The Hidden Agenda of Mexico’s Fox Administration

Abstract

The of migration is one of the most significant changes in Mexican foreign policy to take place during the administration of President Vicente Fox (Castafieda, 2001: 89). Beyond the anecdotal and symbolic effect of the holding of the first act of protocol with representatives of the migrant community in the Los Pinos presidential residence, it is considered issue in the National Development Plan of 2001-2006. The need to approach it with a new and long-term focus is expressed within the framework of a comprehensive negotiation [with the United States] that deals with the structural roots of the phenomenon, its manifestations and effects, and that considers attention to the migration as shared responsibility (61). In keeping with this position, the former foreign minister Jorge G. Castafieda stated in his December 3, 2001, Report of Activities that for the first time in the history of the bilateral agenda, the of migration had been included, on the basis of the principle of shared responsibility, with longterm view to taking advantage of the synergies existing between the two countries. He added that, after hiatus caused by the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, negotiations had fully resumed and both countries had recognized the need to add security as an within migration and reach broad agreement as soon as possible. Aside from the former foreign minister's optimism regarding the course of the bilateral negotiations, it is important to underline that the migration is also-although for very different and contrasting reasons-a priority matter for Washington. The United States's growing interest is due, among other reasons, to the presence of more than 23 million Mexican-born inhabitants, constituting the hard core of its number-one minority, so-called Hispanics, the recent overwhelming surge of emigrants from Mexico, and the