Motivations to migrate: social networks and the decision-making process of contemporary migrant

Abstract

In this article, we aim to understand the motivations that stimulate contemporary migrations, as well as to know the relevance of social networks in the migrant's decision-making process. For this, we take as a starting point the historical-structural model, through which the various factors that influence decision-making on migration are visualized, making it an analysis of a social context suggested by capital, rather than a decision unique to each individual. Still, we seek to analyze the influence of social networks in the migratory process, through interviews with northeastern migrants who currently work in poultry processing plants in the cities of Forquilhinha and Nova Veneza (cities from the south of the state of Santa Catarina, where the two largest slaughterhouses in the region, which belong to JBS, are located). It was possible to conclude that, for the migrants in this article, the existence of a support network at the destination is preponderant for their choice, whether in the decision to migrate, but mainly, in choosing where to go. Additionally, it was understood that, more than an individual decision from the migrant, it is in the social and mainly economic context that the determination to migrate resides. Another question that was evidenced in the article was that migrants are moving to small cities, where there are more job opportunities.