Mexico was a vigorous member of the original group of countries and led its first initiatives. However, since , increasing concerns about security and terrorism altered RCM's agenda, stalling the process and diminishing Mexico's ability to push that agenda. More recently, foreign secretaries of Mexico and countries in Central and South America have come together to show a "face of Latin unity" and oppose restrictive immigration legislation currently before the U.
The "Pro-Migratory Alliance" faces numerous pressures and will have a difficult time influencing the U. The group's main achievement so far, the creation of a Working Party on Migration, will have to overcome the common characteristics of reactive proposals whose first achievement has usually been to resort to the traditional practice of creating commissions with doubtful outcomes.
Some of the foreign secretaries will tour Washington, DC, in May to lobby for reform that legalizes the unauthorized and creates opportunities for their citizens to work legally.
It is hard to predict the future of Central American migration towards the north, just as predictions about the migration of Mexicans to the United States are open to debate. Consequently, forecasting what path Mexican policies towards immigrants and transmigrants will follow is also difficult. The current migration debate in Mexico overwhelmingly revolves around the importance and need to influence the immigration reform in the United States, which is also a concern of its Central American neighbors.
Any U. The document "Mexico and the Migration Phenomenon," issued in by Mexican legislators and federal government officials with the support of academics, foreign policy experts, and civil-society organizations, provides a platform for discussion. Mexico is beginning to see itself as a country of emigration, immigration, and transmigration, a realization that requires it to shape and adopt an integral and coherent migration policy, not just react to the United States.
Such a policy will need to be based on principles that allow both developed and developing countries to engage in rational discourse. France: OECD, The Regional Conference on Migration. Its evolution and current security context: the war on terrorism and human rights , in Studi Emigrazioni, No.
Rome: Centro Studi Emigrazione, USA: Athenaeum Press, Hamilton, Nora and Norma Stolz Chinchilla. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, Loucky, James and Marilyn Moors. North, Lisa and Alan Simmons, editors. Skip to main content. You are here Home » Migration Information Source. Adjust Font. April 1, By Manuel Angel Castillo. Historical background After Mexico and Central America gained independence from Spain, in , the Central American states came briefly under Mexican rule before separating in and creating a unified nation called the United Provinces of Central America.
Seasonal Migration The seasonal migration of Guatemalan peasants including families and children to Chiapas since the early 20th century is not surprising, given the history of the state.
Policies Toward Guatemalan Refugees Although Mexico had received small numbers of Spaniards in the s and South Americans in the s fleeing civil wars, the first challenge to Mexico's migration policies were the flows of Guatemalans who entered between and in search of protection. Central American Population Today Immigrants have never composed a large portion of Mexico's population. Transit Migration and Border Policy In the s, the Mexican government purposely chose not to enforce its southern border with physical barriers because it wanted to facilitate cross-border markets and family interactions, among other reasons.
Deportation Policy Once unauthorized migrants from Central America are apprehended, Mexico — per its last agreement signed in December with Guatemala to ensure the safe, orderly repatriation of undocumented Central American migrants — deports them to Guatemala; however, the agreement has been written to allow for periodical revision. Looking Ahead It is hard to predict the future of Central American migration towards the north, just as predictions about the migration of Mexicans to the United States are open to debate.
One was the organized repatriation, which began in when, with international mediation, the refugees and the governments signed an agreement. Second, the Mexican government's implementation of the Program of Migratory Stabilization led to the progressive, definite settlement of those who had decided to stay in Mexican territory, nearly one third of the total "recognized refugee population" Castillo, b.
This major undocumented or unauthorized flow began to appear in the mids, with the intensification of social and political conflicts in the neighboring region. During the s, this migratory flow changed and exhibited remarkable growth. Due to its nature, it has been very difficult to measure its dimensions or establish the migrants' profiles. However, indirect evidence indicates that it is both diversifying and increasing.
Throughout the s, with the exception of one year, the Mexican authorities annually performed more than , deportations and rejections, an average of nearly 10 per month and more than per day. Preliminary annual figures for 2 register more than events. For the Mexican government, the issue of migratory flows is a high priority because it influences the relationship with Central American countries and, in particular, the binational border agenda with the Guatemalan government.
Some have questionable consequences from the perspective of the security and protection of human rights and dig nity, while others may be encouraging, as is the case of the creation of the so-called Beta Groups. For a long time, the state of Chiapas was the border entity per excellence and, therefore, the communications link with Central America, favored because of its infrastructure and exchange relationships.
It was an obvious choice as the privileged area for the entry and transit of migrants. Nevertheless, policies aimed at controlling and deterring undocumented migrants, in addition to other actions aimed at pursuing criminals, have displaced migrants to extremely risky border zones, such as northern Chiapas, and to the states of Tabasco and Campeche and neighboring territory in Guatemala.
