in Weakley County,Tennessee, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,Universityof Minnesota, 1955. Insome cases, propensityto migrate is negatively correlated with level of living;Walter B. Watson, Metropolitan Migration in the U. S. 1949-1950, UnpublishedPh.D. disseration,Universityof Wisconsin, 1959. In other cases, single females

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12 THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEWTo point out, also, how and why this lingering notion runs counterto the spirit of scientific inquiry should not be necessary.31 Scientific

theory can only be formulated on the bases of recurring and patternedevents. Hence, if migration is random behavior, the question of buildinga scientific theory of migration does not arise. It is sheer speculation toassess how this misconception about the nature of migration has affectedthe development of general theory for the study of migration. But, thatsuch a notion may obstruct general theory-building is clear.

ReductionismA more serious misconception, implicit in many approaches to migrationresearch, is that migration phenomena must be reduced to and concep?tualized in physical and biological terms. This notion is related to aninadequate abstraction of data from studies attempting to explain andpredict direction and volume of migration on the bases of physical andbiological variables.

Two outstanding examples of physical reductionism in migrationstudies are the variables of distance and age. Stouffer's attempt to sub?stitute the commonly utilized variable distance travelled with the moregeneral, behavioristically-meaningful concept intervening opportunities,illustrates the awareness of some sociologists about the theory-buildingproblems stemmnig from reductionism.32 Attempts to replace the chron?ological age variable with a variable more directly relevant to behaviorhave been less successful, though an excellent illustration is found inthe work of Yaukey on stage in the life cycle. 33

The most prevalent influence of biological reductionism is exem?plified by the use of sex of migrant as an explanatory and predictivevariable. One seldom, if ever, finds the concept sex role alluded toin the design of, and conclusions from, a migration study.are more likely to migrate; Edmund de S. Brunner, Population Research, inthe author's The Growth of a Science: A Half-Century of Rural SociologicalResearch in the U. S., New York: Harper and Brothers, 1957, pp. 42-63.31. Bogue, nevertheless,patiently calls attention to some of the consequencesthatwould ensue if migrationwere suddenlyto become random. Donald J. Bogue,The Population of the United States, Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959,p. 348.32. Samuel A. Stouffer, Intervening Opportunities: A Theory Relating Mobilityand Distance, American Sociological Review, 5 (December, 1940), pp. 845-857.See, also Theodore R. Anderson IntermetropolitanMigration: A Comparisonof the Hypotheses of Zipf and Stouffer American Sociological Review, 20 (June,1955), pp. 287-291.33. David W. Yaukey, A Comparison of Distribution by Classes of MigrantsWithinthe State of Washington, 1940-50, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,Uni?versityof Washington, 1956.

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GENERAL THEORY IN MIGRATION 13The point to note is a rather simple one, namely, that some var?iables such as age and sex can be interpreted as physical, biological,or sociological datum. But, a sociologist, viz. behavioral scientist, is in

serious error if he incorporates a physical or biological observation intoa general theory or behavioral interpretation without indicating its socio?logical or behavioral sense (which, of course, is quite different fromits demographic, biological, ecological, etc. sense ).34 In the past, asBogue remarks, some of us have approached human migration as onewould approach the study of migration of birds or the dispersion of in?sects from a common source. Others have likened migration to thefundamental laws of descriptive mechanics, gravitation, or electrosta?tics. 35 This misconception still tends to stand in the way of a more ade?quate theoretical treatment and synthesis of the vast amount of dataavailable from migration studies.

Migration as Individual BehaviorIn most migration studies the unit of analysis is the individual, and thismethodological strategy, in turn, through the process of abstraction, leadstoward a conception of migration as individual behavior. That migrationtends to be viewed as individual behavior, differentfrom inter-individualor social behavior, is evidenced, for example, by the many psychologicaland sociopsychological studies of migration employing such variablesas individual attitudes, motives, and aspirations. This approach tends toomit the human interactional element from migration and, consequently,to concentrate on individual characteristics in a more or less atomisticmanner. Most of the better known studies of migration are couched inthese terms.

It is not necessarily incorrect, of course, to think of migration asan individual behavior; for some purposes, to be sure, it may be useful.However, as requisite for building a general behavioristic theory, aconcerted research emphasis on the individual is much too narrow anapproach; a conceptualization of migration as individual behavior ismuch too truncated a view. From a behavioral standpoint, collectivityand interaction are the very heart of the phenomenon.34. One might posit a similar argument with respect to the use of economicobservations as sociological datum. Variables such as income and employmentstatus on the farm,for example, can be subsumed under tenurestatus, a variablemore relevant to sociological concerns. See C. Harold Brown, Personal andSocial CharacteristicsAssociated withMigrant Status Among Young Adult Malesfrom Rural Pennsylvania, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,Pennsylvania StateUniversity,1960; also Martin, op. cit.35. Bogue, op. cit., p. 505.

