The relationship between migration, development, and human rights is a topic of growing interest among international organisations, academics, and civil society organisations. To varying degrees, international organisations such as the World Bank and the International Organization for Migration see remittances as an essential tool in the development of migrant-sending, underdeveloped countries. They also envisage international migration management as a core element in the design and implementation of migration policies that are apparently beneficial for all parties. We argue that this perspective, which has dominated the academic and policy agendas, is essentially onesided, de-contextualised, reductionist, and misleading. It overlooks the realm of neoliberal globalisation and unequal development in which contemporary migration is embedded. It also disregards human and labour rights as central and intrinsic elements of coherent migration and development policies, as well as the exploitation, social exclusion, human insecurity, and criminalisation suffered by international migrants. In addition, it masks most of the fundamental contributions made by migrants to the destination countries and ignores the costs of migration for the countries of origin; costs that go far beyond the overemphasised 'positive' impact of remittances. The purpose of this article is to provide some key elements for reframing the debate on migration, development, and human rights with particular emphasis on the promotion of a comprehensive, inclusive, and human-centred alternative agenda.
From the perspective of the political economy of development, this article analyzes the role played by Mexican labor in the U.S. productive restructuring process under the aegis of the North American Free Trade Agreement. By conceptualizing the labor export–led model it dissects three basic mechanisms of regional economic integration: maquiladoras, disguised maquilas, and labor migration. Not only does this analytical framework cast light on the contributions made by Mexican migrants to the economies of the United States and Mexico, it also reveals two paradoxes: the broadening of the socioeconomic asymmetries between the two countries, and increased socioeconomic dependence on remittances in Mexico.
Para comprender el impacto disruptivo de la covid-19, un análisis desde la crítica de la economía políticaUnderstanding the disruptive impact of covid-19, an analysis from the perspective of critical political economy Guillermo Foladori* Raúl Delgado Wise** Resumen. El propósito de este artículo es profundizar en torno a las causas e implicaciones de la pandemia covid-19. Busca develar el alcance y profundidad de su impacto disruptivo sobre la contradicción capital-trabajo. El artículo está organizado en dos apartados. En el primero, se abordan las causas que contribuyen al surgimiento y propagación de la pandemia. Allí se dilucidan las principales contradicciones y tendencias que subyacen al modus operandi del capitalismo contemporáneo y que dan cuenta del contexto particular en el que se disemina el virus. En el segundo apartado se analizan los efectos e implicaciones de la pandemia en la relación capital-trabajo asalariado. Si bien algunos de estos efectos son abordados en la literatura, nuestro análisis se centra en desentrañar la conexión profunda con la contradicción capital-trabajo, que es la esencia del régimen capitalista de producción.
The relationship between migration and development is a topic of growing interest among international organizations. To varying degrees, those organizations see remittances as an essential tool in the development of migrant-sending, underdeveloped countries. We argue that this view, on which most pertinent public policies are based, misrepresents the notion of development and obscures the root causes of current labor migration. This limited and distorted perspective should be discarded, and the phenomenon should be analyzed in a comprehensive manner that includes strategic/structural, multi-dimensional, and multi-spatial approaches based on the political economy of development. This type of analysis should take into account the following interrelated dimensions: social agents, global context, regional integration, national environment, and local levels.
There is an intense ongoing debate on migration and development in Latin America. This article offers a critical overview of the main perspectives surrounding the Latin American debate across the social sciences. A brief historical background is provided, followed by a characterization of the three main paradigms prevailing in the region: the dominant perspective, grounded in modernization and neoliberal principles; the southern perspective, which has growing influence in the region and is rooted in the Latin American development school; and the transnational approach, which stands in between the first two paradigms and is circumscribed to a meso-level of analysis. The final section highlights five cutting-edge topics that have emerged in the region's scholarship. The article emphasizes the specificity and the main contributions made by Latin American scholars to understanding and demystifying the complex relationship between migration, development, and human rights.
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