BRIDGING THE BORDER: THE IMPACT OF US FOREIGN AID ON MIGRATION FROM MEXICO INTO THE UNITED STATES

Abstract

This paper will discuss the effects that foreign aid and its distribution has on the patterns of emigration from Mexico to the United States. Specifically, this exercise will analyze how both total migration as well as Rural versus Urban foreign aid have affected the migration from these two regions into the United States. First, this paper will give an overview of this phenomenon and review the historical perspective of Mexican migration into the United States. Then there will be a literature review to analyze some of the studies that have been undertaken to examine Mexican to United States migration flows and how it has been affected by foreign aid targeting either Urban or Rural areas. Quantitative data from the Mexican Migration Project and the OECD will then be reviewed to try and determine the actual effect that the magnitude of rural and foreign aid has on migration into the United States. The paper then ends with a personal note from the author offering more background and the personal incentive behind trying to better understand migration flows between Mexico and the United States.