Posts tagged foreign policy

        Charged comments during recent Republican primaries have reopened a political can of worms – immigration. While both political parties argue about the character and economic effects of immigrants in the United States, they exclude two crucial questions: why is there an influx of immigration and what role has the US played in this influx?
       Although many policies have shaped immigration between the US and Mexico, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had one of the strongest impacts.  When Congress passed NAFTA in 1994, it originally had the intention of “promoting greater economic integration between migrant sending countries and the United States through free trade.”(1) Since NAFTA’s inception, however, an estimated six million Mexican immigrants have come to the US, representing a 10% increase in the percentage of Mexican born immigrants living in America(2). Thus, despite its supposed goal of integrating the US and migrant sending countries, NAFTA has delivered contrary results. (1)
      

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