The End of Migration from Atotonilco El Bajo to Milwaukee: Breakdown of a Transnational Labor Market (original) (raw)
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2004
The progressive urbanization of Mexican society is a process strongly associated with the increasing participation of the urban-origin population in the migratory flow to the United States. The “urbanization” of this international labor flow has changed the profile of Mexican migration to the United States. This article examines the social dynamics of international migration in urban contexts, particularly in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area. Based on a migration systems perspective, the article explores the way that international migration operates in Mexico City and the different migration strategies pursued by migrants from this city. The article analyses demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of individuals in the Mexico City survey (conducted by the author) as well as their patterns of internal and international migration, and the general characteristics of their U.S. migration experience. Finally, it presents some biographical sketches to illustrate the various pattern...
Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 13(1): 48-78, 2008
This paper examines the emergence and acceleration of international migration in new sending areas of Mexico by analyzing how Zapotitlán Salinas, Puebla, a rural town in south-central Mexico, was rapidly transformed into a migrant sending community over the last 20 years. In the mid-1980s, some individuals from Zapotitlán set out for New York City in order to salir adelante (do well for themselves) in the hopes of improving their standard of living in Mexico. By the mid-1990s the local impact of Mexico's deepening economic crisis, the neoliberal economic policies implemented to counteract the crisis, and other local and regional factors virtually destroyed the town's onyx industry, eliminating most local sources of employment. Increasing levels of consumption and consumption expectations among Zapotitecos along with the lack of suitable local and regional employment options reinforced individuals' decisions to migrate, particularly in the context of worsening economic and social conditions in Mexico. The acceleration of international migration in Zapotitlán Salinas was accompanied by changes in the meaning and experience of migration over time. Este artículo examina el inicio y la aceleración de la migración internacional en áreas recientemente incorporadas por las redes migratorias a través del análisis de cómo Zapotitlán Salinas, Puebla, un pueblo rural en el centro-sur de México, fue rápidamente transformado a una comunidad de migrantes durante los últimos veinte años. A mediados de los ochenta, algunos individuos de Zapotitlán migraron a la ciudad de Nueva York para salir adelante y mejorar su calidad de vida en México. Para mediados de los noventa, el impacto local de la prolongada crisis económica en México, las políticas económicas neoliberales implementadas para contrarrestar la crisis, y otros factores locales y regionales prácticamente destruyeron la industria local del ónix, eliminando la mayoría del empleo local. Los niveles crecientes de consumo y las expectativas del consumo entre Zapotitecos junto con la ausencia de los empleos adecuados local y regionalmente afirmaron la toma de decisión de individuos para migrar, sobre todo en el contexto del empeoramiento de las condiciones económicas y sociales en México. La aceleración de la migración internacional en Zapotitlán Salinas fue acompañada por cambios en el significado y experiencia de la migración a través del tiempo.
Not Just Mexico's Problem: Labor Migration from Mexico to the United States (1900 – 2000)*
U.S. President Barack Obama has vowed to "help countries like Mexico… do a better job of creating jobs for their people" as part of his plan to curtail undocumented immigration to the United States (Organizing for America). This idea -that the root cause of undocumented migration from Mexico to the U.S. is economic underdevelopment in Mexico -has currency in both popular and political discourse. But is it accurate? In this article, I synthesize historical, theoretical, and ethnographic scholarship to provide a transnational perspective on twentieth century labor migration from Mexico to the United States. These data show that "illegal" transmigrant labor is not an historical accident, nor merely an unfortunate side effect of legal migration, nor a result of economic underdevelopment in Mexico. Rather, undocumented transmigration is a predictable result of the confluence of three interrelated trends: neoliberal development of the Mexican and U.S. economies, the establishment of transnational social networks over time, and gross disparity between U.S. immigration policy and the realities of labor needs within global capitalism. Political rhetoric that deems unauthorized migration as "Mexico's problem" obscures this economic interdependence, conceals the ways in which development policies have produced itinerant wage labor, and masks the complicity of U.S. policies in encouraging and sustaining undocumented labor migration. Furthermore, rhetoric that distances U.S. policy from labor migration reinforces the marginalization of some estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
Mexican labour migration to the United States in the age of globalisation
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2003
The objective of this paper is to review the evolution of Mexican migration to the United States in an historical context, paying due attention to economic factors in both countries and, for more recent analysis, setting the globalisation context. The article is in four parts. Firstly, the profile and trends of Mexican migration to the US are reviewed. Secondly, I present recent evidence and data on the incorporation of Mexicans in the US labour market; this helps to counteract the stereotype of Mexicans as temporary migrants. The third section of the article overviews the structural transformation of the Mexican economy, which helps to explain changing social, gender and geographical origins of Mexican migration in recent years. Fourthly, attention is turned to the US context, with a particular focus on processes of labour flexibilisation, segmentation and polarisation.
