Forget the Wall–Build Mexico

The Houston Chronicle ran this interesting commentary on NAFTA by University of Houston Professor Stephen Zamora a few days ago:

If the root cause of Mexican migration to the United States is found in Mexico, then why do we continue to believe that 2,000-mile walls will solve the immigration problems associated with undocumented workers?

The answer, in part, is that barriers will always be easier to construct than workable economic solutions. Voters typically yawn when they hear politicians call for meaningful dialogue with Mexico, but they are disposed to cheer loudly when candidates clamor for more barbed wire and stricter border controls.

In the 1990s, the United States, Mexico and Canada pursued a purely economic partnership when they cobbled together the North American Free Trade Agreement. Social or political issues were largely avoided at the NAFTA negotiating table, and potential repercussions of trilateral economic integration (including the immigration of undocumented workers) were deemed “domestic concerns” to be handled within the borders of each country.

Today, 14 years after NAFTA was enacted, we know that “social repercussions” stemming from the agreement flow freely past international borders. As NAFTA prodded Mexico’s formerly closed economy to become more competitive, the country’s inefficient producers — from old manufacturing plants to family-run farms raising corn on small plots of land — faltered or failed. Facing ruin or starvation, many of the displaced workers saw jobs in the United States as their only chance of survival.

NAFTA’s framers had theorized that the free trade agreement would spur economic growth in Mexico. Today, we know this was wishful thinking. A large percentage of the Mexican population was mired in poverty before NAFTA, and remains mired in poverty today. And with Mexico now inextricably tied to a U.S. economy that is flirting with recession, there is little hope of effecting dramatic improvements anytime soon. Click here for the full piece.

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