Not Just Mexico's Problem: Labor Migration from Mexico to the United States (1900 – 2000)* (original) (raw)
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Mexican mass labor migration in a not-so changing political economy
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Immigration has become one of the more controversial contemporary issues at precisely the same time that Mexico is emerging as perhaps the most critical country for United States' interests. The synchronism and intersection of these two developments is the subject of At the Crossroads: Mexico and U.S. Immigration Policy. With editors and contributors who rank among the most notable experts in migration research, this book is an essential resource for understanding how and why immigration has become such a critical problem in bilateral relations between Mexico and the United States. While solutions are neither easy nor imminent, the authors provide considerable background and treatment of key issues that determine the variety and viability of policy options available to both countries. At the Crossroads incorporates historical, political and economic analyses to explain the prominence of both legal and undocumented migration from Mexico as current public policy concerns. The twelve chapters, along with valuable introduction and conclusion sections, encompass prominent themes not often considered conjointly. How the tenuous and sometimes antagonistic nature of U.S.-Mexico relations has become further strained by inherent contradictions in national immigration policies is addressed in the editors' introduction and the first chapter, "Mexico and U.S. Worldwide Immigration Policy," by Gary Freeman and Frank Bean. While the role played by Mexican migration to the United States has been significant historically, the editors note that its high profile and perception as being problematic are relatively new phenomena. Much Mexican migration was temporary, as workers returned regularly to Mexico to sustain rural-based households at the same time that seasonal agricultural labor was encouraged in the United States. Isolated spatially and socially from nativeborn populations, Mexican migrant communities met hostility mainly when competing with U.S. workers for the same jobs, such as during depression and postwar years. As job opportunities have become year-round rather than seasonal, and as absolute numbers have increased, antipathy is again rising. Freeman and Bean argue that workable immigration policies have been and will continue to be undermined by persistent policy tensions, including between purported universalism of treatment and public perception that immigration is a "Mexican problem," demand for cheap labor and desire for control of borders, and national sovereignty claims and multinational realities. They cite the surge in immigrant flows a few years after major immigration reform (Immigration Reform and Control Act) was instituted by the U.S. Congress in 1986 as evidence that reduction in anxiety and rumor is perhaps more effective than employer sanctions or other policy mechanisms in influencing migration levels. Two chapters focus on how social, economic and labor market changes on both sides of the border affect the nature and levels of Mexican migration to the United States. In "Mexican Social and Economic Policy and Emigration," Bryan Roberts and Agustin Escobar examine how both internal and international migration has been strongly shaped by Mexican policies. From the 1930s onwards, labor and price support policies promoting rapid transition to an urban industrialized society, accompanied by neglect and impoverishment of rural areas, resulted in sustained rural to urban migration. With the financial crises of the 1980s, the centralized urban system became less able to employ the growing population, and fiscal austerity measures and Reviews
Migrationsforschung – interdisziplinär & diskursiv , 2020
The history of Mexican emigration and return migration compares two generations of labor migrants, those who migrated in the 1920s to "the land of great tools" and those contracted in the 1950s during the Bracero Program. Part One examines Mexican political debates engendered by mass migration. Part Two explores the effects of returning bracero migrants on their communities back home.
Critical dimensions of MexicoUS migration under the aegis of neoliberalism and NAFTA
Canadian Journal of Development …, 2004
The main objective of this article is to offer a critical overview of the present nature of Mexico-US migration, taking into account the broad and intricate spectrum of labour relations that has arisen among both nations in the context of the new forms of domination characterizing US imperialism. The article's primary interest lies in penetrating the content and scope of this phenomenon in an attempt to reveal the strategic role played by the exportation of Mexican labour in the process of US industrial restructuring, both within and beyond its borders. For this purpose, five critical dimensions of the phenomenon are analysed: (1) the true face of the economic integration process between Mexico and the United States under the aegis of neoliberalism; (2) the new dynamics of Mexico-US migration; (3) the particular dialectic between Mexico's export-led growth model and the migration process; (4) the economic and geopolitical implications of the bilateral agenda on migration issues; and (5) the responses and alternative approaches that have emerged from the rank and file of the migrant community itself. RÉSUMÉ-Le principal objectif de l'article est d'offrir un aperçu critique de la nature actuelle de la migration entre le Mexique et les États-Unis en tenant compte du vaste et complexe réseau des relations de travail que ces deux pays ont forgé en raison des nouvelles formes de domination propres à l'impérialisme américain. Le premier intérêt de l'article vient du fait qu'il perce le contenu et la portée du phénomène pour tenter de révéler le rôle stratégique que joue l'exportation de la main-d'oeuvre mexicaine dans la restructuration industrielle des États-Unis, tant à l'intérieur qu'à l'extérieur de ses frontières. À cette fin, l'article analyse cinq dimensions essentielles du phénomène : (1) le vrai visage du processus d'intégration économique du Mexique et des États-Unis dans le contexte du néolibéralisme; (2) la nouvelle dynamique de la migration entre le Mexique et les États-Unis; (3) la dialectique particulière du modèle mexicain de croissance axée sur les exportations et du processus de migration; (4) les incidences économiques et géopolitiques du programme bilatéral sur les questions de migration; et (5) les réactions et les nouvelles approches issues de la communauté migrante elle-même.
The "migrant network concept cannot explain large-scale international migratory flows. This article goes beyond a critique of its ahistorical and postfdctum nature. First, I argue that restrictions on its composition and functions also render the migrant network unable to explain why such migratory flows continue or expand even further. Second, a review of five studies illustrates why this concept, the propositions on which it rests, the methods it employs, and the conclusions that it imparts must be reconsidered. Third, the network analysis literature, along with my research data from the Mexico-U.S. case, suggest an alternative approach.
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.