reform; and about Mexico’s largely valve. For them the flow of migrants After the Bracero Program and
ineffective efforts to manage the serves only to relieve social pressure through the 1990s, Fitzgerald writes,
northward rush of its workers. on the Mexican government and to Mexico followed Washington’s lead
A Nation of Emigrants, by David save political leaders from the re- inadoptinganon-policythat“tacitly
Fitzgerald, a sociology professor at sponsibility of development. accepted illegal immigration.” The
the University of California, San Starting with field work in a Mexi- U. S. saw little reason to curb immi-Diego, is a broadly researched but can village, Fitzgeraldexamines Mex- gration or reinstate a formal guest
tightly argued account of the Mex- ico’s attempts to exert control over worker program “so long as undoc-ican side of the immigration cycle, the mass exodus of many of its best umented immigrants met U. S. la-too often overlooked in debate on workers. He recalls Mexico’s actions bor demand.” Mexico’s emigration
the U.S.side. Mexicoisthebehemoth during the Bracero Program (from management generally failed, he
in the current crisis: about 11. 7 mil- 1942 to 1964) to hold back workers, to finds, because it was never a match
lion Mexicans make up 31 percent of ensure that its economy did not lack for the power of U. S. border policy,
the foreign-born people now living for labor, and also to gain leverage whether laissez-faire or restrictive.
in the United States, overwhelming in negotiations with Washington for In recent years Mexico has shifted,
other national groups. According to better working conditions for the mi- allowing its citizens to hold dual
the Pew Hispanic Center, about seven grants. He records an episode in early nationality and seeking to channel
million Mexicans lack legal status 1954 when U.S. border agents nearly remittances into productive invest-and more than 80 percent of Mexi- did battle with Mexican troops to ments. But, Fitzgerald concludes,
cans who arrived in the last decade clear the way for Mexican farm work- Buchanan’s warnings that Mexico’s
are here unlawfully. Yet discussion of ers to come through—a remarkable policies pose a threat to U. S. sover-the crackdown has been dominated contrast to the situation today. “As eignty are “exactly wrong.”
by the assumptions of neo-nativist Mexican troops clashed with thou- The dominance of U.S. policy at
proponents like Pat Buchanan and sands of rioting workers attempt- the border is revealed in Blockading
former Colorado Congressman Tom ing to cross the border illegally,” he the Border and Human Rights, Timo-Tancredo, who say that Mexico has writes, “U.S. immigration officials thy J. Dunn’s encyclopedic history of
always been pleased to see its work- welcomed successful crossers and border control operations in El Paso,
ers depart through a border escape sent them on to the fields.” Texas. In sometimes repetitive detail
Fresh Look
