Migration Pessimism and the Subjective Well‐Being of Migrant Households in Mexico

A new migration pessimism argues that the economic benefits of international labour migration for migrant households may not justify the social costs. This article provides a test of this argument based on the author's survey of 304 households in Jerez municipio (municipality), Zacatecas, Mexico, in 2009. The results indicate that active households (those with at least one migrant abroad) perceived their economic situation to have improved more, but both their social cohesion and their happiness to be less than those of non‐active households. Social cohesion (family unity and maintenance of values) is shown to be pivotal in the happiness differential enjoyed by the non‐active households.     

Work,Wages and Gender in Export-Oriented Cities: Global Assembly versus International Tourism in Mexico

Drawing on a rich source of urban labour market data, the Mexican National Urban Employment Survey of 1998, this article addresses the question of how dissimilar export-oriented industries shape urban labour markets, particularly with respect to women workers. It compares Ciudad Juárez, which has an economy based on global assembly production, and Cancún, whose economy is based on international tourism. Employing economic base theory and location quotients, the analysis isolates the impact of the export sectors on the local labour markets. Results show that global assembly and international tourism encourage a mix of occupational and income prospects for both men and women in each of these Mexican cities. Female employment tends to be concentrated in the export-oriented sector in both cases, but the types of occupational and income opportunities therein vary. Overall, the analysis challenges common exploitation arguments that tend to stress the universally shared deleterious working conditions and low wages that result from global integration and export-led industrialisation in contemporary Latin America. It suggests that we pay closer attention to the diverse nature of outward oriented industries, which will tend to differentiate the labour market implications of increasing economic globalisation.     

Playing the Tune of Citizenship: Indian Brass Bands in the Sierra Norte de Puebla,Mexico, 1876–1911

This article examines popular citizenship practices among the Indians of the Sierra Norte de Puebla (Mexico), focusing on the brass bands that participated in religious and patriotic festivals. Rather than analysing the bands as part of the region’s popular Liberalism, or concentrating on the festivals’ nationalistic content, as previous studies have done, it underlines how the bands’ organisation combined customary Indian practices with Liberal regulations, and transformed both. This resulted in the successful exercise of citizenship providing bandsmen with effective participation in face‐to‐face community life and a form of connection with the wider national sphere.     

Between 'traditional' and 'new' Catholic church religious discourses in urban, Western Mexico

Abstract — This paper analyses processes of belonging, identity formation and construction of knowledge within and between 'new' and 'traditional' Catholic groups in a low-income neighbourhood of Guadalajara. It argues that these two expressions of the Church carry through distinctive 'progressive' and 'conservative' messages in matter of engagement with, and empowerment in social reality, notions of personal responsibility, relation to non-human agents and embodiment of experience. However, those groups are not internally homogeneous and to a certain extent the 'new' Church–the CEBs–is similar to the 'traditional' Church in terms of subtle hierarchical control of production, transmission and withholding of knowledge.     

Populist possibilities and political constraints in Mexico

This article defines populism (in Latin American context) as a form of politics that is based mainly upon a personalist appeal, attracts significant popular support and, if successful, significantly redesigns social or political institutions. Neopopulism is defined as a form of populism which begins outside the state as opposed to classic populism which originates within the state. The main theoretical argument is that the study of populism can be made significant for comparative politics if we emphasise the issue of institutional redesign and then conceptualise it in structure vs agency terms. The comparative question then becomes whether a particular set of political institutions is robust enough to withstand the challenge of a charismatic individual. The empirical background is that Latin America has seen a significant number of populist movements that have indeed fundamentally altered institutional structures. By the same token, there have been an even larger number of populist attempts which ultimately failed. Having made this point, the discussion then focuses on Mexico. It seeks to understand the different sets of conditions which allowed Lázaro Cárdenas to succeed as classic populist in the 1930s, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas to come close to success as a neopopulist in the 1980s and which greatly reduce the likelihood of successful neopopulism in the near future.     

