National Development and International Labour Migration: Mexico 1940-1965

Abstract

In the twentieth century, international labour migration has assumed increasing importance in the western hemisphere. In North America, the largest and most dramatic labour migration has been between Mexico and the United States. As the receiving country, the United States has tried on one occasion to regularize the flow of Mexican labour by formal arrangements with the sending nation. The Bracero programme 1942-64 legally provided for Mexican workers to serve in US factories and fields. A concerned US government now reportedly favours another formalized influx of Mexican labour through a 'guest worker' programme. Any consideration of such an arrangement calls to public attention the experiences of the Bracero era. To judge the efficacy of a new programme requires an historical understanding of the previous one, and the Bracero programme must be reconsidered in light of what is now known about the labour sending region in Mexico and the linkages between that region and Mexico's overall strategy of national development. This article seeks to provide a new historical context in which to evaluate a phenomenon that has persisted, with but few interruptions, since the 1880s, a phenomenon that promises in the 1980s to become again a major issue in the international dialogue between the United States and Mexico.The northward migration of people from Central Mexico has been a constant element in Mexican history since at least the arrival of the Spanish in 1518.

Cost of Being a Mexican Immigrant and Being a Mexican Non-Citizen in California and Texas

“…The literature notes that compared to California, Mexican immigrant workers in Texas faced a severe internal wage competition before 1970. Starting from the bracero program between 1942 and 1964, immigrant workers had lower wages than the native-born, especially in agricultural industries (Jenkins, 1977;cited in Valdes, 1995;Sandos and Cross, 1983;Valdes, 1995). The cross-state differences in imm0069 (t = 2.37 > 1.96, p < .05, two-tailed) and imm7079 (t = 4.42 > 1.96, p < .05, two-tailed) are also statistically significant, although between-state wage differences are not controlled.…”

“…The literature notes that compared to California, Mexican immigrant workers in Texas faced a severe internal wage competition before 1970. Starting from the bracero program between 1942 and 1964, immigrant workers had lower wages than the native-born, especially in agricultural industries (Jenkins, cited in Valdes, 1995;Sandos & Cross, 1983;Valdes, 1995).…”

The Sonoran Desert’s Domestic Bracero Programme: Institutional Actors and the Creation of Labour Migration Streams

“…4 4 For a discussion of why the Mexican government targeted certain states as the source of labour for the bracero programme, please see Sandos and Cross (1983). …”

“…The overabundance of potential migrants resulted in both the displacement of men who ran out of money and also the development of an informal economy that was sustained by men awaiting a bracero contract (Gonzales, 2006: 62–63). In Mexico City, the majority of aspirants derived from the historic sending states of Guanajuato, Jalisco, and Michoacan (See Sandos and Cross, 1983: 45)…”