Mobility and Migration Issues and their Implications for a North American Community Project.

In a recent statement, Mexican President Fox remarked that Mexican migrants are working jobs that ?not even blacks want to do in the U.S.?. Fox?s comment has renewed attention on North American mobility issues and immigration. The intense and constant movement of people across both the Canada-U.S. and the U.S.-Mexico border has long been a defining feature of the North American region. For instance, Mexicans have always provided a steady flow of workers in search of job opportunities in the United States. Mexican agricultural workers also travel to Canada to fulfill the need for agricultural workers. Despite the constant cross-border people flow in North America, to date there exists very little by way of a common and organized, mobility plan. In January of 2004, President Bush revealed a new immigration scheme that would permit millions of employed, undocumented Mexican migrants to stay in the U.S. as temporary guest workers. Canada also has a migration accord with Mexico. Indeed, often times, the Canada-Mexico Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SWAP) is often touted as a successful labor mobility model of cooperation that the U.S. should follow. SWAP demonstrates the possibility of establishing a safe, orderly, ?effective and regulated flow of migrant workers between the two countries? (http://www.nasda-hq.org/Accord/Mx-CanProgTrabAgr.pdf). To be sure a focus on migration issues will be an important component of any North American community plan since the way migration policies are conceptualized and configured have significant implications for any future integration project. This paper will analyze current proposals for migration and labor mobility in the North American context. Apart from examining both the American and Canadian immigration proposals, this paper will also review alternate mobility schemes proposed by groups like the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America and some of the plans advanced by powerful business groups in the North American context. Are the current immigration programs being advanced configured in a way that they will lead to the development of a North American community? If not, what are the implications for the North American integration project? ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]