Impacts of the 1986 US immigation law on emigration from rural Mexican sending communities
Cornelius, W.A.
Population and Development Review 15(4): 689-705
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0098-7921 Document Number: 235410
The article focuses on the ways in which the landmark US Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 has affected labour-exporting communities in Mexico. Discussion continues on the basis of data gathered through 946 sample survey interviews conducted in 1988/89 in three rural communities located in the Mexican states of Jalisco, Michoacan, and Zacatecas. All three communities are predominantly agricultural and have well-established traditions of labour migration to the USA. Findings highlight the situation as regards knowledge and perceptions of IRCA; propensity to migrate; effects of legalization programmes; settlement patterns in the USA; and the economics of migrant families. No evidence was found that the 1986 immigration law has reduced the traditionally heavy flow of workers to the USA from rural communities and small towns in west-central Mexico. Indeed, IRCA seems to have augmented that flow, at least temporarily, through its legalization programmes. The IRCA has added new dimensions of complexity to the Mexican immigration phenomenon, it has not yet altered its fundamental dynamics.