Description

Caught in the Current: Mexico's Struggle to Regulate Emigration, 1940–1980 is a pioneering analysis of Mexico’s efforts to curb the outflow of its citizens to the United States. It spotlights the miscalculation of Mexican authorities, who believed they could restrain migration at will—particularly when it provoked social chaos, drained the domestic labor pool, or produced egregious cases of migrant abuse. Mexico’s counter-migratory policies, both those based on coercion and incentives, repeatedly collapsed. Mexican migrants resisted restrictions, U.S. authorities refused to cooperate, and Mexican officials ultimately lacked resolve. As the migration swelled, it slipped beyond Mexico’s control. What was once seen as a looming source of disorder, depletion, and disgrace became naturalized as an irreversible fact of national life.

Reviews/Praise

“Ibargüen’s groundbreaking work examines the deeper implications of Mexico’s determined—yet ultimately futile—efforts to limit out-migration. It shows how these policies influenced national identity and the transnational struggle for sovereignty amid relentless migratory pressures.”—Neil Foley, author of Mexicans in the Making of America

“Sheds a completely different light on today’s immigration restrictionists, taking readers deep into Mexico’s attempts to leverage the insatiable US demand for its workers.” —Aviva Chomsky, author of Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal

“By viewing the world from the top down as well as the bottom up, Ibargüen demonstrates the urgency of transnational perspectives and changes our understanding of the Bracero Program forever.” —Matt Garcia, author of Eli and the Octopus

“Through centering Mexico in the story of migration policies, Caught in the Current offers an original and much-needed perspective on the history of the US-Mexico border.”—Miguel A. Levario, Texas Tech University

“With insight and urgency, Ibargüen charts the push and pull between state power and migrant resilience, exposing how Mexican and US officials prioritized power while migrants bore the consequences.”—Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, editor of Construyendo el gran México: La emigración mexicana a Estados Unidos

“Ibargüen’s richly researched and nuanced interpretation of Mexico’s role in the Bracero Program is a significant addition to the study of migration and US-Mexican diplomatic relations.” — Sonia Hernández, Texas A&M University