ABSTRACT
This chapter explores at the ways in which current regulations and programs reinforce NAFTAs framework that restricts the movement of unskilled laborers, primarily from Mexico, into the United States and Canada. Many Canadian-based and American-affiliated unions have organized agricultural workers, including migrant workers, and have also worked with nongovernmental organizations to help provide much needed social services for these vulnerable workers. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into force in 1994 uniting Canada, Mexico and the United States in a neoliberal project to create an integrated market free of trade barriers. NAFTA professional visas allow citizens of Canada, Mexico, and USA, as NAFTA professionals, to work in the territory of a state-party in a pre-arranged business activity for a national or foreign employer. Mexico is currently by far the most significant emigration country in NAFTA, the majority migrating into the US Mexican migrants, authorized and unauthorized, send back significant sums in remittances to their relatives.
