Abstract
This paper examines network structure and composition in international migration diffusion. Using original data from a rural village in the Philippines, it combines social network analysis and descriptive approach to arrive at a set of propositions about why some initial migration lead to expansion while others do not. It argues that migration diffusion is attributed, in part, to the dispersed distribution and strategic position of pioneers in the network at the beginning, which allowed a seemingly even migration expansion as pioneers facilitated subsequent migration activities. Had the initial context fostered pioneer migration to transpire only among few families, and if pioneers were positioned less centrally, the outcome might have been a less extensive diffusion. Furthermore, the analysis shows that migration is more likely to diffuse among members of a family cluster and might cease to diffuse at the border of their inner social circles.