Global restructuring and U.S.-Mexican economic integration: Rhetoric and reality of Mexican immigration five years after NAFTA

The fall 1999 protests over the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle highlighted the intensifying social and political tensions companying the market-driven forces of globalization. Neoliberal assumption of freetrade and capital mobility had previously dominated the political discourse of both developed and developing countries with grandiose promises of rising tides of prosperity lifting the boats of all participating social groups via higher wages, lower retail prices, and increasing employment. While neoliberal critiques (Rugman 1994; Hufbauer and Schott 1993, 1992; Lustig, Bosworth and Lawrence 1992; Reich 1991) have tended to focus on recalcitrant nationalism such as protectionist trade policies and intransigent union with inflexible labor policies, the reality is that..