Gender & Age of Migrants

When forming his theory in the nineteenth century, Ravenstein noted distinctive gender and family-status patterns in his migration theories:

• Most long-distance migrants were male.

• Most long-distance migrants were adult individuals rather than families with children.

Adult males may have constituted the majority in the past, but that pattern has changed. In reality, women and children have constituted a high percentage of migrants for a long time.

Age of Migrants

Ravenstein theorized that most long-distance migrants were young adults seeking work rather than children or elderly people. Recent migration patterns in the United States match the theory in some respects but not in others (Figure 3-42):

• A relatively high share of U.S. immigrants are young adults, as Ravenstein expected. People between the ages of 20 and 39 comprise 49 percent of recent immigrants, compared to only 27 percent of the entire U.S. population.

• Immigrants are, as expected, less likely to be elderly people. Only 5 percent of recent U.S. immigrants are over age 65, compared to 14 percent of the entire U.S. population. However, immigrants from developing countries are more likely to be elderly, making up 8 percent of immigrants but only 6 percent of the total population in their countries of origin.

• Children under age 20 comprise 21 percent of immigrants, only slightly lower than the 26 percent share in the total U.S. population. In developing countries, immigrants are much less likely to be children; people under age 20 comprise 35 percent of the total population but only 23 percent of the migrants.

Age and Sex of Immigrants Living In The United States, 2016

The number of unaccompanied minors trying to cross into the United States without proper documentation has increased sharply in recent years. Nearly 90 percent have been males between 12 and 17. As with other migration flows, the large increase in teenage boys trying to reach the United States stems from a mix of push and pull factors. Most are pushed out of Honduras and El Salvador because of increased gang violence there and are pulled to the United States because of rumors that they won’t be deported if caught

Female Immigrants As A Percentage of All Immigrants

The gender mix of Mexicans who come to the United States without authorized immigration documents—currently the largest group of U.S. immigrants—has changed sharply. In the 1980s, males constituted 85 percent of the Mexican migrants arriving in the United States without proper documents, according to U.S. census and immigration service estimates. But since the 1990s, women have accounted for about half of the unauthorized immigrants from Mexico.

In developing countries, the percentage of female immigrants has risen sharply since the late twentieth century. Approximately one-half of migrants in Asia are women.

Two factors contribute to the larger share of females migrating to developed countries than theorized by Ravenstein:

• Because most people migrate to developed countries for job opportunities, the high percentage of women in the labor force in these countries logically attracts a high percentage of female immigrants.

• Some developed countries have made it possible for wives to join husbands who have already immigrated.

The increased female migration from Mexico to the United States partly reflects the changing role of women in Mexican society. In the past, rural Mexican women were obliged to marry at a young age and to remain in the village to care for children. Now some Mexican women are migrating to the United States to join husbands or brothers already in the United States, but most are seeking jobs. At the same time, women feel increased pressure to get jobs in the United States because of poor economic conditions in Mexico.