CONFERENCE ON MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT

When: Friday, May 6, 2011
Where: University of California, Davis

About 10 percent of persons born in Mexico, 12 million, are in the U.S. and five percent of persons born in Turkey (or born in Europe to Turkish parents), four million, are in the EU- 15 countries. Migration was the major relationship between Mexico and the US and Turkey and Western Europe for most of the past half century. Recent trade and development policies aimed to substitute trade for migration, with uneven results.

This conference examined the demography, economy and politics of Mexico-U.S. and Turkey-Western Europe migration. Policies toward economic integration and migration outcomes are very different in the U.S. and EU. Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. embraced closer economic integration under NAFTA in 1994, unauthorized Mexico-US migration increased, and the US responded with more Border Patrol agents and a fence along a third of the 2,000 mile long Mexico-US border.

Turkey applied for EU membership in 1987, was rebuffed, and made democratic changes before accession negotiations with the EU began in 2005. The purpose of the conference was to review the evolution and current status of Mexico-U.S. and Turkish-EU migration patterns and the role of demography, economics and development policies in shaping migration patterns.

Conference papers and articles will be made available through a special volume of the Migration letters in fall 2011 as well as through online publication of 8 articles. 

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