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U.S.-Mexico Relations: Labor Market Interdependence

Edited by Jorge A. Bustamante, Clark W. Reynolds and Raúl A. Hinojosa Ojeda
Reviewed by Abraham F. Lowenthal
Winter 1992/93
U.S.-Mexico Relations: Labor Market Interdependence
Edited by Jorge A. Bustamante, Clark W. Reynolds and Raúl A. Hinojosa Ojeda
Stanford University Press
1992
495 pp.
$52.50
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Even before the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico and the United States had become ever more closely intertwined. At least ten percent of the growth of U.S. labor supply in recent years has been composed of Mexican immigrants, and native Mexicans working in the United States represent fully a fifth of the Mexican-born work force. This comprehensive and well-focused symposium volume analyzes the causes, nature and consequences of labor market interdependence between Mexico and the United States, and explores its relation to migration. A brief concluding essay by Clark Reynolds assesses the difficult problem of achieving upward convergence of wage rates in recessionary times and emphasizes that investment in education and improved productivity will be crucial if intensified North American integration is to have positive effects on both sides of the porous border.

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