Thus settlement pressures may outweigh the incentives available to effect significant counterstreams.

A

careful understanding of migration and analysis of the specific character of the migrations we are currently experiencing must be sought and utilized by policymakers. Illegal immigration is a result of international pushpull forces which are stronger than the law and systems currently in place to control it. Comprehensive policy approaches, both short and long term, must be directed at the ingredients which create push-pull and at the principles governing the migration phenomenon if they are to have any reasonable chance of successfully slowing the illegal alien flow.

C.

MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES

A BILATERAL APPROACH

Although clandestine migration is not a narrowly based phenomenon limited to few countries or causes, Mexico does

occupy a unique historical and geographical place in the picture.

The number of Mexican nationals who have legally emigrated to the United States has steadily increased over the last decade. During the period from 1963 through 1975, Mexicans constituted at 664,453 the largest group of legal immigrants to the United States. In 1975, the

62,205 Mexican immigrants admitted represented approximately 16 percent of the total legal immigration to the United States, double the second largest national contingent

which was from the Philippines.

However, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) apprehends and returns to Mexico more undocumented migrants each year than the total number of people who emigrate legally to the United States from all nations of the world. Thus Mexico is our most sizeable current source of clandestine immigration as well as legal immigration. Mexico-U.S. comparisons present a classic example of push-pull factors with the most striking feature being annual per capita incomes of $700 and $5000, respectively. Still the case of Mexico is also unique in two important ways.

Evaluated within the framework of migration discussed earlier, these differences are significant.

Our common

border is a far less formidable intervening obstacle

than is an ocean and therefore influences the selectivity of the migration as well as the volume. Time and cultural receptivity are equally important indicators influencing migration. The North-Houstoun research, which will be more fully discussed in Chapter IV, indicates that the Mexican migration is qualitatively different largely due to the factors which make Mexico distinct from, rather than similar to, other illegal alien source countries. This suggests that a different approach to Mexican clandestine migration may need to be fashioned although much research must yet be done in order to understand better the similarities and differences which are relevant to policy. It also suggests that bilateral negotiations and cooperation should be sought.

Undocumented Mexican migration raises difficult issues

for the governments of both Mexico and the U.S. Mexican spokesmen cite the unreliability of the illegal alien data base which is disseminated by official American sources as a major concern. They wish to insure that the legal, labor and human rights of their nationals in the U.S. are fully protected. Mexico has recently established several significant internal resettlement efforts directed at Mexican workers from areas of high rural These programs rely on rural development

out-migration.

through labor intensive employment schemes. Any sudden return to Mexico of large numbers of undocumented workers would exacerbate already serious internal employment problems.

The United States hopes for increased enforcement of extant Mexican laws and regulations directed at immigration to this country. Examples are:

ensuring that persons leaving Mexico do so through

a designated place of departure.

increased enforcement directed against Mexican or
American smugglers of illegal aliens.

identification of persons in the border areas who
are there solely for the purpose of surreptitiously
entering the United States.

preventing nationals from third countries from using

Mexico as a means of illegally entering the United

States.

While such measures would help to slow the flow of

Mexican illegal aliens, they do not address the underlying causes. For the long term much more must be known about the

dimensions, characteristics, and impacts of Mexico-U.S.

migration to develop effective approaches.

Proposals for joint action should be directed at law

enforcement and criminal abuse of undocumented workers as well as at relevant economic, trade, investment and labor matters.

U.S.-Mexico Discussions

The problem of the illegal Mexican migration is currently being discussed by the U.S. Inter-Agency Committee for the Study of Problems Related to the Illegal Migration of Mexican Aliens Into the U.S. 11/ and the Mexican Commission on Undocumented Workers. These groups, established as an outgrowth of President Ford's meeting with President Echeverria in October, 1974, last met in a joint plenary session in Washington, D.C., April 19, 20, 21, 1976. Follow-up sessions have since been held at several border sites. The work of these groups represents initial steps toward meeting the serious need for cooperative efforts between the governments of both nations.

11/ Serves as Foreign Relations task force of Domestic Council Committee on Illegal Aliens.