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GENERAL THEORY IN MIGRATION 15are unable to reflect the interactional dimensions of migration, they can?not and do not touch upon the basic social processes involved, hence,they offer little promise in the quest for general knowledge about mi?gration.38 Migration theory will remain under-developed as long as datafrom secondary sources dominate the wellsprings for empirical conclu?sions about the nature of this phenomenon.

LINES OF DISCIPLINE AND SOCIOLOGICALAVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR

A furtherquandary in the development of a general theory for the studyof migration can be traced to the more or less strict discipline-alignedorientations of scholars engaged in such study. As noted, migration stud?ies, for the most part, draw primary data from secondary sources such ascensus reports, and researchers using these data, for the most part, happento be demographers. Demographers, even those with sociological train?ing as in the United States, are not especially distinguished by their inter?est in theory-building in general. That demographers tend to be pre?occupied with collecting discrete data, operationalizing demographicvariables, and building mathematical models is critically noted by scholarswho, themselves, are eminent demographers.39Labor economists too are an important category of scholars engagedin contributing to the study of migration. Sophisticated in the use ofquantitative analytical techniques and statistics, they, like demographers,seem to draw upon secondary sources for data, though, to be sure, notexclusively. Their concerns with the phenomena of migration are or?ganized vis-a-vis such highly specialized economic problems as labormobility and economic growth, aggregate demand and under-employ-ment, and other aspects of the larger problem of manpower reallocation.Indeed, much of the research by labor economists is directed towardquestions which are relevant to and have their locus in, basic economicpolicy issues. Rarely alluded to are the interactional dimensions of mi?gration; i.e., from the behavioral point-of-view. More often than not,generalizations derived from these studies are elaborations or modifica?tions of the well-known dictums that labor moves in the direction ofhigher wages, and migration is closely related to economic adjust-38. Some attemptsto build relatively general theoretical frameworks for migra?tion studies have been less than successful, in our judgement, because the re?searcher-theorists ere dependingupon existingcensus data. See Anderson, op. cit;Nishiura, op. cit.; Mohamed Nasrat, Conceptual Variable Analysis of RuralMigrationin Iowa, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, owa State University,1958.39. See, epecially, the articles by Hauser and Vance in Spengler and Duncan,op, cit.

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16 THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEWment and growth. 40 If one is searching for generalizations, hypothesesand insights that are applicable toward building a comprehensive be?havioral explanation of migration, there is little to be gleaned from thenumerous studies reported, for example, in die two journals publishedby the International Labor Office.41

Sociologists, with the notable exception of demograohically-orientedsociologists, on the whole follow a sociopsychological point-of-view intheir approach to the study of migration. This is illustrated in the worksof Eisenstadt, Zubrzycki, Beijer, Thomas and Znaniecki and other well-known scholars.42 A sociopsychological perspective, of course, is necessa?ry if one wishes to grasp at the basic dimensions of the decision-makingprocess proceeding migration. and the adiustment phase which inevita-ably follows in its wake. Yet, the heavy emphasis in the sociologicalliterature upon the individual's subjective responses (which, as notedearlier, leads to a basic misconception about the nature of migration)to the virtual exclusion of research and theory-building activity directedtoward a more comprehensive sociological treatment of migration isdifficult to understand given the vast amount of thought and effort ex?pended, in recent years, on the development of general theory.This apparent avoidance by research sociologists of things sociologi?cal in the study of migration may be fostered by a neglect on the partof contemporary sociological theorists to concern themselves with popu?lation and its three components of change, namely, fertility,mortality,and migration. Indeed, since Emile Durkheim's On the Division of Labor(1933), which relates population growth to social organization, no majorwork of any comparable theoretical stature has appeared on the sceneto offer reasoned thought consistent with current empirical knowledgeabout this fundamental, sociological problem. Students of population,who for one reason or another have a sociological bent, find no bettersource of theoretical insight than the early writings of Durkheim forguidelines on the articulation of social theory with one of the majorcontingent conditions for any society, namely, population. Contemporarysociological theorists such as Talcott Parsons, Robert K. Merton, RobinM. Williams, George Romans, and Howard Becker, for whatever reasons,do not address themselves to this problem, except in a passing manner.40. For a summary of various economic theories of migration, see BrinleyThomas, Migration and Economic Growth, Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1954.41. These journals are The International Labor Review and Industryand Labor.42. Eisenstadt,op. cit.; JerzyZubrzycki,Settlersof the Latrobe Valley, Canberra:The Australian National University, 1964; Gunther Beijer, Rural Migrants inUrban Setting, The Hague: Martinus NijhorT, 1963; Thomas and Znaniecki,op. cit.