Unravelling Highly Skilled Migration from Mexico in the Context of Neoliberal Globalization
Mexican migration to the USA has experienced unprecedented growth since the implementation of neoliberal reforms in Mexico in the 1980s and 1990s. The signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) further accentuated the phenomenon to the degree that it turned Mexico into the number one country of emigrants in the world. This seemingly inexhaustible expulsive force brought with it profound qualitative transformations in the migratory phenomena associated with processes of deep social transformation.One of these, which has received relatively little attention in the literature, has to do with highly skilled labour migration which, in the last two decades, has shown a pace of growth greater than that of Mexican migration in general (see Figure 13.1). This makes Mexico the second-ranked country in the world in terms of sending highly skilled migrants to the USA, the first-ranked to the rest of Latin America and the sixth-ranked to the rest of the world.
Mexican Migration: Assessing Root Causes
2007
: This thesis asks two major questions: (1) Does Mexican migration (authorized and unauthorized) pose a threat to the United States?; and (2) What are the major forces, or "push" factors, compelling migration from Mexico to the United States? The thesis focuses on a number of potential factors driving the migration: political change, crime, poverty, and Mexico's economic growth level and social inequality. It finds that illegal immigration from Mexico poses very little economic threat to the United States, but by complicating U.S. efforts to achieve border security, it may allow for an increased risk of undetected entry of terrorist or narcotrafficking elements into the United States. The economic crises of 1982 and 1994 increased migration by directly impacting the political system, economic reforms, and the social landscape. This caused a three-fold increase in migration from 1980 through 2000. In 2000, the Mexican economy recovered and the rate of increase for migra...
The Domestic and International Impacts of Migration between the United States and Mexico
International migration is an ever-growing phenomenon that has important development implications not only for the migrating population but also for the host and origin countries. Since many developed countries are large recipients of international migrants, they face challenges of integration of immigrants, job competition between migrant and native workers, and fiscal costs associated with provision of social services to the migrants. This paper will examine Mexican migration to the United States and argue that this migration is primarily a result of inadequate employment opportunities in Mexico. Other motives for emigration exist, namely kinship relations in destination locations, but the primary motive remains economic improvement. The lack of opportunity for meaningful employment largely stems from stagnant growth in Mexico. Michael Graybeal (2011) addressed in his report for the CSIS , data from the World Bank indicating that Mexico’s annual GDP growth has averaged 2.5 percent for the previous three decades, far below the 5 to 6 percent growth rate needed to create employment for new entrants into the labor force. As a result, many entrepreneurial Mexicans seek to improve their lives in the United States, and many send part of their earnings to relatives in Mexico. Relations between the countries often have been characterized by conflict. Analysts attribute much of the antagonism to the great disparities in wealth between the two countries; a history of intervention by the United States that makes Mexico highly critical and suspicious of United States positions; cultural differences and stereotypes of both nations; and the high levels of interdependence on many socioeconomic and political issues, both at the national level and in border areas.
Mexico-U.S. Migration in Time: From Economic to Social Mechanisms
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2019
This article adopts a mixed-methods approach to illustrate how economic, political, and social mechanisms work across time to shape individuals’ migration decisions. First, using large-scale survey data from the Mexican Migration Project, we show that economic, political, and social factors all matter for migration decisions but that social factors come to matter most for migration over time. Second, drawing on 120 in-depth interviews with migrants and their family members in four Mexican communities, we find that communities’ migration histories shape how economic, political, and social factors contribute to migration decisions at different points in time. In communities with limited migration histories, individuals migrate to relieve economic pressures on themselves or other household members. In communities with more established migration histories, information and assistance from current or returned migrants help to overcome potential barriers to making the journey. Finally, in ...