Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration (review)

What happens when someone tinkers with a well-oiled machine? Douglas Massey, Jorge Duran, and Nolan Malone use this analogy to describe the problems that emerged with the current Mexican/U.S. migration system created by the enactment of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) launching a new period of restrictions and border militarization. Between 1986 and 1996 the U.S. federal government sought to restrict both documented and undocumented Mexican immigration. Paradoxically, policymakers were formulating a plan to integrate North American markets with a free-flowing network of good, services, and information among Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. The authors argue that the combination of restrictive immigration policies with the passage of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) disrupted the existing Mexican-U.S. migration system. This disruption changed M5exican migration from seasonal to permanent spreading migrants from a few border states to across the entire country negatively impacting American labor markets while exacerbating income inequalities. Drawing from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP), the authors present a straightforward analysis of these migration issues while offering realistic solutions to these problems.

The authors organize their argument into seven chapters. The brief first chapter serves as an introduction outlining how federal policies created the current problems with the Mexican/U.S. migration system. In chapter 2, the authors provide an overview of international migration theories. They examine the limits to neoclassical economic analyses of migration. Drawing from world systems theory and segmented labor market theory, they illustrate how initial migration impetuses differ from perpetuating ones focusing on social capital factors. Chapter 3 contains an excellent historical analysis of this migration divided into five time periods: 1900-29, 1929-41, 1942-64, 1965-85, and 1986-2000. They link each to major historical events in each country as well as policy shifts, providing an information-packed context. Based on data from the MMP, the authors use chapter 4 to explain what they see as the emergence of a stable migration system between 1965 and 1985. In chapter 5, they extend this machine analogy articulating the interrelations among specific American federal policies, Mexican political changes, and pushes for North American economic integration disrupting the existing migration system. Comparing pre-and post-IRCA data from the MMP, the authors explain in chapter 6 how policy changes after 1986 restructured migration to nontraditional places, created more problems with the border patrol enforcement, and affected wages. In chapter 7 they outline a realistic plan to rectify the migration system.

Through their analysis of the MMP, the authors debunk many myths about immigration policies underlain by only neoclassical economic perspectives. The appendices include an overview of the MPP, a cross-national research program coordinated by authors Massey and Durand. Using Massey's ethno-survey technique, researchers examine four to eight Mexican communities in depth using anthropological field researchers each year since 1987. The authors use the MMP data to develop a thoughtful restructuring of U.S./Mexican migration policies in a post-NAFTA era. While arguing against open borders or severely restrictive measures, they offer alternatives that deal with the fact that both countries are already integrated. For example, they propose expanding two-year temporary work visas, individually limited to two terms with a one year required return to Mexico, as an alternative to the permanent resident visas. Since most in their survey want to return to Mexico, this policy addresses these needs while shifting border patrol efforts to enforcement of these programs. They draw parallels with Spain and Portugal's joining the European Union (EU) where more developed nations provided infrastructure improvements to the two new members. The authors suggest a similar arrangement with NAFTA as an opportunity to increase investment in Mexican industry as well as assist with social problems. While they analyze globalism's...