Social capital versus social isolation: Tamaulipas's migrant farm workers

Abstract

There is a consensus among social scientist about the importance of social capital in the explanation of migration; on the contrary, migration theory has paid less attention to the opposite phenomenon: the isolation of migrants from social networks. While social capital contributes to poverty alleviation, social isolation leaves the individual without any cushion against hard times. Social capital theory explains that as migratory processes mature immigrants find thicker social ties. By contrast, this article, based on a qualitative methodology that includes in depth interviews with 60 migrant farm workers employed in Tamaulipas's orange sector and 43 farm workers from Tamaulipas employed in U.S. farming, concludes that migrant population growth in agricultural fields instead of increasing immigrants social capital augments their social isolation, because the growing competition for scarce employment opportunities dissolves social and relational bonds.