Hence, the migratory issue is obviously a current and future priority for the Mexico-Central America border, specifically for Guatemala and the state of Chiapas. However, one should recall that as the NAFTA went into operation, an armed uprising took place in the region, bringing about one of Mexico's most important national political events in recent years.
Since the armed movement and its social bases of support emerged, the Mexican government has encouraged and pursued a series of actions parallel to its unsuccessful efforts at dialogue and bargaining. These initiatives have ranged from large investment and social development programs to the intimidating presence of the military, all of which have inevitably affected daily life in the region. Therefore, given the resources the "center" the central government along with dominant sectors in central Mexico expends on the border region, it cannot afford to view the migratory phenomenon as an external issue.
Analysis of the regional situation should also consider the frequent connections made between migrations and migrants and a variety criminal practices, such as drug trafficking, prostitution rings, trafficking in minors, smuggling, and arms trafficking.
These connections have no clear foundation in reality but rather are a byproduct of a vague ideology of "national security. From my point of view, the profile officials have constructed of these traffickers has been, and is still, partial and insufficient. Moreover, those who truly benefit from the traffic in migrants undoubtedly have a connection to networks of corruption. Until now, the overwhelming importance of Mexican emigration to the United States has relegated to a secondary position the issue of immigration into Mexico.
Oddly, something similar has happened in the Central American countries, where governments are primarily concerned with the eventuality of the deterrence or even the reduction of remittances sent by their successful emigrants, whether due to a mass deportation of those residing in the United States or a more efficient U. More recently, the migration issue has gained importance with reforms to U.
The return, sometimes under very shameful conditions, of these detainees to their countries of origin attracted the attention of public opinion and demanded action by the Central American governments to ensure the integration of returned nationals and to guarantee them a dignified life, all of which was covered in detail by the mass media.
At the regional level, a forum to address the growing and interconnected phenomena of Central American migrations to the North was established in Representatives from the governments of North America, Central America, and the Dominican Republic meet periodically in the Regional Conference on Migration originally known as "Proceso Puebla" to examine and discuss the regional dimension of migratory processes.
Although it is not a decision-making forum, the high stature of its members vice ministers of the Interior and Foreign Affairs has created an adequate environment to focus on the causes, impacts, and conditions in which regional migrations occur. Participants have given special attention to the links between migration and both human rights of migrants and the broad concept of development.
However, little has been said regarding the internal effects of emigration from the Central American societies.
The few available studies on the profile of emigrants lead to an obvious conclusion: Most are old enough to participate in the workforce and, thus, their ongoing departure is costly for national capacities in terms of human capital. Economic indices illustrate, in general, signs of a weak and fluctuating recovery by the Central American economies following the start of the peace processes in the region.
The growth rates for per capita GDP reflect both a limited capacity to reactivate productive capacities as well as the existence of a persistently expanding population that poses a challenge for development while presenting a notable force for economic reactivation. For other reasons, Mexico, in turn, has also experienced changes in its economic performance, especially after the so-called crisis of Although the measures adopted may have led to a meaningful recovery in recent years, figures in the area of general development indicate the prevalence of huge shortages and inequalities.
Visible is an almost immediate effect of those limitations in regard to employment, which affects practically every country in the region, as much in terms of structural unemployment and underemployment, as in the near-term challenges now posed by high rates of population growth that occurred in earlier decades.
Mexico's southern border continues to show the great social, economic, and political backwardness. In this context, the region appears to reaffirm the features of continuity with neighboring Guatemalan and Belizean border areas, which constitute, especially in the case of Guatemala, a zone of inequalities and shortages. As mentioned before, one of the arguments in Mexico's debate to support its entrance into the NAFTA was that the integration scheme would attract investments, create jobs, and improve living conditions of native-born populations, thus indirectly stemming emigration flows.
However, the staggered implementation scheme makes it difficult to assess the Agreement's success in diminishing emigration. We will only be able to appraise the full effects in the medium and long term.
However, systematic estimates of migration flows after seven years of NAFTA operation underline the prevalence of undocumented migrants moving to the United States at steady average rate of people per year. On the other hand, the Mexican-Guatemala border region, especially in the state of Chiapas, has consolidated its position as a transit zone for people of various origins, whose mobility has been systematically increasing, especially during the s.
The reasons for emigration seem to have outweighed the expectations for change and improvement in the Central American economies that followed the negotiation of formal peace. The increase and diversification of migratory streams seem to announce the insufficiencies in the region's current economic models, including the incapacity to create jobs.
The policies in the countries of origin show the lack of concern for the conditions of their nationals, whether abroad or at home. Evidence of this disinterest is visible in the prevalence and expansion of the reasons driving individuals to migrate, as well as in the tepid position of the governments in regard to their obligation to protect and defend the fundamental rights of their citizens whether in transit or at their destinations.
