Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration

by Douglas S. Massey, Jorge Durand, Nolan J. Malone

Book Overview

Migration between Mexico and the United States is part of a historical process of increasing North American integration. This process acquired new momentum with the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, which lowered barriers to the movement of goods, capital, services, and information. But rather than include labor in this new regime, the United States continues to resist the integration of the labor markets of the two countries...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087154590X
• ISBN13: 9780871545909
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.8" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Everyone can learn from this book

Massey et al. explain how immigration policy - often based on prejudice and scapegoating - has led to consequences that are bad for US citizens, Mexico, and immigrants (legal or otherwise). I also think everyone ought to read this book, especially people in the Obama administration. Anti-immigration folks might think that limiting benefits, for example, would deter immigration but in fact it has had the opposite effect. They have many such examples, and unlike many whining sociologists*, propose solid policy at the end of the book. I found it extremely readable, and would be so for undergraduates as well.

Best Book on the Subject

Professor Massey has shared with readers his many years of in depth, primary research on the subject of Mexican immigration. Every policymaker and every American should read it.

Excellent overview by one of our foremost immigration scholars

Most popular discussions of contemporary U.S. immigration ignore history and the "facts on the ground." Massey lays out the history of Mexico-U.S. migration. He provides convincing evidence that stepped-up border enforcement efforts since the early 1990s have been both deadly and counterproductive. He argues forcefully for an immigration policy that takes the realities of U.S.-Mexican social and economic integration into account. Readers who are convinced that immigration is a bad thing in itself will not be persuaded by Massey to change their minds; those who are interested in a dispassionate discussion of border control issues will find this book provocative and useful.