Number 11, January 2011
briefing paper
Laura Elizabeth Pohl
Development and Migration
In Rural Mexico
by Andrew Wainer
Key Points
• To comprehensively reform immigration policy, the United States must
acknowledge the links in Latin America between poverty, inequality,
and migration, and work with migrant-sending countries to address the
sources of unauthorized immigration.‡
• As the source of 60 percent of all unauthorized immigration to the
United States, Mexico—and particularly rural Mexico—presents a unique
environment to implement U.S. foreign assistance projects that promote
development with the aim of reducing migration pressures.
• U.S. foreign assistance agencies working in migrant-sending regions
should integrate analysis of migration issues into development projects.
Projects that seek to reduce migration deserve increased attention from
U.S. policymakers, including support for pilot projects and evaluations.
• Rural development projects in migrant-sending communities can increase
their impact though partnerships with small farmer organizations.
Strengthening independent small farmer groups creates on-the-ground
advocates that influence the Mexican government to support policies and
leverage public resources that help small producers.
Andrew Wainer is immigration policy analyst for Bread for the World Institute.
Bread for the World Institute provides policy
analysis on hunger and strategies to end it.
The Institute educates its network, opinion
leaders, policy makers and the public about
hunger in the United States and abroad.
www.bread.org
Abstract
The immigration debate, while focused
on domestic issues, largely overlooks some
of the principal causes of unauthorized
migration to the United States: poverty
and inequality in Latin America.
The U.S. government identifies Latin
America as the primary source (80 percent) of unauthorized immigration, but
its responses internally, at the border, and
through its foreign assistance to migrantsending countries is focused on enforcement.
Border enforcement fails to impact the
causes of unauthorized migration in Latin
America and U.S. foreign assistance to
Latin America typically doesn’t take into
account its impact on migration pressures.
U.S. policy toward migrant-sending
countries in Latin America mirrors its
enforcement-focused domestic policy. Assistance to Mexico is dominated by the
Mérida Initiative, which emphasizes aid
to Mexico’s security agencies.
This report analyzes a project in rural
Mexico that was designed with an awareness of the connections between development and migration. The project is analyzed in this report to inspire discussion
and action linking development and the
reduction of migration pressures.
Projects that make these connections
deserve increased attention in order to
broaden the immigration policy discourse
to include options for reducing poverty
and migration pressures at the source.