The Reshaping of Mexican Labor Exports under NAFTA: Paradoxes and Challenges

Abstract

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.

Migrants as transnational development agents: an inquiry into the newest round of the migration–development nexus

“…In a dependency perspective, underdevelopment led to the loss of the highly-skilled who migrated from the periphery to the centres in the dependent world, and above all into industrialised countries. This out-migration, in turn, was thought to contribute to even more underdevelopment and increased migration fl ows through asymmetric distribution of benefi ts and resources (Martin, 1991;Delgado and Covarrubias, 2005). This called into question the belief that the loss of the South's resources would be compensated for by reverse fl ows from North to South, called remittances.…”

Migrating into Financial Markets How Remittances Became a Development Tool

“…) Other, more critical contributions have demonstrated many of the faulty bases on which the edifice of remittances and development policies have been constructed. (See, e.g., Goldring, 2004;de Haas, 2007;Delgado-Wise and Márquez Covarrubias, 2007;Glick Schiller and Faist, 2010.) As will become clear below, this project is distinct in that I am not solely interested in contributing to the formation or critique of remittances and development policies.…”

Ukrainian Labour Migration in the Czech Republic: Brain-Drain and the Existence of Structural Channels

“…Výsledky ukazují, že ke ztrátě lidského kapitálu a odlivu mozků z Ukrajiny již nedochází. Tato zjištění jsou tedy v souladu s nedávným výzkumem, který uvádí, že migrační toky po celém světě jsou stále více specializované (Massey a kol., 2010;Hernandez-Leon, 2008;Portes, 2007;Delgado-Wise a Covarrubias, 2007).…”