The Making of Immigrant Communities in the U.S.: The Social Network Dynamics of Mexican Immigrants from Rural and Urban origins

The social dynamics involved in the exchange of social capital are complex and<br>can only be understood if one takes into account the context in which those ties have been developed. Rural based migrants share collective behavior given the collective conscience that they develop because of their similarity to each other in their hometowns and the enforcement of values and norms that dominates their societies. On the other hand, even though urban migrants are able to get enough social capital to get to the U.S. through their networks, the individualistic behavior produced by the division of labor in urban settings restrains them from perpetuating their social networks. Instead, their networks eventually disintegrate in the U.S.