An Essay on NAFTA and Immigration

As part of the development of this site, from time to time I aim to post content written by people other than me.

In the 'Andean News & Opinion' section of 'Stories & Articles' I've just uploaded an excellent essay by Liza Wilcox called 'The Role of NAFTA in Undocumented Immigration to the United States', which was written as part of a Master's degree in International Relations at Victoria University of Welington.

Looking at the interrelated trends in economic globalisation and migration, Liza contrasts the increasing freedom of capital to move across borders with the security-state measures to restrict ordinary workers from doing the same. She argues that NAFTA has hardly been the panacea for economic development in Mexico that it was portrayed as at the time of its negotiation. In fact, the destabilising impacts of NAFTA may have actually stimulated increased migration to the US at the same time as border security has been stepped up in an environment of generalised paranoia about Mexican immigration. She concludes that the freedom to move has become the 'major stratifying factor' of our times, and that 'globalization for some means localisation for others'.