The Real Crisis at the Mexico-U.S. Border: A Humanitarian and Not an Immigration Emergency

Misguided U.S. policies since 1980 have created a large undocumented population within the United States. Border militarization curtailed circular undocumented migration from Mexico, and Cold War politics precluded the acceptance of refugees from Central America fleeing violence and economic turmoil unleashed by America’s intervention in the region. Although undocumented migration from Mexico has ended, resources devoted to border apprehensions and internal deportations continue to rise, pushing an ever larger number of Central Americans into an immigrant detention system that is ill-equipped to handle them. Although the Trump administration portrays the situation as an immigration crisis, what is really unfolding along the border and within the United States is an unprecedented humanitarian cross that in so many ways is one of our own making.     

Using INS border apprehension data to measure the flow of undocumented migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico frontier

"This article examines how data on INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service] border apprehensions are related to the flow of undocumented migrants crossing the southern U.S. border. Its centerpiece is a demographic model of the process of unauthorized migration across the Mexico-U.S. frontier. This model is both a conceptual framework that allows us to see theoretical linkages between apprehensions and illegal migrant flows, and a methodological device that yields estimates of the gross number of undocumented migrants. One implication of the model is that, for the first time, the relation between apprehensions and illegal flows can be examined empirically. We show that the ratio in each period between apprehensions and the undocumented flow is simply the odds of being located and arrested on any given attempt to enter the United States clandestinely."     

Economic integration and labor flows: stage migration in farm labor markets in Mexico and the United States

"This article examines the probable effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on migration from Mexico to the United States, disputing the view that expansion of jobs in Mexico could rapidly reduce undocumented migration. To the extent that NAFTA causes Mexican export agriculture to expand, migration to the United States will increase rather than decrease in the short run. Data collected in both California and the Mexican State of Baja California show that indigenous migrants from southern Mexico typically first undertake internal migration, which lowers the costs and risks of U.S. migration. Two features of employment in export agriculture were found to be specially significant in lowering the costs of U.S. migration: first, working in export agriculture exposes migrants to more diverse social networks and information about U.S. migration; second, agro-export employment in northern Mexico provides stable employment, albeit low-wage employment, for some members of the family close to the border (especially women and children) while allowing other members of the family to assume the risks of U.S. migration."     

Undocumented residents in the United States in 1990: issues of uncertainty in quantification

"Uncertainties are abundant about the measurement of net undocumented migration [to the United States] and change over the past two decades. This analysis presents possible upper and lower boundaries on components for estimating legal migration in 1980-1989 and on the foreign-born population in 1990. Positing ranges for net undocumented immigration, between 2 million and 4 million undocumented residents may have been counted in the 1990 census. The total number of undocumented residents may have been as high as 6 million."     

Mexico-United States labor migration flows

"International migration from Mexico to the United Sates is viewed very differently depending on from which side of the border this phenomenon is observed and evaluated....[It is] imperative to begin a process of ?demythifying' migration as a necessary and sufficient condition that would allow both countries to come together within the context of bilateral relations and find ways to act jointly to address the impacts of the issue. Such a demythifying effort must begin with scientific research which can help develop a diagnosis of the costs and benefits that labor migration from Mexico to the United States brings to the two countries."     

Framing and immigration through the trump era

For the last decade, undocumented or illegal immigration has been one of the most contested policy issues in the United States, with significant news attention on policies affecting the undocumented population, ranging from deportations to comprehensive immigration reform, the DREAM Act, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Despite these prominent and multifaceted policy debates, scholarship on media framing and public opinion remain more focused on the portrayal of immigrants rather than policies affecting them. In general, scholars find that policy frames are far more consequential to public opinion than equivalency frames (variations in how news media describe unauthorized immigrants, either as “illegal” or “undocumented”) or episodic frames (whether news articles are heavy on human‐interest stories rather than policy facts and statistics). Also, negative frames generally have stronger effects than positive frames, and these effects sometimes vary by partisanship and family migration history. Finally, the relative infrequency of powerful frames in news stories, like a life spent in the United States, provides opportunities for advocates to move public opinion on immigration policy. These findings have important implications for future battles over immigration policy in the United States, which show no signs of abating.     

