¡Viva México!: Informality - A Marker Of Opportunity

A look at the grassroots level of  the informal economy of Mexico, in which occupies some 40% of Mexican workers. 

Informality: A Marker Of Opportunity - Megacities - Opportunities at Urban Edges - Forbes: "Engaging in the informal economy is “a way of life” for Maria Gonzalez and her family. Mexico is one of the countries in the world with the highest income inequality. This inequality permeates Mexican society and is reflected in the country’s economy. Statistics based on household employment surveys done in 2003 by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) calculate that a whopping 43% of Mexico’s employment is informal.

In the 1970s the International Labor Organization popularized a view of the informal economy known as the dualist school of thought. At its core it pledges the notion that the informal economy is made up of marginal activities that are distinct and largely unrelated to the formal sector. Three decades later Maloney and others have challenged this notion with the voluntarist school of thought, which views the informal economy as a complex web of heterogeneous activities that are intimately related to the formal sector."