A migration study using the method of life story

Abstract

Migration has been analyzed from the quantitative component for decades. Odds on who will return and who help but do not do enough to explain the migration phenomenon itself. Life stories emerge in the twentieth century from the work of Thomas and Znaniecki that was about a migrant’s life, too. Both quantitative and qualitative studies allow us to give an explanation of what migration is, who those who migrate are, why do they do it and how they do it. However, we often find cases that deviate from those parameters that we established. Its particular characteristics are worthy of being analyzed and that is why we turn to the life stories, to learn about cases like the one presented in this work: a native of the west part of Mexico who became migrant at a young age and who became successful in an area in which he was not capable at the beginning. Moreover, he took his extended family to the United States. Experiences like this one can be rescued by using the life story method to get an understanding of the phenomenon of migration from different areas.