As President Obama prepares for a historic visit to Havana, thousands of the island’s residents are rushing to immigrate to the U.S., hoping to beat the rumored end of a policy that lets Cubans who reach American soil remain here. Read Erika de la Garza’s take on the unsought consequences of reestablishing U.S. ties to Cuba.
The relationship between Mexico and Texas is in dire need of reassessment, given the chasm between the reality of the countries’ economic and cultural relationship and the political rhetoric that surrounds it.
The recent surge in Central American migration has challenged Mexico to implement policies that uphold human rights for migrants (especially unaccompanied children) who are passing through the country while also deterring unauthorized crossings at the southern border and cracking down on human smuggling and trafficking. However, finding the appropriate balance for these policies — with a humanitarian focus on the one hand and meeting larger “security concerns” on the other hand — has been elusive for the Mexican government. This paper discusses the historical and political context of Mexico’s various policy responses to the spike in Central American migration through Mexico toward the United States and analyzes related implications for the country’s relationships with the United States and its Central American neighbors.
The decade 2003-2013 was an exceptional one for Latin America in social terms, but less clearly so in economic terms. Growth slowed down significantly after the exceptional factors that fed the 2003-2007 boom came to an end. The possible unwinding of the super-cycle in commodity prices and, to a lesser extent, of the expansionary monetary policy of the United States, has added new challenges. But the major issue is the need to overcome the
poor long-term economic performance that has characterized the region in the post-market reforms period, particularly by adopting active production sector development strategies.
Is there an immigration crisis? Considering recent apprehensions of unauthorized immigrants in the context of what has happened over the last 10 years, the data are inconsistent with an immigration crisis — at least a generalized immigration crisis.
After more than five decades, China's central government is modernizing, standardizing and regulating the Hukou system of registration that largely tied farmers to the lands on which they were born, and kept them out of the cities and away from competing with urban residents for jobs and benefits. China is now officially gradually phasing out its highly unequal two-tier system of citizenship.
José Woldenberg, who served as the first president of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute, traced the country's transition to democracy at an April 2014 lecture hosted by the Baker Institute Mexico Center. The center's Lisa Guaqueta and Kristin Foringer explain why Mexico's experience is distinct from similar processes elsewhere in the world.
The violent struggle between rival Mexican drug cartels and other criminal groups has left tens of thousands dead and towns across Mexico paralyzed with fear. With overwhelmed police forces relatively powerless to control drug-related murders and kidnappings, a growing number of vigilante organizations, or self-defense
groups, aim to restore order — but now even they are fighting, and killing, among themselves.
Leading U.S. immigration experts, public policy scholars and political figures debate issues and solutions to crucial questions surrounding comprehensive immigration reform.