The social process of undocumented border crossing among Mexican migrants

"In this article a theoretical model is developed that views undocumented border crossing as a well-defined social process influenced by the quantity and quality of human and social capital that migrants bring with them to the border, and constrained by the intensity and nature of U.S. enforcement efforts. Detailed histories of border crossing from undocumented migrants originating in 34 Mexican communities are employed to estimate equations corresponding to this model.... As people gain experience in border crossing, they rely less on the assistance of others and more on abilities honed on earlier trips, thus substituting migration-specific human capital for general social capital.... On all trips, the intensity of the U.S. enforcement effort has little effect on the likelihood of arrest, but INS involvement in drug enforcement sharply lowers the odds of apprehension."     

China's "tidal wave" of migrant labor: what can we learn from Mexican undocumented migration to the United States?

"The purpose of this article is to place Chinese labor migration from agriculture within the context of the literature on labor mobility in developing countries by comparing it to undocumented Mexican migration to the United States. The similarities fall within three general areas: the migration process, the economic and social position of migrants at their destination, and the agrarian structure and process of agricultural development that has perpetuated circular migration. The last section of the article draws upon these similarities, as well as differences between the two countries, to generate predictions concerning the development of labor migration in China."     

The effect of maquiladora employment on the monthly flow of Mexican undocumented immigration to the U.S., 1978-1982

"Some controversy has surrounded the extent to which employment in maquiladoras (assembly plants located along the Mexican border) has stimulated undocumented immigration to the United States. This study uses monthly data of maquiladora employment and INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service] apprehensions in a 'push-pull' migration framework to study the association between these two variables during the April 1978 to January 1982 period. The findings suggest that there is a significantly negative relationship between the one month lag of maquiladora employment and INS apprehensions. Employment growth in the maquiladora sector tends to be followed by a reduction of apprehensions one month later. The study also finds that male and female apprehensions appear to respond to relatively similar economic factors."     

The seasonality of apprehensions of undocumented Mexican workers

"This article uses within-year apprehensions data to test the economic determinants of Mexican undocumented immigration to the United States. These data are highly seasonal and within-year border patrol apprehensions suggest that this seasonality is not solely due to changes in border patrol enforcement." It is found that both supply and demand variables affect apprehensions and that agricultural factors appear to be important determinants of the variations in apprehensions. The results are similar to those of earlier studies     

Undocumented Latina immigrants in Orange County,California: a comparative analysis

"This article examines a unique data set randomly collected from Latinas (including 160 undocumented immigrants) and non-Hispanic white women in Orange County, California, including undocumented and documented Latina immigrants, Latina citizens, and non-Hispanic white women. Our survey suggests that undocumented Latinas are younger than documented Latinas, and immigrant Latinas are generally younger than U.S.-citizen Latinas and Anglo women. Undocumented and documented Latinas work in menial service sector jobs, often in domestic services. Most do not have job-related benefits such as medical insurance.... Despite their immigration status, undocumented Latina immigrants often viewed themselves as part of a community in the United States, which significantly influenced their intentions to stay in the United States. Contrary to much of the recent public policy debate over immigration, we did not find that social services influenced Latina immigrants' intentions to stay in the United States."     

Non‐Citizen Mexican Youth in US Higher Education: A Closer Look at the Relationship between State Tuition Policies and College Enrollment

This paper examines state policies that extend or deny in‐state tuition to children of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Using the Current Population Survey (1997–2010), we assess changes in college enrollment among Mexican‐born non‐citizens — a proxy for the undocumented population. In contrast to previous analyses, we find that policies extending in‐state tuition to undocumented youth do not directly affect rates of college enrollment. However, we find that Mexican‐born non‐citizen youth residing in states that deny in‐state tuition have a 12.1 percentage point lower probability of being enrolled in college than their peers living in states with no such policies.     

Explaining Undocumented Migration to the U.S.

Using data from the Mexican Migration Project and the Latin American Migration Project, we find that undocumented migration from Mexico reflects U.S. labor demand and access to migrant networks and is little affected by border enforcement, which instead sharply reduces the odds of return movement. Undocumented migration from Central America follows primarily from political violence associated with the U.S. intervention of the 1980s, and return migration has always been unlikely. Mass undocumented migration from Mexico appears to have ended because of demographic changes there, but undocumented migration from Central America can be expected to grow slowly through processes of family reunification.     

Some Sort of Help for the Poor: Blurred Perspectives on Asylum

This article explores the distinction between economic and forced migration by following three Guatemalan day labourers in northern California who “discover” the possibility of asylum after coming to the US as undocumented migrants. Vaguely understood as “some sort of help for Guatemalans,” asylum acquires a confusing assortment of meanings for these men as they hear about it from other migrants and local NGOs. They thus face two problems that hinder their application. The first is that their own rendering of their reasons for migration can look both “forced” and “voluntary.” The second is that beyond the validity of their claims, their life in the US is embedded in the marginalization of the cohort of undocumented migrants they join. Whatever the outcome, the men thus continue to follow the logics of fear and mistrust that characterize undocumented day labourers in the United States.     