Meanwhile, receiving countries and transit countries have privileged the control and enhancement of border operations under different justifications. They have shown their inability to deter flows, similar to the ineffective results that the U. The tougher measures applied on the Mexico-Guatemala border have had similar consequences, especially concerning heightened risks along the routes that migrants are increasingly obliged to transit.
The recent signing of free-trade agreements in the region revealed the somewhat limited capacity of governments to negotiate and reach a level of consensus regarding economic exchanges. No evidence exists of solid efforts, parallel to trade negotiations, in terms of public policies and programs to counteract the negative effects of increasing emigration flows.
One hopeful experience at the regional level involves activities developed within the framework of the Regional Conference on Migration Proceso Puebla , which since has tried to focus on the complex dimensions of migration in the region. One would hope that these activities would include the active participation of civil organizations working to protect migrants through advocacy, lobbying, and assistance on a wide spectrum of migration issues.
Economic as well as social, political, and cultural issues show the increasing intertwining of international relationships. Thus, we urgently need to redefine bilateral and multilateral official and non-official agendas to include a serious stance concerning regional migration issues.
The vulnerability of migrants, not only undocumented people but also a wide spectrum of populations that are mobile, especially across borders, demands that governments fulfill their obligations as laid down in national laws as well as international conventions protecting the human and labor rights of migrants and their families. Documentos Regionales , Mexico City, Bovin, Philippe ed.
Bustamante, Jorge A. North and Alan B. Cruz Burguete, Jorge Luis, Identidades en fronteras, fronteras de identidades. Entrikin, J. Flores A. II, edited by Bryan S. Turner and Peter Hamilton, London, Routledge, , pp. Williams, Edward J. Zaretzky, Nancy and Mark B. The author wishes to acknowledge the valuable help Tim Edwards in revising and translating the preliminary versions.
The author also thanks Peter Andreas and the journal referees for their valuable comments and recommendations, which hopes he has appropriately included here. A given State does not just exist in space, it has sovereign power in a particular territory. Similarly, a nation is not an arbitrary spatial given, it has a meaning only for a particular place, its homeland. It is this basic community of State and nation as both being constituted through place that has enabled them to be linked together as nation-state [ There is a society underlying each state.
States have histories and therefore traditions. They are 'logically' independent entities such that, for statistical purposes, they can be 'compared. Rosenberg put it this way, "But even as globalization blurs the limits of territoriality, local and regional issues have gained new urgency as central governments become less capable of addressing these concerns.
However, evidence shows that although social, economic, demographic, and political indices for these areas are the lowest of any in Mexico, they have systematically been much better than those of their Guatemalan neighbors. Their design and construction entail conceptual and methodological problems: Regardless the advances achieved, they can also have other kinds of problems, due to source of the data they employ.
Notably, despite the short periods under consideration, since the report based on figures for , a sharpening of inequality between the analyzed countries is visible. However, by , inequalities had grown more acute: the United States and Canada now ranked 1st and 3rd, respectively, but Mexico had dropped to 50th, placing it in the Medium Human Development group PNUD, However, a preliminary evaluation of the scant achievements of the Tuxtla Process should consider the difficulties stemming from the unstable situation in the Central American economies and political systems, as well as Mexico's clear and explicit strategy of political dialogue and cooperation toward its southern neighbors.
Originally, it was both a collective modality for access to land and a model of an organization operating for the benefit of each of its members. Ejidos remained the property of the Mexican government, with clear restrictions on sale or leasing of their lands. However, at the start of the s, constitutional reform allowed ejido members to sell land or enter joint enterprises with private capital. Death rate 5. Net migration rate Sex ratio at birth: 1.
Infant mortality rate total: Life expectancy at birth total population: Total fertility rate 2. Religions Roman Catholic Roman Catholic Languages Spanish only Spanish The World Factbook, the indispensable source for basic information. Spanish official Literacy definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: Sanitation facility access improved: urban: Major cities - population Children under the age of 5 years underweight 4.
Per capita income is roughly one-third that of the US; income distribution remains highly unequal. Mexico has become the US' second-largest export market and third-largest source of imports. Mexico's current government, led by President Enrique PENA NIETO, has emphasized economic reforms, passing and implementing sweeping energy, financial, fiscal, and telecommunications reform legislation, among others, with the long-term aim to improve competitiveness and economic growth across the Mexican economy.
Since , Mexico has held public auctions of oil and gas exploration and development rights and for long-term electric power generation contracts. Mexico has also issued permits for private sector import, distribution, and retail sales of refined petroleum products in an effort to attract private investment into the energy sector and boost production.
Growth is predicted to remain below potential given falling oil production, weak oil prices, structural issues such as low productivity, high inequality, a large informal sector employing over half of the workforce, weak rule of law, and corruption. The agricultural sector accounts for Guatemala is the top remittance recipient in Central America as a result of Guatemala's large expatriate community in the US. These inflows are a primary source of foreign income, equivalent to two-thirds of the country's exports and about a tenth of its GDP.
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