Mexico-U.S. Migration and the Nation-State: A Transnational Perspective on Transformations since 1990

Abstract

This article examines Mexico-U.S. migration from a transnational perspective, explaining the implications of cross-border ties for the nation-state. It builds on 30 years of original research in Mexico and the United States, and contributions of the Mexican Migration Project and other research that show that conventional understandings of the nation-state have become inadequate. Focusing on relations between migrants and the Mexican government as well as their struggles for inclusion in the United States, it demonstrates how each nation-state is transformed as migrants maintain attachments and participate simultaneously in countries of origin and destination. It advances scholarship on this topic by specifying how, in each case, the connections among territory, state, and nation are changing in distinct ways. In the case of Mexico, the state framework is extended beyond geographical borders to encompass extraterritorial citizens within the nation. In the United States, a disjuncture between state and nation is emerging within the bounds of the national territory.