The bracero policy experiment: U.S.-Mexican responses to Mexican labor migration, 1942-1955

During the bracero program, 1942-1964, the Mexican and U.S. governments sought to regulate Mexican labor migration across their common border through a series of migrant labor agreements. From the standpoint of international relations, broadly speaking there were three phases: wartime cooperation (1942-1947), conflict punctuated by cooperation (1947-1954), and stability (1954-1964). The period of study 1942-1955 is crucial because of changes in basic and implicit rules of governmental behavior (bilateral regimes). During this period--the years of the bracero policy experiment--both governments made powerful initiatives to pursue their interests in migrant labor matters and to respond effectively to the rising tide of undocumented migration.; The years of bilateral conflict culiminated in a dramatic episode in January 1954 in which the U.S. contracted Mexican workers unilaterally and the Mexican government used force unsuccessfully to prevent it. After reaching a new agreement, the two governments cooperated in the mass deportation campaign known as "Operation Wetback" and adopted measures making bracero contracting more attractive to agricultural employers. By 1955 the U.S. and Mexico had effected a mass substitution of undocumented workers with contract laborers and a new bilateral regime, which lasted until the demise of the bracero program in 1964.; This study describes the policy responses of both the U.S. and Mexican governments to Mexican labor migration during the period of experimentation leading up to the stable regime of 1955-1964. It examines how each government established and pursued policy objectives, the nature of the differences within and between them, the constraints of domestic public opinion, negotiation process, the planning and execution of unilateral action, and the policy outcomes.; The dissertation seeks to explain these policy responses. It also attempts to suggest why sharp disagreements occurred notwithstanding common objectives: each government desired the recruitment of Mexican laborers under controlled circumstances, the reduction of illegal entries, the avoidance of adverse effects, and cordial bilateral relations.; The principal sources used were the records of the Department of State and the Immigration and Naturalization Service at the National Archives and the Mexico City press.