Labour Migration as an Unintended Consequence of Globalization in Mexico, 1980–2000

Increased labour migration from Mexico to the United States between 1980 and 2000 stemmed in large part from macro-economic policy reforms, implemented at the domestic and international levels, that we now associate with economic “globalization”. These reforms were ushered in by the era of “deep economic integration”—the period beginning in the early 1980s in which domestic economic crises in many developing countries, including Mexico, set the stage for market liberalization supported by the advice and counsel of the Bretton Woods institutions (Haggard 1995).