Migrant remittances and (under)development in Mexico

This article examines two heuristically defined positions regarding the relationship between international migration and rural economic development in Mexico: the 'structuralist' or 'historical structuralist' position of the 1970s and early 1980s that argued that remittances do not lead to rural economic development; and the 'functionalist' position of the 1990s that argued the opposite. The author critiques systematically the functionalist position, then situates it politically in the context of failed neoliberal economic policies. He argues for the need to study international migration as a total social process, that takes into account the comparative impact of migrant labor on the US and Mexican economies. Despite its subordination of social actors to determining social structures, the structural approach offers a better starting point for a reformulated approach to the social and economic consequences of international migration in the contemporary world.