The Cat and Mouse Game at the Mexico‐U.S. Border: Gendered Patterns and Recent Shifts1

This paper provides new insights into the process of undocumented border crossing by examining both men and women in the process. We investigate differences in the ways in which men and women make their way across the well‐guarded Mexico‐U.S. border, and the extent to which men and women by the end of the 1990s were similar to, or different from, their counterparts who crossed before 1986 and the implementation of immigration policy designed to reduce undocumented migration. We find substantial differences in how men and women crossed the border without legal documents and in their chances of being apprehended. Our analysis makes clear that shifts in U.S. immigration policy after 1986 have led to women's greater reliance on the assistance of paid smugglers to cross without documents but men were more likely to cross alone. Moreover, immediately after 1986, women on first U.S. trips faced higher risks of being apprehended compared to women who migrated in the early 1980s, but men faced lower risks. After accumulating some U.S. experience, however, both women and men faced lower risks of being detected after 1986 compared to earlier in that decade.     

Low-skill emigration from Mexico to the United States. Current situation,prospects and government policy

"Low-skill labour migration from Mexico to the U.S. is a dominant aspect of general Mexico-U.S. migration. It is of even greater importance in undocumented migration in general and in undocumented border flows, and as such has become a growing source of concern and initial coordination and collaboration between the two governments.... The article recommends that any large-scale migrant worker programme be bilateral in nature." (EXCERPT)     

The rural exodus in Mexico and Mexican migration to the United States

"During the 1950s, labor conditions in the United States attracted Mexican migrants, mostly from rural areas, in sharply fluctuating patterns of active recruitment, laissez-faire or repatriation. Because [the rural exodus and migration to the United States] have varied simultaneously and because they are interrelated, it has been assumed that the rural exodus in Mexico generally explains the flow of migrants across the border to the United States. This article argues that they must be analyzed instead as two distinct movements. Data presented show that most of the migrants created by the prevailing conditions in Mexican rural villages settle within Mexico and that only specific types of migrants are attracted over the border."     

Repossessing Border Space: Security Practice in North American Border Art

Abstract

This paper discusses how the visual arts engage in representing border crossing experiences and, more specifically, how art interrupts border security practices and their rituals. After introducing the history of North American border art and different approaches to issues of border crossing, the paper will concentrate on specific works. It argues that the selected works of art perform interventions that confront the public with the borderlands as a place of violence and death. At the same time, artists are shown to employ different artistic strategies of symbolically re-possessing the borderlands for undocumented migrants who – when crossing it – experienced it as an existential obstacle.     

An Empirical Examination of Characteristics of Mexican Migrants to Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas of the United States*

Abstract This research examines differences between those Mexican migrants choosing metropolitan destinations and those choosing destinations outside metropolitan areas of the United States. Using general estimating equations, the study presents data indicating that since the 1960s migrants choosing rural destinations are less fluent in English, slightly older, much less educated, far more likely to be unskilled, more likely to be married, and more likely to be undocumented. The picture is more complex when consideration is restricted to those migrants arriving in rural areas since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement. These migrants are far more likely to be single, have more education but have less English fluency, have less work experience, and have less family experience with migration to the United States. They are more likely to come from small towns and rural areas of Mexico.     

Labor Market Effects of Immigration Policies Border Enforcement and Amnesty

We explore the effects of tighter border enforcement and an amnesty on the wages and unemployment rates of natives and immigrants. We extend the Mortensen-Pissarides labor market model to include individuals authorized to work and illegal workers in a framework that accounts for voluntary return migration. Furthermore, we study the effects of an amnesty when a proportion of illegal workers pays payroll taxes. Our results show that the effect of changes in border enforcement on the number of illegal workers in the United States is theoretically ambiguous. While tighter border enforcement deters illegal migration of prospective workers, it also changes the incentives of those already in the United States decreasing return migration. If tighter border enforcement increases the number of illegal workers in the economy, it will also increase the wages of natives as market tightness increases. Our findings show that the larger the proportion of illegal workers paying payroll taxes, the larger will be the decrease in wages, and the smaller the increase in unemployment generated by the decrease in the number of illegal workers in the economy that will follow an amnesty.