During the debate over the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, advocates assured the U.S. and Mexican public that the trade agreement would greatly alleviate unauthorized migration by increasing employment opportunities in Mexico and closing the gap between U.S. and Mexican wages. But the promise of cross border prosperity has been a mirage for millions of Mexicans: the value of the Mexican minimum wage dropped 20 percent in NAFTA's first decade, and the price of tortillas—Mexico's daily bread—rose more than 500 percent between 1993 and 2000. The increase in poverty has led to a drastic increase in migration, especially in the countryside.
The consequent upsurge in the number of Mexicans emigrating to the U.S. has neither been curbed by U.S. security measures nor by economic policies. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the number of immigrants to the United States from Mexico actually decreased by 18 percent in the three years before NAFTA's implementation. But in the first eight years of NAFTA, the annual number of immigrants from Mexico increased by more than 61 percent.
Unless we reframe both the immigration and trade debates, and gain an understanding of the intricate links between economic policies, poverty, and migration patterns, policymakers will continue to put a small band-aid over the large wound. Explore the reports below to learn more about the roots of migration.
Reports
U.S.-Mexico Agricultural Trade and Rural Poverty in Mexico--by John Burstein (2007)
Rural poverty is one of the major reasons for the significant development gap between Mexico and the United States and one of the principal "push-factors" in Mexican migration to the United States. Furthermore, the persistence of rural poverty strains the social fabric, at a moment when the Mexican political system is more fragile than it has been in the recent past. Finally, the array of rural production systems is threatening the sustainability of Mexico's natural resource base. For all these reasons, agricultural policy and the effects of bilateral integration of the agri-food industry are important for policymakers.
NAFTA Free Trade Myths Lead to Farm Failure in Mexico--by Laura Carlsen of the Americas Program, Center for International Policy (2007)
On Jan. 1, 2008 the last remaining tariff barriers permitted under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are slated to fall. Corn and beans were given the longest (15 years) liberalization schedule because they are at the core of Mexican culture and subsistence...Corn farmers forced out of business by subsidized imports from the United States have swollen the ranks of migrants to the United States, where many of them contribute their poorly paid labor to the same agricultural sector that displaced them.
A Fair Farm Bill and Immigration--by Alexandra Spieldoch and Ben Lilliston of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (2007)
This paper examines how the U.S. Farm Bill has combined with a free trade agenda to contribute to unsustainable economic conditions in rural Mexico that have forced many people off of their farmland and increased pressure to migrate to the U.S. The paper also makes recommendations to reform aspects of the Farm Bill that could have a positive impact on family farmers in rural Mexico and the United States.
Reaping the Seeds We Sow: U.S. Farm Policy and the Immigration Dilemma--Building Sustainable Futures for Farmers Globally (2007).
A central factor exacerbating the economic instability of the poor in Mexico, and increasing the migration from Mexico, is the United States' own flawed agriculture policies. Read how U.S. agriculture policy has created a de facto immigration policy.
Summary of Senate "Grand Bargain" -- American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) (May 17, 2007).
See AILA's outline of the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2007.
The Political Economy of Migration -- by David Bacon (2007).
Are the fleeing Oaxacans job seekers or refugees? They're both, of course. But in the U.S. and other wealthy countries, economic rights are not considered human rights. In this official view, hunger doesn't create political refugees. In effect, the whole process that pushes people north is outside the parameters of political debate. The key part of that process is displacement, an unmentionable word in the Washington discourse.
Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter -- Report of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future (2006).
International migration is transforming not only the United States, but also more countries than at any time in history. The United States has long been a world leader in welcoming and integrating newcomers. Yet, our nation's official immigration policies are increasingly disconnected from the economic and social forces that drive immigration.
NAFTA's Promise and Reality: Lessons from Mexico for the Hemisphere -- by John J. Audley, Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Sandra Polaski, and Scott Vaughan (2004).
Read how NAFTA has affected immigration within a larger social, historical and economic context. While NAFTA is not the sole driving force behind ever increasing migration rates, NAFTA-like free trade agreements cannot be seen as the solution to migration problems either.
Another Americas is Possible: The Impact of NAFTA on the U.S. Latino Community and Lessons for Future Trade Agreements -- A Joint Report by Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch (2004).
As the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. population, Latinos are and will continue to be among the groups most affected by this model of corporate globalization. Many are immigrants who left their homelands due to the economic and social devastation caused by the current globalization model.
Seven Myths About NAFTA -- by Alejandro Nadal, Francisco Aguayo & Marcos Chávez (November 17, 2003).
Myth 1: NAFTA has been a positive contribution to Mexico's strategy of export-led growth. Read on to get the facts.
