ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the security dimensions of migration flows which have long occurred between Mexico and the US. It describes the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on wider efforts to regulate regional economic integration and intensified crossborder flows, including the movement of people. The chapter explores the shifting goals that have informed US and Mexican efforts to regulate labour migration. It discusses the role that migration flows have played in regionalization processes in North America, and more specifically in regional integration between Mexico and the US. Although migration flows between these two countries have a century-long history, they have expanded dramatically in the course of the last few decades. The chapter shows migration and security are complex, multiple interconnected processes. Although there is often a perceived threat to the cultural identity of the host country, relocation imposes considerable and unavoidable challenges of adaptation to the outgoing population.
