Beyond Smoke and Mirrors

Beyond Smoke and Mirrors
Author: Douglas S. Massey
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2002-03-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1610443829

Migration between Mexico and the United States is part of a historical process of increasing North American integration. This process acquired new momentum with the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, which lowered barriers to the movement of goods, capital, services, and information. But rather than include labor in this new regime, the United States continues to resist the integration of the labor markets of the two countries. Instead of easing restrictions on Mexican labor, the United States has militarized its border and adopted restrictive new policies of immigrant disenfranchisement. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors examines the devastating impact of these immigration policies on the social and economic fabric of the Mexico and the United States, and calls for a sweeping reform of the current system. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors shows how U.S. immigration policies enacted between 1986–1996—largely for symbolic domestic political purposes—harm the interests of Mexico, the United States, and the people who migrate between them. The costs have been high. The book documents how the massive expansion of border enforcement has wasted billions of dollars and hundreds of lives, yet has not deterred increasing numbers of undocumented immigrants from heading north. The authors also show how the new policies unleashed a host of unintended consequences: a shift away from seasonal, circular migration toward permanent settlement; the creation of a black market for Mexican labor; the transformation of Mexican immigration from a regional phenomenon into a broad social movement touching every region of the country; and even the lowering of wages for legal U.S. residents. What had been a relatively open and benign labor process before 1986 was transformed into an exploitative underground system of labor coercion, one that lowered wages and working conditions of undocumented migrants, legal immigrants, and American citizens alike. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors offers specific proposals for repairing the damage. Rather than denying the reality of labor migration, the authors recommend regularizing it and working to manage it so as to promote economic development in Mexico, minimize costs and disruptions for the United States, and maximize benefits for all concerned. This book provides an essential "user's manual" for readers seeking a historical, theoretical, and substantive understanding of how U.S. policy on Mexican immigration evolved to its current dysfunctional state, as well as how it might be fixed.

Integration with Mexico

Integration with Mexico
Author: Robert A. Pastor
Publisher: Century Foundation Press
Total Pages: 152
Release: 1993
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Making Los Angeles Home

Making Los Angeles Home
Author: Rafael Alarcon
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2016-03-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0520284860

Making Los Angeles Home examines the different integration strategies implemented by Mexican immigrants in the Los Angeles region. Relying on statistical data and ethnographic information, the authors analyze four different dimensions of the immigrant integration process (economic, social, cultural, and political) and show that there is no single path for its achievement, but instead an array of strategies that yield different results. However, their analysis also shows that immigrants' successful integration essentially depends upon their legal status and long residence in the region. The book shows that, despite this finding, immigrants nevertheless decide to settle in Los Angeles, the place where they have made their homes.

Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destinies

Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destinies
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2006-02-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309165075

Given current demographic trends, nearly one in five U.S. residents will be of Hispanic origin by 2025. This major demographic shift and its implications for both the United States and the growing Hispanic population make Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destinies a most timely book. This report from the National Research Council describes how Hispanics are transforming the country as they disperse geographically. It considers their roles in schools, in the labor market, in the health care system, and in U.S. politics. The book looks carefully at the diverse populations encompassed by the term "Hispanic," representing immigrants and their children and grandchildren from nearly two dozen Spanish-speaking countries. It describes the trajectory of the younger generations and established residents, and it projects long-term trends in population aging, social disparities, and social mobility that have shaped and will shape the Hispanic experience.

For Richer, for Poorer

For Richer, for Poorer
Author: Harry Browne
Publisher: Latin America Bureau (Lab)
Total Pages: 148
Release: 1994
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

For Richer, For Poorer explains the nuts and bolts of globalisation, and explores winners and losers in NAFTA-style free trade.

The Trump Paradox

The Trump Paradox
Author: Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2021-03-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0520972511

The Trump Paradox: Migration, Trade, and Racial Politics in US-Mexico Integration explores one of the most complex and unequal cross-border relations in the world, in light of both a twenty-first-century political economy and the rise of Donald Trump. Despite the trillion-plus dollar contribution of Latinos to the US GDP, political leaders have paradoxically stirred racial resentment around immigrants just as immigration from Mexico has reached net zero. With a roster of state-of-the-art scholars from both Mexico and the US, The Trump Paradox explores a dilemma for a divided nation such as the US: in order for its economy to continue flourishing, it needs immigrants and trade.