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GENERAL THEORY IN MIGRATION 17One notable exception is found in the work of Kingsley Davis.In his Human Society (1949) he indicates some of the problems in?volved in the study of migration and, though not intended as a theoreticalframework, he presents a rather useful typology. Nevertheless, in a laterwork, The Population of India and Pakistan (1951), perhaps becauseof the nature of his data which are derived from official Indian cen?

suses, he reverts to a traditional, demographic treatment of migration.43It is our contention that, if contemporary sociological theories (i.e.general, systematic, behavioristic theories) were brought to bear on thestudy of migration phenomena, both the study of migration phenomenaand the development of general sociological theory would be enhanced.To date, as our commentary on the state of migration theory attemptsto make clear, the study of migration has not been an object of concernfor our leading sociological theorists, nor has the enormous mass of find?ings produced by researchers in the field been incorporated into theevolving body of general theory. As a consequence, our current knowl?edge about migration and phenomena concomitant with migration tendsto be fragmentary, noncumulative, and non-sociological. For those ofus engaged in migration research, the exigencies for general theory in thestudy of migration are obvious.

ResumeLe besoin d'aborder 1'etude des migrations humaines d'un point de vuetheo etique plus general et comprehensif est largement reconnu en socio-logie comme dans les autres science sociales. A present, il n'existe aucuneffort mportant de synthese directement pertinent aux interets des socio-logues. Un exam en comprehensif des tendances recentes et des lignes d'en-quete dans le champ de recherche des migrations suggerent des raisons pro?bables de ce retard dans la construction d'une theorie generate. En plus denombreux malentendus sur la nature des migrations, qui continuent a pre-valoir, et les difficultesqui decoulent des sources des donnees sur les mi?grations, qui renforcent ces malentendus, l'etude des migrations a souffertd'un manque d'interet de la part de nos marquants theoriciens en socio-logie.

ResumenLa mayoria de los sociologos y especialistas de las ciencias sociales es-tan de acuerdo sobre la necesidad de un enfoque teorico y comprensivo del

43. Kingsley Davis, Human Society, New York: MacMillan Company, 1949;and The Population of India and Pakistan, Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress, 1951.

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18 THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEWproceso que llamamos migracion . Hasta el presente, no se ha logradouna sintesis que satisfaga a los sociologos y su orientacion especifica. Elpresente articulo, basandose en una extensa revision de las publicacionesrecientes sobre la migracion con sus nuevos enfoques y tendencias en lainvestigation actual, ofrece algunas explicaciones sobre este vacio o re-traso en la elaboration de una teoria general. Sin contar una serie de con-cepciones equivocadas y todavia en boga sobre la naturaleza de la migra?cion y las dificultades inherentes a las fuentes de los datos e informationsobre este proceso, el estudio de la migracion ha sufrido de la falta de in?terns por parte de nuestros teoricos de la sociologia mas importantes.

ZusammenfassungDie Notwendigkeit einer umfassenderen allgemeinen Theorie des Stu-diums der Migration wird weithin von Soziologen und anderen Wissenschaft-lern der Verhaltenswissenschaften anerkannt. Gegenwartig gibt es keingrosseres synthetisierendes Bemiihen, das direkt in Bezug stiinde zu den Be-miihugen der Soziologen. Gegen den 'background' jungster Tendenzen undden Forschungsbemiihungen um die Migration, die aus einem weiten t)ber-blick aber die laufende Literatur gewonnen werden, werden plausibleGriinde fiir diesen Mangel an einer Schaflung einer allgemeinen Theoriedargelegt. Zusatzlich zur Zahl der Misskonzeptionen iiber die Natur der Mi?gration, welche weiterhin das Feld beherrschen, und zu den Schwierigkeiten,die aus den Daten der Migration selbst stammen und somit diese Misskon-zeption noch verstarken, litt das Studium der Migration unter dem Mangelan Interesse von Seiten unserer fiihrenden soziologischen Theoretiker.