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_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________

 

Migration Policy Institute (MPI)

 

Protection through Integration: The Mexican Government’s Efforts to Aid Migrants in the United States [28 January 2010]

By Laureen Laglagaron

January 2010

http://my.migrationpolicy.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=QqJfnLqummo7lX4DPYWAq9v%2BA2Bmrfje

[full-text, 42 pages]

 

[excerpt]

Executive Summary

Mexican consular officials safeguard and protect the interests of their nationals in the United States,

performing many of the same functions as any other diplomatic staff in a foreign country. As an

immigrant-sending country, Mexico also offers its nationals in the United States low-cost transfer

rates for remittances and programs that match migrant investment in communities of origin dollar

for dollar. In recent years, the Mexican government has moved beyond traditional notions of

consular protection by establishing a broad institutional structure, the Institute of Mexicans Abroad

(Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior or IME), to deliver an array of civic, health, education, and

financial services to its migrants — 95 percent of whom live in the United States. The proximity and

concentration of their diaspora allows Mexico to establish or coordinate programs geared towards

helping Mexican migrants transition to life in the United States. By promoting services that seek to

integrate its migrants in a receiving country, the Mexican government has taken on a task that has

traditionally been the work of receiving-country institutions, not sending countries. IME’s work

represents one of the most significant, if overlooked, factors in US immigrant integration policy.

This report does not evaluate IME programs but rather seeks to detail its activities in a first-ever

attempt to map the expanding array of IME programs within the United States.

 

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................................... 1

I. Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 3

II. Background .......................................................................................................................................... 4

A. Demographic Profile of Mexican Immigrants in the United States ..................................... 4

B. The Role and Function of Mexican Consular Officials in the United States ..................... 6

C. The Mexican Government and Its Emigrants: A Brief History ............................................ 6

D. The Institute for Mexicans Abroad ........................................................................................ 10

III. IME Programs: Building the Social and Human Capital of Mexican Migrants in the United

States ............................................................................................................................................................. 14

A. Supporting Leadership from Within the Mexican Migrant Community ......................... 16

B. Improving Education for Migrant Children and Adults ...................................................... 20

C. Providing Health Care for Its Migrants .................................................................................. 28

D. Promoting Formal Banking & Improving the Financial Literacy of Its Migrants ............ 31

IV. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 34

Works Cited .................................................................................................................................................. 35

About the Author ......................................................................................................................................... 39

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Stuart Basefsky                   
Director, IWS News Bureau                
Institute for Workplace Studies 
Cornell/ILR School                        
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor             
New York, NY 10016                        
                                   
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