Research Library

Do remittances — the money sent home by migrants working abroad — drive economic growth? Research scholar Jose Ivan Rodriguez-Sanchez explores their impact Mexico's economy and argues that Mexico needs a more robust economic strategy for sustained growth.

This report takes a deep dive into how expanding the scope of the nonimmigrant TN Visa — available only to Mexican and Canadian citizens — could help solve the U.S. labor shortage. In a political climate where full-scale immigration reform seems impossible, more temporary work visas can help bridge the labor gap.

Research scholar José Iván Rodríguez-Sánchez examines the economic impact of remittances — the money sent home by migrants working abroad — and finds varying results at the state and municipal levels in Mexico. He also warns against relying too heavily on remittances to drive economic growth.

This paper examines the economic impact of labor shortages in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic and estimates how many unfilled jobs may exist by 2030. Higher levels of legal immigration could help ease the shortage of workers and boost the economy, the author writes.

This paper provides evidence demonstrating that the legalization of undocumented immigrants and their inclusion in the banking system, health care insurance system and housing market would produce a positive ripple effect throughout the U.S. economy.

José Iván Rodríguez-Sánchez conducts a cost-benefit analysis of undocumented immigrants in Texas, concluding that undocumented residents have a positive influence and impact on the economy, since they pay taxes and fees and constitute an important part of the labor market.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has pledged to end corrupt practices in Mexico. Yet some of his other goals — such as returning to a more centralized government — might actually foster corruption. Postdoctoral fellow Jose Ivan Rodriguez-Sanchez explores this situation and analyzes the relationship between democracy and corruption in Mexico.

Measuring the costs of corruption around the world is challenging due to varying definitions of corruption, the invisibility of many corrupt acts, and the subjectivity of perceptions. In this research paper, postdoctoral research fellow Jose I. Rodriguez-Sanchez explores the difficulties of measuring corruption in Mexico.

This paper seeks to identify the key factors that explain why local officials in Mexico — mayors, former mayors, mayors-elect and mayoral candidates — are being killed and to provide policy alternatives to address this important threat to Mexican democracy.

As China continues to open up to the transnational circulation of labor, ideas, technology and capital under globalization, one must wonder: will Chinese society’s more cosmopolitan and transnational groups continue to be guided by guanxi, the system of social networks and influential relationships that facilitate business and other dealings?