Raúl Delgado Wise

The Strategic Role of Mexican Labor under NAFTA: Critical Perspectives on Current Economic Integration

This article aims to reveal the precise meaning of Mexicos export platform by focusing on maquiladoras and the disguised maquila industry. In both sectors, imported components account for 75 to 90 percent of export value. As a result, benefits for the Mexican economy are basically restricted to wages, that is, the value of the labor incorporated into the exports. The authors argue that what is actually taking place is the disembodied exportation of labor or, alternatively, that the workforce is being exported without requiring Mexican workers to leave the country. The authors thus demystify the purported orientation of Mexican exports toward high-value-added manufactured goods and reveal the regressive movement of the export platform.

The Emergence of Collective Migrants and Their Role in Mexico's Local and Regional Development

ABSTRACT The Mexican immigration to the U.S. has made a strategic impact on the economic and social structure of this country. This essay examines: the crucial role played under the aegis of neoliberalism by direct and undirect labour exportation; the main qualitative changes experienced by the migration phenomenon during the last two decades; the emergence of the collective or organized migrant; and the potential contribution of this new phenomenon to local and regional development.

Migration, Work, and Citizenship in the New World Order

Any consideration of global migration in relation to work and citizenship must necessarily be situated in the context of the Great Recession. A whole historical chapter—that of neoliberalism—has now closed and the future can only be deemed uncertain. Migrant workers were key players during this phase of the global system, supplying cheap and flexible labour inputs when required in the rich countries. Now, with the further sustainability of the neoliberal political and economic world order in question, what will be the role of migration in terms of work patterns and what modalities of political citizenship will develop? While informalization of the relations of production and the precarization of work were once assumed to be the exception, that is no longer the case. As for citizenship we posit a parallel development of precarious citizenship for migrants, made increasingly vulnerable by the global economic crisis. But we are also in an era of profound social transformation, in the context of which social counter-movements emerge, which may halt the disembedding of the market from social control and its corrosive impact. While the global economic situation remains largely in flux there is a broad consensus that the economic model prevailing in the 30 years prior to 2008 has now come to an end. The embedded liberalism of the Keynesian era had ceased to be effective in the mid 1970s and now the efficient market model of neoliberalism is seen to be exhausted as a viable model for sustained capital accumulation. Massive state intervention was needed to stave off the imminent collapse of the banking system. A massive counter-cyclical effort was mounted, and there were even calls for a ‘return to Keynes’. Business as usual was not an option, and there were calls for a financial regime change. The much more integrated global system created by globalization resulted in a truly global crisis even if some zones recovered more quickly. A Latin American style 1990s’ structural adjustment policy which would have simply unloaded the crisis on the population was not viable politically in the affluent North. Thus the present economic contradictions will continue and probably deepen. At best there will be a stable equilibrium established with little sign of a new expansive phase of capitalist accumulation (at least in the affluent North) on the horizon.

The Dialectic between Uneven Development and Forced Migration: Toward a Political Economy Framework

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a new analytical overview of the nexus between migration and development in the context of the global capitalist restructuring that has been taking place during the past three and a half decades. We base our approach on a political economy theoretical framework and place the concepts of uneven development and forced migration at the centre of an alternative interpretation of the asymmetrical global relationships between North and South, thus addressing the concomitant role of international migrations. From this point of view, migration appears as an expression of uneven development and a structural pillar of imperialist1 strategies intended to weaken and cheapen the labour force on a global level. Instead of unilaterally approaching migration as a vehicle of development in places of origin, we address its role as a direct contributor to the accumulation processes of developed nations. Migration also involves the transference of human resources, which is linked to other types of surplus and natural resource transferences that intensify underdevelopment in countries of origin. In this context, migration functions as an important cog in the machinery of the so-called neo-liberal globalization, a source of growing social inequalities and asymmetries among countries that result in a sort of vicious circle leading to the current systemic capitalist crisis.

