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Informality in the labour market is far from clearly defined in the development literature. To understand the nature of informality in terms of the legalistic and the productivity view, this paper makes an empirical contribution to the debate. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the informality dimensions in the Mexican labour market, employing a rich labour market data set. A substantial overlap between the current social security coverage, contracts and individual's job history is found. Moreover, age, education, marital status and scores in the Raven's test, an ability measure, are significant determinants for the various forms of informality. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into an analysis of illegality in migration, from a migrant perspective. To do this, established and assimilated historical practices in selected groups of Mexican migrants were analyzed according to immigration status and settlement area. The argument presented here is that illegality has a functional character for the reproduction of the migrant trajectory. This is demonstrated using a comparative analysis of the way migrants' decisions allow them to integrate their trajectories into two contexts which show unequal development. Such integration determines its functionality independently of the existence of restrictive migration policies in nation-state contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

California shares a 150-mile international border with Mexico. Traditionally, this border has seen non-stop illegal migration. In the 1990s, the Border Patrol began a concerted effort to establish and maintain control of the border, beginning in urban San Diego. This heightened law enforcement presence, known as Operation Gatekeeper, changed the westernmost segment of the border from the most permeable to the least permeable. This enforcement pushed migrants into more dangerous crossing areas in eastern San Diego and Imperial Counties, making their trip longer and more physically challenging as they made their way through treacherous mountains, deserts, and irrigation canals. Death rates soared. Political decisions impacted human lives and the caseloads of forensic anthropologists in jurisdictions along the border. Bodies decompose rapidly here, and there are minimal sources of antemortem data. Many of these migrants are never identified. This paper, and this symposium, is an attempt to bring this situation to the notice of other anthropologists and to discuss cooperative means of addressing the issue of identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The 2008 U.S. Presidential election highlighted the controversy that exists regarding NAFTA. Four of the most vocal criticisms are the loss of U.S. jobs to Mexico, the loss of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the United States, no net income gain for the average working American, and illegal migration from Mexico as a result of NAFTA. The research did not validate three of these criticisms. However, illegal migration from Mexico has been an unintended consequence of NAFTA. The data clearly indicate that strong trade growth occurred among the NAFTA partners, but it is difficult to prove conclusively the growth occurred only because of NAFTA. Of the three NAFTA trading partners, Mexico has benefited least from NAFTA as the country is still witnessing high unemployment, strong income disparities, and weak governance indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the issues of unauthorized Mexico-U.S. migration, and the responses of the U.S. policy towards this issue. It highlights the three migration trends in the U.S., which are legal permanent immigrants, legal temporary migrants, and illegal migrants. It presents case studies regarding the impact of illegal immigrants on the labor market.

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a rise in the number of deaths of undocumented Mexican migrants crossing the U.S./Mexican border. Who is responsible for these deaths? This article examines the culpability of (1) migrants, (2) humanitarian volunteers, (3) the Mexican government, (4) the U.S. government, and (5) U.S. businesses. A significant portion of the blame is assigned to U.S. free trade policies and U.S. businesses employing undocumented immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]