Department: Political Science
Poverty, Violence and Governance Lab
Immigration law as a means of addressing poverty in Mexico and labor scarcity in the U.S.: Rising levels of insecurity and government corruption have induced changes in not only Mexico-to-U.S. migratory patterns, but also in the number of Mexican nationals seeking asylum in the U.S. The inability of Mexico’s formal institutions to adequately respond to these challenges will (1) continue to “push” individuals to migrate to the U.S. with or without authorization; and (2) leave poor Mexican communities, many of which have few legitimate routes out of poverty, vulnerable to drug trafficking related violence. We are exploring the poverty-alleviating effects of providing rural Mexican workers with H-2A temporary visas to pursue agricultural work on U.S. farms. We believe this research project will help provide U.S. policymakers with important insights as they consider whether to expand this program in the near future. Here, the evaluative component of our project is especially crucial given that recent changes in immigration rules have been motivated by (yet untested) assumptions about the relationship between authorized and unauthorized migration.