New Article: Rural development and migration in Mexico

By Andrew Wainer

Development in Practice Journal, Volume 23, Issue 2, 2013

This article analyses one of the causes of migration in rural Mexico through the lens of US foreign assistance policy. US aid to Mexico – the largest migrant-sending country to the USA by far – does not sufficiently take into account the conditions of rural under-development and joblessness that encourage unauthorised migration to the USA. Instead US foreign assistance has been dominated by aid to Mexico’s security agencies. This article analyses how the link between rural underdevelopment and migration-pressures has not been successfully addressed by either the Mexican or US governments. The article also analyses an innovative development project that explicitly seeks to support campesinos with the goal of reducing unauthorised migration pressures in a traditional migrant-sending rural region of Mexico.

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Mexico Is Getting Better, and Fewer Mexicans Want to Leave

The Atlantic, 4/17/13

Mexicans, who make up the plurality of illegal immigrants, are feeling better and better about their country, and fewer are interested in moving across the border. Though an estimated 300,000 people still enter the U.S. illegally each year, that represents a precipitous fall from the first half of the decade, when the number was 850,000. In 2010, net migration to and from Mexico was approximately zero.

Part of the reason, of course, is the global economic downturn, which eliminated many of the low-wage job opportunities that Mexican immigrants might have come to the U.S. to seek. But in addition to the U.S. becoming a less attractive destination, part of the explanation for the drop is that prospects in Mexico are actually looking up.

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MPI: Side-by-Side Comparison of 2013 Immigration Reform Framework with 2006, 2007 Senate bills

Migration Policy Institute, 4/17/13

The Migration Policy Institute has completed an analysis of the major provisions in the bipartisan group of senators’ 2013 immigration reform framework, comparing them to provisions in the earlier 2006 and 2007 Senate legislation.

The side-by-side comparison’s topics include border security and enforcement; visa reforms; earned legalization of unauthorized immigrants; strengthening of the US economy and workforce; and immigrant integration. As this Issue Brief was completed in advance of today’s release of the Senate immigration bill, the side-by-side will be updated in the coming days, as our experts comb through further details of the 844-page bill.

Please find the side-by-side comparison here…

Mexico now a farm labor exporter AND importer – #MexFacts

Mexico is the major supplier of hired labor to US farms, and Guatemala has now become a supplier of farm labor to Mexico. Click here to learn more…

Mexico has seen little to no migration of nurses for work in the U.S. – #MexFacts

To read more about how effective management of migration across countries might help meet demand for health services, read: http://bit.ly/MigHealth

What is the purpose of Obama’s visit to Mexico? (Spanish)

Milenio, 4/10/2013

La decisión de Barack Obama de aceptar la invitación que le hizo el presidente Enrique Peña Nieto plantea varias interrogantes. Ante todo, porque se prevé que poco después vendrá a la Cumbre de Líderes de América del Norte, acompañado por el primer ministro de Canadá, Stephen Harper. Considerando las crisis internacionales y las abultadas agendas de política interna y de política exterior que enfrenta al inicio de su segundo y último mandato, Obama seguramente pudo haber esperado unas semanas para reunirse por primera vez con Peña Nieto en su calidad de Presidente constitucional. La pregunta es: ¿por qué optó por adelantar el encuentro?

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Report: Immigration From Mexico Won’t Go Back to Peak Levels

ABC Univision, 4/4/13

Future immigration from Mexico to the U.S. is unlikely to return to the high levels seen in the 1990s, according to a study released on Thursday by the Migration Policy Institute and the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Immigration from Mexico dried up during the years following the financial crisis in 2007. But even before the U.S. economy collapsed, the number of Mexicans heading north had already fallen considerably, a change partially due to the increased immigration enforcement that followed the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the report says.

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NEW REPORT: Mexican Migration to the US – Economic Factors & Future Flows (Spanish)

The latest publication by the Regional Migration Study Group – a collaboration between the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Migration Policy Institute – addresses the economic factors that have influenced Mexican migration to the United States, and attempts to construct scenarios on how these migratory flows might change in the near future.

Click here to read the report…

New Resources: Immigration and Border Realities, Regional Competitiveness, Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement

The Mexico Institute is pleased to share with you the following new resources:

The New Reality at the Border

Andrew Selee, Vice President for Programs at the Wilson Center and Senior Advisor to the Mexico Institute, wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, titled “The New Reality at the Border.” Selee asserts that in the future, illegal immigration flows to the U.S. are likely to come from places farther away than Mexico, due to the deterrent effect of increased border security, the well-performing Mexican economy, and Mexico’s changing demographic profile.

Subcommittee Hearing: U.S. Energy Security: Enhancing Partnerships with Mexico and Canada

To read Duncan Wood’s statement from the hearing click here

Duncan Wood, Director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere on March 14, 2013. The hearing, titled “U.S. Energy Security: Enhancing Partnerships with Mexico and Canada,” included a discussion of the Keystone XL pipeline and the Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement.

Towards a Regional Competitiveness Agenda

Christopher Wilson, Associate at the Mexico Institute, wrote an opinion piece for Animal Politico, a news site on Mexican politics. The op-ed encourages Mexico and the United States to develop a regional competitiveness agenda that envisions North America as the most competitive region in the world, addressing issues such as efficient border management, bilateral cooperation on international trade negotiations, regulatory harmonization, trade liberalization in services such as transportation and healthcare, and the simplification of customs procedures.

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A Senate Plan Alters Waiting Periods for Immigration

The New York Times, 3/17/2013

The nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants would have to wait a full decade for a green card but could earn citizenship just three years after that, under a provision being finalized by a bipartisan group of eight senators working to devise an overhaul of immigration law, several people with knowledge of the negotiations said.

Taken together, the two waiting periods would provide the nation’s illegal immigrants with a path to United States citizenship in 13 years, matching the draft of a plan by President Obama to offer full participation in American democracy to millions who are living in fear of deportation.

The arrangement would shrink the amount of time it takes to become a naturalized citizen, to three years from five years. But in an appeal to Republicans, it would also extend to 10 years, from 8, the amount of time that illegal immigrants must wait before receiving permission to work in the United States permanently.

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