Tougher border controls accompanying unprecedented investments in border control have failed to deter illegal Mexican entrants to the USA.
A study recently published in Regulation & Governance—a journal by Wiley-Blackwell— has revealed that increased border patrol activity and higher fees being demanded by people-smugglers have had no significant influence in dampening the desire of Mexican migrants to illegally migrate to the USA.
Authors Wayne A. Cornelius, of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, and Idean Salehyan, of the Department of Political Science at the University of North Texas, found that although many respondents believed that it is very difficult and risky to cross the border, more than half of them were still planning to migrate to the United States.
Lead author Wayne Cornelius said, “The interviewees we surveyed were very well informed about the physical risks; but such knowledge did not diminish their propensity to go north.”
The US government had implemented sophisticated surveillance and apprehension technology to stem the influx of immigrants. The number of Border Patrol agents tripled from 1993 to 2006, and spending on border enforcement grew six-fold during this period.
These activities have managed only to affect the strategies used by illegal entrants to cross the border – such as changing their border-crossing points– but did not deter them from attempting clandestine entry.
Co-author Idean Salehyan added, “Although there is an increase in percentage of illegal migrants being apprehended, many are still successful. Only 23% of our interviewees admitted to having been caught even once, but a staggering 92% will eventually succeed if they persist.”
The results of this study imply that the current US immigration control policy is unlikely to have its desired effect unless underlying drivers of migration—the employer demand for unauthorized immigrant labor and the U.S.-Mexico wage gap—are addressed.
Until then, the US government will keep spending and the migrants will keep coming, the study’s authors predict.
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This paper is published in the June 2007 issue of Regulation & Governance (Vol 1, No. 2, 139-153). Media wishing to receive a PDF or schedule media interviews with the authors should contact Ginny Foley, PR Manager at vfoley@bos.blackwellpublishing.com
Dr. Wayne Cornelius has been engaged in fieldwork-based research on Mexican migration to the US for the past 32 years. He is the founding director of both the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies and the Center for Comparative Studies at the University of California, San Diego.
Dr. Idean Salehyan is the Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science in the University of North Texas. He has articles published in major political science and international relations journals, including World Politics and the Journal of Conflict Resolution.
About Regulation & Governance
Regulation & Governance aims to serve as the leading platform for the study of regulation and governance by political scientists, lawyers, sociologists, historians, criminologists, psychologists, anthropologists, economists, and others. Research on regulation and governance, once fragmented across various disciplines and subject areas, and has emerged at the cutting edge of paradigmatic change in the social sciences. Through the peer-reviewed journal Regulation & Governance, we seek to advance discussions between various disciplines about regulation and governance, promote the development of new theoretical and empirical understanding, and serve the growing needs of practitioners for a useful academic reference. Published quarterly, Regulation & Governance will be essential reading for academics, regulators and regulatory experts throughout the world. It will provide a forum for original research, debate and refinement of key ideas and findings in one of the most important fields of the social sciences.
About Wiley-Blackwell
Wiley-Blackwell was formed in February 2007 as a result of the merger between Blackwell Publishing Ltd. and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.'s Scientific, Technical, and Medical business. Together, the companies have created a global publishing business with deep strength in every major academic and professional field. Wiley-Blackwell publishes approximately 1,250 scholarly peer-reviewed journals and an extensive collection of books with global appeal.
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