George I. Sánchez

George I. Sánchez
Author: Carlos Kevin Blanton
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2014-01-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0300190328

George I. Sánchez was a reformer, activist, and intellectual, and one of the most influential members of the "Mexican American Generation" (1930–1960). A professor of education at the University of Texas from the beginning of World War II until the early 1970s, Sánchez was an outspoken proponent of integration and assimilation. He spent his life combating racial prejudice while working with such organizations as the ACLU and LULAC in the fight to improve educational and political opportunities for Mexican Americans. Yet his fervor was not always appreciated by those for whom he advocated, and some of his more unpopular stands made him a polarizing figure within the Latino community. Carlos Blanton has published the first biography of this complex man of notable contradictions. The author honors Sánchez’s efforts, hitherto mostly unrecognized, in the struggle for equal opportunity, while not shying away from his subject’s personal faults and foibles. The result is a long-overdue portrait of a towering figure in mid-twentieth-century America and the all-important cause to which he dedicated his life: Mexican American integration.

Confronting Globalization

Confronting Globalization
Author: Timothy A. Wise
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2003
Genre: Free trade
ISBN: 9781565491632

* Illustrates how Mexican communities cope with NAFTA’s effects * Written by a team of US and Mexican collaborators * Shows importance of trade regulations on poor communities worldwide How is the current model for economic globalization affecting both the poor and the environment? Confronting Globalization extends a sweeping treatment of contemporary Mexican politics as they investigate the country’s tumultuous experience under the North American Free Trade Agreement. The contributors relate globalization’s untold stories: its social and environmental costs, and the grassroots quest for alternative paths. They reveal to us how vulnerable people in rural communities are choosing to defend themselves and promote their own homegrown alternatives in the face of adversity.

Making Los Angeles Home

Making Los Angeles Home
Author: Rafael Alarcon
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2016-03-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0520284852

Making Los Angeles Home examines the different integration strategies implemented by Mexican immigrants in the Los Angeles region. Relying on statistical data and ethnographic information, the authors analyze four different dimensions of the immigrant integration process (economic, social, cultural, and political) and show that there is no single path for its achievement, but instead an array of strategies that yield different results. However, their analysis also shows that immigrants' successful integration essentially depends upon their legal status and long residence in the region. The book shows that, despite this finding, immigrants nevertheless decide to settle in Los Angeles, the place where they have made their homes.

The impact of globalization on the United Mexican States

The impact of globalization on the United Mexican States
Author: Cyril Alias
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 15
Release: 2008-07-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3638071383

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, Hogeschool Rotterdam (Rotterdam Business School), course: Cross-Cultural Management, language: English, abstract: Mexico has gained increasing significance in both regional and international business, due to the phenomenon generally known as globalization or mundialización, as Mexicans prefer to name. Globalization is explained as an increase of international economic and socio-cultural relations, especially in terms of supra-regional trade , , driven particularly by technology and media. In 1982, Latin America has started executing a wide opening of its markets and a “quick liberalization of the latter” , as a reaction to “a severe balance of payments crisis” . Over the years, its geo-strategic position between North and South America as well as the globalization “have made Mexico the darling of the international business community” , at least one of the many beneficiaries in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. Most recently, “The Economist” certified Mexico’s economy to be “in good shape” with “no serious macroeconomic problems at the horizon.” , So, generally and superficially speaking, Mexico is seemingly looking at a bright future in economic terms. Having this said, one has also to consider that integration and globalization are based on quickly developed and implemented trade developments, slowly followed by socio-political and cultural effects. Yet, the economic rise following the measures mentioned above has had several drawbacks, such as “three currency crises, [...] the most recent of which occurred in 1995 following a large devaluation of the peso”. Effects of the integration development of the previous two decades were presented as mainly positive in the public, especially by lobbyists and groups favouring the current trends. However, there has been a large group of losers, which has not participated in the economic upswing of the country yet and probably will not for quite a long period of time. As a proof, one can consult different statistics about poverty increase in the country. , So, finally I want to analyse and, by weighing pro and contra arguments, possibly prove the thesis that there have been many advantages created and put into action by globalization, but that many Mexicans have not yet been included into the advantages of it yet. In order to carry this out, I am going to look closer at different forces of globalization acting upon Mexico as well as the different stakeholder groups representing the various interests involved nowadays in the overall development of the country.