Motherhood and Extradomestic Work in Urban Mexico

Abstract— This article analyses the meanings attributed by Mexican women of different social classes to motherhood and extradomestic work, as well as life experiences of family planning and child care. Information for the study was provided by 79 in-depth interviews with women who were either married or living with a partner who contributed regularly to the family income. The findings suggest that cultural norms regarding motherhood change far more slowly in urban Mexico than child-rearing or fertility control practices. Many women from different social classes still consider motherhood as their main source of identity and only a very educated and privileged group speaks with ambivalence regarding their mother's role. In contrast, more women are ready to accept child-care substitutes, especially if they find satisfaction in extradomestic activities, or carry them out because of personal or family necessities. Finally, the analysis points out that most urban women in Mexico, particularly the younger and more educated cohorts, are very much aware of the costs involved in children's education and rearing, and have acted accordingly, using contraceptives and limiting their family sizes. 0 1997 Society for Latin American Studies     

Regulation and Quality Assurance Agencies of Higher Education in Mexico

This article examines the quality assurance (QA) regime of higher education (HE) in Mexico. In particular, we examine how the regulatory framework of HE quality has evolved in the past three decades and the different regulatory configurations and policy instruments used by QA agencies. We argue that the Mexican case is illustrative of a (weak) hybrid regulatory model that combines the policy instruments of both a state-centred model and a market-oriented model. Our results show diverse institutional patterns in the evaluation and accreditation of both public and private institutions.     

Citizenship,migration and loyalty towards the state: a case study of the Kyrgyzstani migrants working in Russia and Kazakhstan

Building upon recent studies in the field of citizenship and transnationalism, this article examines the relations that Kyrgyzstani migrants in Kazakhstan and Russia entertain with their homeland, both in terms of concrete status (rights and responsibilities) and subjective attitudes (feeling of membership and loyalty). The article relies on field research, including semi-structured interviews, conducted in March and April 2007. Findings show that Kyrgyzstani migrants have developed a distinctive and somewhat paradoxical relation to their state of origin, in which pragmatic interest and long-term loyalty are not easily reconciled.     

Mariano Arista and the 1850 Presidential Election in Mexico

Abstract – This article examines the 1850 presidential election in Mexico. It is divided into five sections: party political background, electoral regulations, candidates, campaign, results. General Mariano Arista was the successful candidate in what was the first genuinely contested presidential election since independence.     

Muddy waters: citizenship and the right to vote in the Commonwealth Caribbean migratory context

Two global voting trends are noted in the electoral studies literature: the exclusion of resident noncitizens and the inclusion of non-resident citizens in national elections. These two research streams are rarely studied together. By analysing both of these trends in the Commonwealth Caribbean, the article reveals how the assumed relationship between citizenship and the right to vote does not always hold. Citizenship is neither necessary nor sufficient to exercise full political rights. The Commonwealth Caribbean thus diverges from global voting trends and illustrates the complexities and changing shape of the relationship between citizenship and the right to vote.     

Cooperatives as Sustainable Livelihood Strategies in Rural Mexico

The sustainable livelihoods perspective and cooperative movement are rooted in frameworks that value social justice in the form of participatory democracy, distributional equity, and solidarity. Unlike studies of cooperatives that focus mainly on economic efficiency and productivity, we argue that this socio‐political dimension of the cooperative projects is crucial for understanding their potential as sustainable livelihoods. This exploratory research examines the experiences of two rural Mexican communities in Guanajuato and Oaxaca, which formed cooperatives as alternative livelihood strategies. Our results show that each community used similar grassroots political culture to develop cooperatives designed to meet local needs.     

To Bowl a Mexican Maiden Over: Cricket in Mexico, 1827–1900

The Mexico City Cricket Club was founded in 1827 by a mixed group of British and foreign nationals. This article traces its origins, rules and regulations, membership, progress and activities through to the 1870s and again in the revival of the 1880s and 1890s. It reveals that although the game of cricket was adopted by few Mexicans, it was enthusiastically played by the British community in Mexico throughout the nineteenth century. The Club continues to the present time in Mexico City.     

The Abortion Debate in Mexico: Realities and Stalled Policy Reform

Over 500,000 clandestine abortions occur annually in Mexico, many under unfavourable health conditions. An uneasy silence about this situation has long prevailed. Since the 1970s, abortion has appeared periodically in public discourse and on the decision-making agenda, only for action to be repeatedly postponed. Mobilisation around the abortion issue grew slowly, but debate and controversy became nationwide as the country began to experience systemic change in 2000. Despite increasing political pluralism and growing awareness of the existing problems, for now in Mexico, as elsewhere in Latin America, the question of abortion is not judged sufficiently pressing to merit major policy change. However, improved contraceptive use and the institution of new technologies and post-abortion care are helping to make abortions safer and rarer.     

Crossing Party Lines: Volatility and Ticket Splitting in Mexico (1994–2000)

This article aims to amplify our portrait of the Mexican electorate by examining the ways in which Mexican electors distributed their votes among the parties during 1994–2000, both over successive elections (volatility) and in the same election (ballot splitting). Aggregate and survey data revealed that Mexicans engaged in these two forms of electoral behaviour frequently, indicators of an electorate in flux. Regression analysis indicated that, contrary to the expectation that the politically sophisticated differentiated their votes, virtually all parts of Mexican society were equally likely to switch parties and split tickets.     

