Industrial Restructuring and the Influx of Mexican Migrants to the Rural Midwest of the United States

Abstract

This paper attempts to elucidate the cause of the Mexican migrant influx to the rural Midwest in the U.S. in the 1990s by focusing on the restructuring strategies of the meatpacking industry, which is currently a major employer of migrants in this region. Their influx into this region indicates an increase in their population in regions that have radically different cultural and socioeconomic contexts compared to those of their traditional settlements such as large metropolitan cities and the Southwest. While this raises questions pertaining to their adaptation to this region, it is an integral premise of this issue to shed light on the reasons of their influx in these nontraditional destinations. This paper explores the restructuring experienced by the meatpacking industry and why that restructuring resulted in the influx of Mexican migrants to this region.In order to overcome the shortcomings in the existing macrolevel approaches of immigration, which explain the causes of immigration in terms of the demand of migrant labor created by industrial restructuring, the analysis is conducted from the following perspectives. Firstly, the restructuring of basic industries is not a unilinear process but one in which appropriate strategies are selected under external influence. This affects the choice of strategies in other strategic sectors, and in general, mutually suitable strategies.are chosen from among strategic sectors. Secondly, the strategy of using migrants is employed not only to reduce labor costs but also as a suitable strategy in combination with other strategies. This paper focuses on the influences of product characteristics. Thereby, it explores how these characteristics have induced the combination of strategies specific to this industry and led to the development of unique restructuring processes. Further, it examines why this restructuring process has necessitated the strategy of using Mexican migrants in the rural Midwest during this period.