Forced Migration and US Imperialism: The Dialectic of Migration and Development:

James Petras has been and continues to be a prolific writer whose monumental work over the years is linked to a biting criticism of contemporary capitalism and US imperialism. His writings, always polemical in the best sense of the word, cover a broad range of issues linked to the class struggle and the popular movement. Although his specific contributions to the study of migration have been few and sporadic, they provide a vital contribution to a critical Marxist analysis of labor migration in the current conjuncture of capitalist development and US imperialism. In many ways, his work has been a major inspiration to my own reflections and work in the area, especially as it relates to the notion of ‘forced migration’ and to what my colleague, Humberto Marquez Covarrubias, and I have termed the dialectics of migration and development.James Petras has been and continues to be a prolific writer whose monumental work over the years is linked to a biting criticism of contemporary capitalism and US imperialism. His writings, always polemical in the best sense of the word, cover a broad range of issues linked to the class struggle and the popular movement. Although his specific contributions to the study of migration have been few and sporadic, they provide a vital contribution to a critical Marxist analysis of labor migration in the current conjuncture of capitalist development and US imperialism. In many ways, his work has been a major inspiration to my own reflections and work in the area, especially as it relates to the notion of ‘forced migration’ and to what my colleague, Humberto Márquez Covarrubias, and I have termed the dialectics of migration and development.

Is there a space for counterhegemonic participation? Civil society in the global governance of migration

ABSTRACT Based on a Marxist analytical framework, this article offers a contextualized and critical overview of the participation of civil society in the global governance of migration. Derived from an analysis informed by direct involvement in the most important invited and invented spaces for civil society in the incipient and fragile process of global migration governance, it argues that: (a) the space for counterhegemonic participation of civil society is essentially marginal given the increasing penetration of neoliberal institutions in promoting a dominant ‘Northern’ discourse on migration and development, and migration management as a mainstream policy; and (b) under capitalism there is no space for a counterhegemonic agency of global governance. Therefore, resistance from below as a creative process of social transformation is the only option for building a socially just international migration regime. This ‘invented space’ is an articulation of anti-systemic social movements, networks, and other civil society organizations.

Imperialism and capitalism in the twenty-first century : a system in crisis

Contents: Introduction Dynamics and contradictions of capitalist development Latin America at the crossroads of change The land struggle in Latin America Latin America growth, stability and inequality Capitalism in the second decade of the 21st century: from the golden age to the dark ages Labor and migration: a pathway out of poverty or neocapitalism?, Raul Delgado Wise and Humberto Marquez Covarrubias The global crisis of capitalism: whose crisis? Who profits and who bears the cost? Extractive capital, imperialism and the post-neoliberal state The new authoritarianism: democracy in America Anti-imperialism of the fools Imperialism and democracy: notes on an arranged but fruitful marriage Capitalism and democracy in Egypt: dispatches from the frontline of a class war Rethinking imperialism in the 21st century Bibliography Index.

La Innovación y la Migración calificada en la Encrucijada: Reflexiones a partir de la Experiencia Mexicana

Se analiza la migracion calificada desde un prisma analitico que hasta ahora habia sido esencialmente ignorado en la literatura especializada: la profunda reestructuracion que experimentan los sistemas de innovacion en el marco de la globalizacion neoliberal y bajo la batuta de Estados Unidos. Ademas de dilucidar las principales transformaciones que acusan los sistemas de innovacion a nivel mundial, se examina el incremento explosivo que han tenido las patentes en el curso de las ultimas dos decadas, el cual ha venido acompanado de una creciente participacion de cientificos y tecnologos proveniente de paises perifericos y emergentes. A partir de esta mirada analitica y tomando como referente el caso de la migracion calificada mexicana, se aportan algunos elementos tendientes a desentranar las nuevas modalidades de intercambio desigual que emergen en el horizonte Norte-Sur y que tienen como trasfondo una mercantilizacion y apropiacion privada sin precedentes del conocimiento, en tanto bien comun intangible

Contemporary Migration Seen from the Perspective of Political Economy: Theoretical and Methodological Elements

Covering both qualitative and quantitative topics, the expert contributors in this Handbook explore fundamental issues of scientific logic, methodology and methods, through to practical applications of different techniques and approaches in migration research.

Confrontando el discurso dominante: las remesas bajo el prisma de la Experiencia Mexicana

The dominant discourse on remittances as a lever of development for migrant’s countries of origin has arisen with renewed impetus in the international agenda, particularly within the framework of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration propelled by the UN. Based on hard data from the Mexican experience, our propose is to contribute to a necessary demystification of the phenomenon, highlighting that, in addition to its contributions to the country’s macroeconomic and social stability, remittances are part of a complex dynamic of unequal exchange which essentially operates in favor of the recipient country.