Border Economies

In our trip to the US-Mexico border, we spent four days in El Paso, Texas and Cuidad Juárez, Mexico. Effectively, El Paso and Juárez constitute one large city split by the border fence, where people move between the two cities going about their daily lives.  Many people live on one side of the border and (legally) work on the other side.  Families are spread across the two cities (and hence the two countries). Mexicans living in Juárez regularly come to El Paso to shop.  Dollars are widely accepted in Juárez, and both cities are bilingual.  There are several bridges in which people can walk across to the other country (but still have to go through border security).  Border patrol is present throughout both cities.   The El Paso-Juárez sector epitomizes a border economy, with goods, services and people flowing across the border each direction throughout the day. On our drive through Juárez, we saw literally dozens of maquiladoras (often referred to as maquilas) –  huge manufacturing plants set up by US corporations (Boeing, Lexmark, and Electrolux to name a few) to take advantage of lower wages in Mexico (maquilas became prevalent as the result of North American Free Trade Agreement established in 1992).   As Chapter 9 discusses, immigration between countries can have important impacts on international trade, product diversity, and the price of goods and services in each country.  This is exactly the case in El Paso and Juárez.     

Trip to US-Mexico Border

A few weeks ago, Cynthia and I took a week-long trip to visit the US-Mexico border. We started in El Paso, Texas (which borders with Juarez, Mexico), visited Nogales, Mexico and ended in Tucson, Arizona. Below is a map of the route we followed.  It was an amazing trip – we participated in a border patrol ride-along in El Paso, visited nonprofit organizations in Juarez and Nogales that worked with migrant communities, walked on a migrant trail in the Sonora desert near Tucson, and saw a naturalization ceremony.  The goal of the trip was to get a real sense of the migrant experience, to witness the militarization of the border, and to better understand the humanitarian crisis taking along the southern US border.  We will write a few blog posts in the next few weeks that document different aspects of our trip as they relate to themes in the textbook.  One of our colleagues on the trip created a storify of our trip, which you can find here.

Undocumented immigrants and credit markets

Undocumented, or illegal, immigrants face a number of obstacles to economic success in the host country. Not having "papers" not only makes it more difficult to find a job, it also makes it more difficult to access financial services, from opening a bank account to taking out a loan. A paper by Nathalie Martin, "Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due," explores how undocumented immigrants in the US use--or don't use--banks and credit.

Number of global refugees surged in 2014

The 2014 report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees indicates there were nearly 60 million displaced people worldwide in 2014, a record number. This number includes 11 million people who are internally displaced, or remain in their own country. Half of the 60 million are children, and most are in poor countries. About 14 million people were displaced in 2014, many from Syria and countries in Africa. The New York Times had a long article about the report and some very cool maps.

French Police Dismantle Migrants’ Camps in Paris and Calais

Following Madeline's post, a WSJ article on Wednesday, June 3, 2015, (see link below) discussed how French police have dismantled migrant camps in Paris and the Port of Calais over the past week. These migrants are moving through France from Africa and Syria to head to the UK, but get stuck in France and set up camps and way stations on their journey.  Just this week, 380 migrants from Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia were relocated to emergency housing after they had set up a migrant camp under a subway bridge in northern Paris.  Two camps in and outside the port of Calais were also dismantled by police and about 140 people were either being detained or relocated. 

As the WJS article mentions, the EU has been struggling to address the large flows of both undocumented immigrants in search of employment and political refugees who are entering Europe from the South.

See:  http://www.wsj.com/articles/french-police-dismantle-migrants-camps-in-paris-and-calais-after-weekend-clashes-1433247191

Difficult journeys to enter the U.S.

The Wall Street Journal had an excellent article on May 30-31, 2015, about the arduous journeys some migrants undertake to enter the United States illicitly. The article focuses on migrants who cross the Darien Gap, which connects Panama with South America. From there, migrants typically make their way overland through nine more countries to the U.S. border. The route is attractive to some migrants because they can get a visa to enter some South American countries. Interestingly, even some migrants from Cuba--who will qualify for legal status if they can reach the U.S.--use the route, which involves dangers ranging from bloodsucking bats to poisonous snakes to predatory smugglers and gangs.

The novel Americanah

I recently read an inspiring book entitled Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  The novel is about a Nigerian woman who migrates (legally) to the United States for college in the midst of political turmoil at home. Years later, her boyfriend migrates to the United Kingdom illegally. The story documents each of their experiences, their reasons behind their migrations, their search for education and work abroad, and their desires to return home some day. The novel also addressed the complicated aspects of being African in the U.S. and the U.K. (A recent op-ed in the NY Times also sheds light on this.)

While most economics professors do not have students read novels as a part of their classwork, I highly recommend reading a novel that documents other aspects of the immigrant experience. Books such as Americanah will help you remember that immigration has significant personal, social and psychic costs that are often difficult to quantify (as discussed in Chapter 2 of the textbook).