Dreams of Development in Mexico and Spain: A Comparative History of Guestworkers and Migration Diplomacy

This history of Cold War-era migration policy compares two emblematic guestworker programs that recruited several million Mexican and Spanish migrants to labor in the United States and Germany. Proponents of the bilateral accords defended them as diplomatic achievements that secured contractual labo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inComparative studies in society and history Vol. 64; no. 3; pp. 756 - 787
Main Author Snodgrass, Michael David
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.07.2022
Subjects
Accords
Cold War
Diplomacy
Diplomatic & consular services
Emigration
Employment
Foreign labor
Immigrants
Immigration policy
International relations
International relations-US
Labor in the World-System
Labor migration
Labor shortages
Manual workers
Migrants
Migration
Racial discrimination
Recruitment
Social research
Social sciences
Mexico
France
United States > US
Europe
Germany
Spain
Bracero Program
migration diplomacy
return migration
Mexico
guestworkers
Germany
Spain
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Summary:This history of Cold War-era migration policy compares two emblematic guestworker programs that recruited several million Mexican and Spanish migrants to labor in the United States and Germany. Proponents of the bilateral accords defended them as diplomatic achievements that secured contractual labor rights, improved foreign relations, and sent migrants home with savings and skills to achieve the diverse development goals of the sending states. The study traces the programs’ historical and ideological roots, juxtaposes the guestworkers’ experiences, and uses the cases of Mexican braceros and Spanish gastarbeiter to explore the contested nexus between migration and development.
ISSN:0010-4175
1475-2999
DOI:10.1017/S0010417522000226