Abstract
Why did Xaripus begin to leave Mexico and come to el norte when they did? Why did they take almost two-thirds of a century after the first pioneering migrants to settle on a more permanent basis in the United States? Why do later generations maintain active and meaningful social ties with the homeland?² And what changes have these Xaripus experienced by living in between different social worlds? This chapter addresses these basic questions by reviewing three major theoretical perspectives and introducing a fourth conceptual framework for understanding the Xaripu experience.
The push-pull model is one of the most commonly cited