ABSTRACT
The end of the Bilateral Agreement on Migrant Workers in 1965 was the start of a new stage in the migration of Mexican workers to the United States. Since 1970, the different Mexican administrations have attempted—with varying degrees of decisiveness—strategies for increasing activity in the rural areas and, implicitly, raising employment in the agricultural and stock-raising sector. In 1972, the Echeverría administration set up the Interministerial Commission for the Study of Surreptitious Migration of Mexicans to the United States. The administration of Miguel de la Madrid inherited the immediate impact of the crisis of September 1982. The Mexican government also thought that the consequences of the modification in the status quo for migrants would negatively affect not only Mexico but also the United States. Mexican administrations, perhaps concentrating too much on macroeconomic policies, have neglected the regional dimensions of development and have ignored problems such as the emigration of workers to the United States.
