International migration: a decision analysis from neoclassical theory to animal spirits

Abstract

The objective of this article is to identify the economic theories that intervene in the study of the decision of Mexican return migration from the United States. The methodological analysis consists of distinguishing two theories that focus the mobility process from the domains of economic science. The main postulate is occupied by the neoclassical theory (rational), represented by the New Labor Economy and, to this is opposed an alternative approach from the animal spirits (not rational) proposed by René Descartes (1649) and analyzed by John Maynard Keynes (1936) and taken up by George Akerlof and Robert Shiller (2009) who contribute to the study of the relationships between economics and psychology; where the first approach explains the quantitative cut (utility) of the displacement and the second is applied to qualitative (psychological) decisions that perceive why people decide to change residence for work reasons.