Discussion of Mexican migration to the United States is often infused with ideological rhetoric, untested theories, and few facts. In Crossing the Border, editors Jorge Durand and Douglas Massey bring the clarity of scientific analysis to this hotly contested but under-researched topic. Leading immigration scholars use data from the Mexican Migration Project—the largest, most comprehensive, and reliable source of data on Mexican immigrants currently available—to answer such important questions as: Who are the people that migrate to the United States from Mexico? Why do they come? How effective is U.S. migration policy in meeting its objectives? Crossing the Border dispels two primary myths about Mexican migration: First, that those who come to the United States are predominantly impoverished and intend to settle here permanently, and second, that the only way to keep them out is with stricter border enforcement. Nadia Flores, Rubén Hernández-León, and Douglas Massey show that Mexican migrants are generally not destitute but in fact cross the border because the higher comparative wages in the United States help them to finance homes back in Mexico, where limited credit opportunities makes it difficult for them to purchase housing. William Kandel's chapter on immigrant agricultural workers debunks the myth that these laborers are part of a shadowy, underground population that sponges off of social services. In contrast, he finds that most Mexican agricultural workers in the United States are paid by check and not under the table. These workers pay their fair share in U.S. taxes and—despite high rates of eligibility—they rarely utilize welfare programs. Research from the project also indicates that heightened border surveillance is an ineffective strategy to reduce the immigrant population. Pia Orrenius demonstrates that strict barriers at popular border crossings have not kept migrants from entering the United States, but rather have prompted them to seek out other crossing points. Belinda Reyes uses statistical models and qualitative interviews to show that the militarization of the Mexican border has actually kept immigrants who want to return to Mexico from doing so by making them fear that if they leave they will not be able to get back into the United States. By replacing anecdotal and speculative evidence with concrete data, Crossing the Border paints a picture of Mexican immigration to the United States that defies the common knowledge. It portrays a group of committed workers, doing what they can to realize the dream of home ownership in the absence of financing opportunities, and a broken immigration system that tries to keep migrants out of this country, but instead has kept them from leaving.

Women's voices and experiences from around the world are brought to bear upon issues of globalization and democratization in this volume of strikingly original and diverse essays. From the Comfort Women of Japan to the Mexican maquiladoras, from the debt burdened nations of Africa to the 'new settler societies' of Oceania, the impact of globalizing forces and uneven democratization yields gender dislocations everywhere. This volume charts these trends with original research, first-hand interviews and surveys, and fresh theoretical perspectives. Gender regime change may be built on the understandings begun here.

Anthropology is generally thought of as the study of exotic peoples in far-away lands. However, anthropologists have a long history of less exotic, applied “get-your-hands-dirty work.” As a nation of immigrants, the United States has enjoyed a reputation as a model for democracy and a place where newcomers’ dreams can come true. As such, this Bulletin could only have been written in the United States, home to so many immigrants from so many lands, who adapt in different and unique ways to form what we consider the nation. Comparatively little has been written about anthropologists engaged with immigrant communities. In fact, it is somewhat shocking that anthropologists—and historians—seem to have forgotten to document this important contribution to the extent that we have documented our far-away travels and studies. This Bulletin is one such attempt. In it, we present a variety of perspectives, viewpoints, insights, and experiences of anthropologists who are actively engaged with immigrant communities across the United States, offering case studies from Florida, California, North Carolina, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Representing both university-based and NGO-based applied anthropologists, the authors discuss how deep, long-term engagement with immigrants has impacted our anthropological practice and how it in turn has shaped both theory and praxis. We share the personal and the professional, our challenges and our successes. The authors explore the nuances of our simultaneous, multiple roles vis-à-vis the immigrants themselves, the consequences of generational changes within our immigrant populations and how state policies, migration shifts and post-9/11 group responses have affected both our work and our multiple roles with communities. We present recommendations, lessons learned and future opportunities for U.S.-based anthropologists working with our unique brand of “exotic”—mainly Mexican and Latin American immigrants in 21st-century United States.

The book investigates the formation of the Cristero diaspora, a network of Mexican emigrants, exiles, and refugees across the United States who supported a Mexican Catholic uprising during the late 1920s. These emigrants had a profound and enduring impact on Mexican American community formation, political affiliations, and religious devotion.

Examine alternative strategies to resolving important Latino social issues! Latino Social Policy: A Participatory Research Model examines the failure of traditional research methods to address major social needs in Latino communities, promoting instead a participatory/action approach to research that is socially—and scientifically—meaningful. Experts from a variety of disciplines focus on nontraditional strategies that engage community residents in community-research projects, shortening the distance between the researcher and the “subject.” This unique book recounts lessons learned on conducting Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Latino communities using techniques based on anthropology, education, community health and evaluation, and urban planning. Latino Social Policy: A Participatory Research Model addresses non-traditional methods of reducing the tension between the reality of interaction with the subject community and the academic training structures used by researchers. The book promotes a new vision and practice of research design in which the “subject” is central to the process, advocating a participatory approach to produce qualitatively different research based on community identified problems and needs. Contributors examine the value of integrating local knowledge, language, and culture into the methodological design, the ethics of conducting research in Latino communities, and the internal conflicts Chicana/o researchers face within their profession and in the field. Topics addressed in Latino Social Policy: A Participatory Research Model include: community health and Central Americans in Los Angeles ethnography and substance abuse among transnational Mexican farmworkers identity and field research in Mexico the Latino Coalition for a New Los Angeles (LCNLA) researcher/community partnerships and much more! Latino Social Policy: A Participatory Research Model includes case studies, ethnographies, and vignettes that illustrate participatory approaches and outcomes in Latino research. The book is equally valuable as a textbook for academics and students working in the social sciences, public policy, and urban planning, and as a professional guide for community leaders and organizations interested in developing research partnerships.

Winner of the 2001 Carey McWilliams Award A CONTEMPORARY CLASSIC, Magical Urbanism focuses on how Latinos are attempting to translate their urban demographic ascendancy into effective social power. Mike Davis chronicles the Dickensian underworld of day labor in New York, tracks the development of new ecologies and levels of development along the border, and examines the shifting realities of life and work for Latinos in US cities. The cosmopolitan result of the Latinization of America's cities "is a rich, constantly evolving" culture that has the potential, argues Davis, to become a radical new American counterculture.

To lift and keep millions out of poverty requires that smallholder agriculture be productive and profitable in the developing world. Do we know how to make this happen? Researchers and practitioners still debate how best to do so. The prevailing methodology, which claims causality from measures of statistical significance, is inductive and yields contradictory results. In this book, instead of correlations, Isabelle Tsakok looks for patterns common to cases of successful agricultural transformation and then tests them against other cases. She proposes a hypothesis that five sets of conditions are necessary to achieve success. She concludes that government investment in and delivery of public goods and services sustained over decades is essential to maintaining these conditions and thus successfully transform poverty-ridden agricultures. No amount of foreign aid can substitute for such sustained government commitment. The single most important threat to such government commitment is subservience to the rich and powerful minority.

By sharing one of the longest land borders in the world, the United States and Mexico will always have a special relationship. In the early twenty-first century, they are as important to one another as ever before with a vital trade partnership and often-tense migration positions. The ideal introduction to U.S.-Mexican relations, this book moves from conflicts all through the nineteenth century up to contemporary democratic elections in Mexico. Domínguez and Fernández de Castro deftly trace the path of the relationship between these North American neighbors from bloody conflicts to (wary) partnership. By covering immigration, drug trafficking, NAFTA, democracy, environmental problems, and economic instability, the second edition of The United States and Mexico provides a thorough look back and an informed vision of the future.