Mexico–United States migration, 1980s–2010 (original) (raw)
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How Maquiladora Industries Contribute to Mexico-U.S. Labor Migration
Papers. Revista de Sociologia, 2011
While the California corridor of the U.S.-Mexico border is known for its concentration of large maquiladoras, as well as a route for migration into the United States, there has been little research on how maquiladora employment impacts on international labor migration using subjects north of the border. An analysis of data from the Encuesta sobre Migración en la Frontera Norte de México (1993-1997), administered to those returned by the Border Patrol, finds that potential labor migrants with maquiladora work experience differ from the traditional migratory stream of agricultural workers, as well as from those from other occupational groups. They are more likely to be female, single, highly educated, urban, younger, and less likely to be heads of households. Findings from 101 in-depth interviews with persons who have both maquila and other work experience, and who have worked in the U.S., show that male borderlanders are able to best take advantage of opportunities in maquilas to acquire social and human capital facilitating migration. Borderlander women, along with men and women from the interior, with maquila experience also migrate, but have acquired less social capital. This is a result of economic restructuring to bring industry northward. Maquiladoras facilitate workers' migration by helping them to obtain documents. Higher wages are the greatest motivator of labor migration, and are reinforced by age discrimination and a lack of labor law enforcement. In addition, maquila employees also migrate to avoid discrimination, intensity of work, harsh discipline, labor market instability and poor pension benefits.
The Reshaping of Mexican Labor Exports under NAFTA: Paradoxes and Challenges
From the perspective of the political economy of development, this article analyzes the role played by Mexican labor in the U.S. productive restructuring process under the aegis of the North American Free Trade Agreement. By conceptualizing the labor export–led model it dissects three basic mechanisms of regional economic integration: maquiladoras, disguised maquilas, and labor migration. Not only does this analytical framework cast light on the contributions made by Mexican migrants to the economies of the United States and Mexico, it also reveals two paradoxes: the broadening of the socioeconomic asymmetries between the two countries, and increased socioeconomic dependence on remittances in Mexico.
International Review of Business and Economics, 2018
Research indicates four main causes for migration from Mexico to the United States: Incredibly high crime rates, unemployment, poverty rates, and natural disasters. The first two are especially important in regards to trade between the two border sharing countries. Since agreeing to virtually total free trade, the United States has been able to take advantage of Mexico in such a way that has created further deterioration of the state. If the government of Mexico cannot resurrect the thousands of personal business that were effected do to NAFTA, the U.S. cannot expect for migration from Mexico to deteriorate or halt. By displacing Mexico's small business owner's, Mexico has effectively made their citizens weak to the inevitable increase in poverty, and the Cartels that have bought out swaths of land and human lives. In this paper, I reveal the direct correlations between agreements within the NAFTA and the millions of displaced agricultural workers in Mexico that caused an increase of immigration from Mexico to the United States. On January 1, 1994, The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which includes Canada, Mexico, and the United States, was officially formed. By 2008, virtual free trade in almost all goods and services was established amongst all three countries, with the exception of a limited number of agricultural products traded specifically with Canada. The trade agreements of NAFTA were coupled with a surge of Mexican migrants to the U.S. The question under investigation is, why did so many Mexicans move to the United States after the NAFTA was signed? Contrary to the theoretical benefits of free trade, many citizens of the United States and Mexico have developed deep contention towards the agreement between their countries. In the United States, those whose' lives revolve around the manufacturing industry argue that increased trade with low-wage countries, such as Mexico, threatens their employment due to industrial re-location. Mexican's argue that the U.S. is dumping agricultural products and manufacturing industries that destroy local business and decrease the standard of living. Morethan 35 million Americans have Mexican roots, and Mexico is the United States' third-largest trading partner, next to China. Despite the positive correlation that the economic gravity theory presents, that both countries are at an advantage to trade with one-another, I'm afraid it's information is flawed. As the United States and Mexico attempt to find a way to grow their economies and decrease migration, from Mexico to the U.S., it is imperative for them to understand that free-trade, under the current NAFTA, has actually increased immigration from Mexico to the U.S. because of minimal protectionisms for Mexico's workers-especially in agriculture. This paper is written with the intent to inform people of the relationship between trade and immigration, specifically, between the U.S. and Mexico.
Maquiladora Myths: Locational and Structural Change in Mexico's Export Manufacturing Industry
The Professional Geographer, 1998
Trends in location, labor force, and procurement practices in maquiladoras are examined using recent data sources. A growing proportion of maquiladoras are selecting interior locations, south of the borderlands. Once dominated by young women, the labor force is rapidly approaching gender parity. While far below prevailing rates in the United States, maquiladora wages are comparable with equivalent manufacturing sectors in Mexico. Majority ownership of maquiladoras is split almost evenly between Mexico and the U.S., however, maquiladoras have failed to develop domestic sources of materials and parts and remain dependent on imported material inputs.
Maquiladoras and U.S.‐Bound Migration in Central Mexico
Growth and Change, 2001
Over the past one and a half decades, smaller cities and nonmetropolitan areas in Mexico have attracted manufacturing plants, led by the export manufacturing sector. Maquiladoras in particular are increasingly locating their plants in such places in the “deep interior” Mexico—outside of the border states. Using 1980 and 1990 Mexican census data for 19 growth centers and 27 high‐emigration municipios (counties) in Central Mexico, this paper suggests that foreign‐owned assembly (maquiladora) jobs decentralized significantly over the 1980s, locating closer to emigrant municipios. An examination of 17 emigrant municipios in the industrialized states of Jalisco and Guanajuato found that an emigrant municipio's accessibility to maquiladora jobs, and jobs indirectly related to maquiladora growth, was positively related to its overall employment growth, which was, in turn, negatively related to its U.S. migration rate over the decade. Although the migration reduction inherent in these r...