7536 COHA Report, Reducing Illegal Immigration from Mexico: A Politically-Dependent FDI-Focused Approach

Reducing Illegal Immigration from Mexico: A Politically-Dependent  FDI-Focused Approach 

Fueled by the pursuit of greater socioeconomic opportunity and an improved quality of life, illegal immigration is often scrutinized for its harm or benefit to its country of destination. Yet continuous efforts to control illegal immigration into the United States undoubtedly reveal that, provided with a concrete strategy, many Washington policymakers would prefer to eliminate the phenomenon entirely. To date, all U.S. policies attempting to abate cross-border illegal immigration have centered either on offers somewhat akin to “blanket amnesty” to the resident illegal immigrant population or on some other category of increased border interdiction. The revision of Section A within chapter 11.01 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to include structural funds modeled after the economic integration ‘cohesion policy’ of the European Union (E.U.) has been one new strategy proposed that would lessen the incentives for cross-border migration from Mexico by allowing for increased levels of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country. The commonly held implication is that such a policy would, in theory, substantially reduce cross-border migration from Mexico over the long-term through development of the Mexican economy and infrastructure, as it did in the case of the E.U.

However, economic preparedness for FDI is often heavily dependent upon political stability in a given country. Indeed, the broader consensus within the academic community today is that effectiveness of FDI inflows are highly dependent upon factors such as central government stability, presence of internal conflict, basic democratic rights, and the ability of the government to enforce law and order. Given this relationship coupled with the current state of Mexico, strategies for governmental and judicial reform within the Mexican context must first be examined to gauge whether the country is fully prepared to absorb such aforementioned FDI within its service and agricultural sectors (the largest components of Mexican GDP, calculated at 70.5% and 27.5% respectively) as part of an innovative new strategy for reducing Mexican illegal immigration across U.S. borders.