A Theory of Migration and Municipal Politics
This chapter develops a series of theoretical models of migrant hometown political engagement and municipal politics in Mexico. The models seek to represent the relationship between the dominant political group in the community and emerging migrant actors. The chapter begins by outlining a set of basic assumptions about the characteristics and goals of the key actors in a stylized municipality, before and after the emergence of migrants as an important group. After establishing this context, the model is simplified to focus on the strategic interactions between migrants and prevailing authorities, first with a dynamic algorithm and then as a game theory model. Both migrants and prevailing authorities can choose conforming or fighting strategies; and depending on what each chooses, four outcomes are possible. Game-theory methods are then used to predict actor choices under different conditions and several limits to these models are discussed.