Thinking Regionally to Compete Globally: Leveraging Migration and Human Capital in the U.S., Mexico and Central America

This is the final report of the Regional Migration Study Group, convened by the Migration Policy Institute and the Wilson Center. Scholars and public officials from the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala participated in the project. The report depicts regional migration less as a problem to be managed and more as a resource to be developed to enhance the competitiveness of North America in the global economy. As Mexico undergoes a major demographic transformation and as net Mexican migration slows to a trickle, the report notes that "the longstanding assumption that Mexico and Central America have an endless supply of less-educated workers for routine, physically demanding, and poorly paid jobs in the United States is becoming less and less accurate..."

The report ponders the implications of major developments in the region, including the impressive growth of the Mexican middle class, improving educational levels among Mexican immigrants, and the effort to achieve comprehensive immigration reform in the U.S. The group's findings and recommendations encompass a wide range of issues. The report places emphasis on the importance of upgrading the skills of workers in all countries, ensuring the "portability" of credentials from one country to another, recreating the "circularity" that used to exist on the U.S.-Mexico border prior to the mid-1990s, and "normalizing the immigration relationships within the region" by eliminating the illegality produced by flawed policies. The Study Group identifies four growing economic sectors that would benefit from a regional planning approach: logistics and transportation, nursing and associated health professions, advanced manufacturing, and agriculture. The Group also calls for the creation of a non-partisan federal immigration research agency to carry out independent demographic and labor market research and advise the U.S. Congress on regional migration needs. (Abstract courtesy Nick Montalto, PhD.)

Download or view online. 

Get more research from the Migration Policy Institute.