Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Map
- Introduction
- 1 The Mexican State's Interests
- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
- 2 The Consolidation of the Mexican State and the Safety Valve of Emigration (1848–1942)
- 3 From the Bracero Agreements to Delinkage (1942–1982)
- FROM LIMITED ENGAGEMENT TO ACTIVE EMIGRATION POLICIES (1982–2006)
- Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - From the Bracero Agreements to Delinkage (1942–1982)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Map
- Introduction
- 1 The Mexican State's Interests
- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
- 2 The Consolidation of the Mexican State and the Safety Valve of Emigration (1848–1942)
- 3 From the Bracero Agreements to Delinkage (1942–1982)
- FROM LIMITED ENGAGEMENT TO ACTIVE EMIGRATION POLICIES (1982–2006)
- Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
From 1942 to 1964, Mexico and the United States established bilateral agreements for the management of labor contracting of Mexican emigrants in the United States. These agreements became known as the Bracero Program or Bracero Agreements. This period is crucial in the history of migration between Mexico and the United States because the structure of the migratory flows was consolidated during these years and the governments' policies for managing the flows began to be defined more clearly. This was also an exceptional period because, for the first time, the U.S. and Mexican governments agreed on the establishment of common rules to administrate the hiring of Mexican workers in the United States through bilateral mechanisms. In previous similar agreements, Mexico had generally accepted the terms established by the United States. The reasons why the rules of the Bracero Agreements worked or not, and the consequences that this program had in the future of migration policies and migration flows in the United States–Mexico case, are significant in terms of variations in the interpretations of the limits and possibilities of action within the asymmetrical relationship as well as the obstacles that the sending state faces in taking a more active position vis-à-vis a more powerful state.
Once the United States canceled the Bracero Program in 1964, the Mexican government spent ten years attempting to renew these agreements with the goal of limiting undocumented migration and the exploitation of Mexican workers.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Mexico and its Diaspora in the United StatesPolicies of Emigration since 1848, pp. 83 - 120Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011