Development and Migration: The Missing Link – CIP Americas

An indepth look at the intertwined issues of development and migration, from a conference recently held in Mexico City. Reported by Laura Carlsen, director of the Americas Program

Development and Migration: The Missing Link – CIP Americas: "As both the US and Mexico turn political attention to the 2012 presidential campaigns, the role of development in migration seems farther from the agenda than ever. Experts from Mexico and the United States recently met to figure out how to change that. Brought together under the auspices of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a binational group of policy analysts, migrant leaders, non-governmental organizations, farmer and labor organizations and foundations gathered to analyze what many see as a crisis and explore options and reforms....

The initial premise seems self-evident: Migration cannot be viewed as a system divorced from broader issues of regional labor markets, development and economic policies. But despite being obvious, the reality is that in public policy and discourse it is routinely and systematically separated from its roots in what Jonathan Fox of the University of California at Santa Cruz referred to as the “persistent disconnect between the migration agenda and a development agenda that goes beyond local infrastructure.”

When you add in the disconnects between sending and receiving nations; federal, state and municipal government; and national security and human rights priorities, it’s no wonder that the immigration debate has become mired in half-truths and knee-jerk politicking."