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Evolving Demographic and Human-Capital Trends in Mexico and Central America and Their Implications for Regional Migration

May 12, 2011 Comments off

Evolving Demographic and Human-Capital Trends in Mexico and Central America and Their Implications for Regional Migration (PDF)
Source: Migration Policy Institute/Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
From press release:

The U.S. relationship with Mexico and much of Central America is defined more by the workforce and societal implications of regional migration than by any other single issue. Yet the United States and its neighbors have failed, thus far, to consider the most effective approach to build upon and smartly manage the region’s human resources to common advantage, including increasing the economic benefits from migration for all concerned.

Today, 1 out of every 5 high school graduates entering the U.S. workforce is from Mexico or Central America, and about 10 percent of Mexicans and Central Americans live in the United States — and these numbers will only get larger. Hence the importance of a long-term, strategic vision for building up the region’s human-capital infrastructure as a means of improving the lives of the region’s people; laying the foundation for stronger, more consistent and more equitable economic growth; helping foster a more economically competitive region in an unforgiving global economy; and, over time, making migration relations within the region normal and ordinary, rather than a subject of constant tension.

To develop and promote that vision, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and the Latin American Program/Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars are convening a Regional Migration Study Group, co-chaired by former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and former Guatemalan Vice President Eduardo Stein. In addition to the co-chairs, the Study Group’s membership consists of 17 high-ranking former officials, civil-society leaders, policy intellectuals and immigration specialists in the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The Study Group is launching the initiative with an accompanying research publication and a website. The first release in a series of papers, Evolving Demographic and Human-Capital Trends in Mexico and Central America and Their Implications for Regional Migration, examines the demographic and human-capital dynamics that have shaped the immigration influx into the United States from Mexico and Central America. The paper, by Terrazas, Papademetriou and former MPI Senior Policy Analyst Marc Rosenblum, notes that the combination of demographic and human-capital characteristics of Mexico and Central America and economic conditions in the United States have been at the heart of recent migration flows . These constantly evolving patterns mean that in the years ahead, policymakers throughout the region may no longer be able to rely on the conventional wisdom about regional labor mobility that has guided decision-making to date.

A National Strategic Narrative

May 6, 2011 Comments off

A National Strategic Narrative (PDF)
Source: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

This Strategic Narrative is intended to frame our National policy decisions regarding investment, security, economic development, the environment, and engagement well into this century. It is built upon the premise that we must sustain our enduring national interests – prosperity and security – within a “strategic ecosystem,” at home and abroad; that in complexity and uncertainty, there are opportunities and hope, as well as challenges, risk, and threat. The primary approach this Strategic Narrative advocates to achieve sustainable prosperity and security, is through the application of credible influence and strength, the pursuit of fair competition, acknowledgement of interdependencies and converging interests, and adaptation to complex, dynamic systems – all bounded by our national values.

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