Globalization, Obsolete and Inhumane Migratory Policies, and Their Impact on Migrant Workers and Their Families in the North and Central American/Caribbean Region

Abstract

The 1970s marked the beginning of a great and continuing migration of people from Mexico and Caribbean and Central American nations to the United States. This movement has been driven by a confluence of factors leading to a systematic social and economic displacement of millions of people, including the asymmetrical social and economic relationship between the United States and countries in this region, the restructuring of local economies and labor markets through neoliberal free trade and structural adjustment policies promoted by the global north, the civil wars of Central America, and the long history of U.S. economic and political domination and military interventions in the region. In addition, technological developments in transportation and telecommunications have facilitated travel and ongoing communication among family members and migratory networks across political borders, while making visible the relative conditions of exclusion and poverty to the people in Latin America, while providing a powerful incentive to migrate to United States where the good life appears to be attainable. Growing xenophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies in the United States has also marked this period. In response, immigrant communities and supporters will have to continue fighting back against anti-immigrant ordinances and legislative initiatives and record deportations, informing about the humanity and contributions of immigrants, and building leadership and capacity to influence policy outcomes in the interest of the majority, making the United States a better, more equitable, democratic, and sustainable nation and international actor.