Art and Modernity in Porfirian Mexico: Julia Escalante's Graziella and the Lechero

This essay examines Julia Escalante's Graziella and the 1881 El Lechero (The Milkman) as a case study of the ways in which the art of a Mexican woman artist instantiates aspects of Porfirian modernity. In the context of the academic hierarchy that existed through much of the nineteenth century, these scenes of everyday life, that is, genre scenes, done by a woman artist, would have been seemingly unremarkable. Different from most works by a woman artist, these paintings were exhibited in two very different spaces in downtown Mexico City: the National Academy in 1879 and 1881, and later in the Hotel del Jardín in 1888. I will suggest that these exhibition spaces define an architecture of legibility for the paintings inflecting the critical reception of the painting, opening onto the process of Porfirian modernity.     

Strategic Alliances: State-Business Relations in Mexico Under Neo-Liberalism and Crisis

Abstract – This paper examines how neoliberal policies implemented under Carlos Salinas Gortari (1988–1994) changed the nature of state-private sector relations in Mexico. The paper attempts to show how Mexico's entry into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) solidified a strategic alliance between the state and business. The drastic peso devaluation of December 1994 and the ensuing economic crisis however, threatened to shatter the very foundation of the new alliance with the private sector. This paper thus, explores how the Ernesto Zedillo regime (1994–2000) addressed the expectations of the capital class and strengthened its transparent ties with the private sector. The paper argues that given the nature of the more transparent strategic alliance formed under the Salinas administration, big business continues to be brought into the policy making process, and that in fact, Zedillo continues to intervene on the side of business.     

Tears,Trauma and Suicide: Everyday Violence among Street Youth in Puebla,Mexico1

Despite considerable ethnographic research with young people in street situations and a growing interest in violence, little attention has been paid to suicide. The occurrence of suicide is a dramatic event that reveals weaknesses in support systems established by governments and civil society organisations, as well as perceived failings of friends. While an interest in suicide usually considers cause, in this paper we explore effect. How does the death of a member of a tightly knit group of street youth affect others and what does the suicide tell us about their identification with death more generally? Research for the paper was part of an in‐depth study of identities among street youth in Mexico.     

The Role of Protestant Missionaires in Mexico’s Indigenous Awakening

Protestantism has grown rapidly among Latin America’s indigenous population since the 1980s. Despite Protestantism’s attractiveness to indigenous people, the literature has historically regarded it as incompatible with indigenous culture. Recent scholarship has moved beyond this assertion, focusing instead on the complexities of conversion and the paradoxes associated with it. Most scholars now argue that Protestantism can be compatible with indigenous culture. It is unclear, however, how Protestant institutions came to have a compatible relationship with indigenous culture. Indeed, Protestant churches/clergy continue to eschew many of the practices associated with indigenous culture. In this paper I address this question by examining the work of Protestant missionaries. I choose missionaries as my point of analysis because they were crucial in establishing Protestantism in the region, and thus the base point from which it is defined, practiced, and altered. As a case study I examine mission work in Oaxaca, Mexico. I argue that missionaries have changed both their conversion strategies and tactics for dealing with indigenous traditions. These changes make it easier for indigenous people to convert to Protestantism without rejecting key parts of their culture, and in a few cases by even embracing it. I examine two conversion strategies—group targeting and church planting. I also analyze three tactics missionaries use to negotiate indigenous customs considered ‘pagan.’ I choose tequio, village fiestas, and language politics because they have historically been sources of conflict between converts and their Catholic neighbours.     

The Federal Dilemma: Organisational Strategies and the Consolidation of Parties in Mexico and Argentina

What accounts for the consolidation of party organisations? The specialised literature has stressed the importance of institutions in shaping the ways in which political parties organise. However, little attention has been paid to the role of federalism. We argue that in federal settings, party territorial organisational strategies condition their capacity to become consolidated parties. We illustrate our theory with an analysis of the development of conservative parties in Argentina and Mexico to explain their different levels of consolidation.     

The Politics of Conditional Citizenship in South Korea: An Analysis of the Print Media

This article shows how the meaning of citizenship has changed in South Korea since the partial emergence of a multicultural society in the past two decades. It does so by analysing how newspaper editorials have discussed multiculturalism, which is a multifaceted concept but one which weighs heavily on notions of citizenship. There is often a consensus about citizenship in mono-ethnic and homogeneous societies, even if it is not always clearly articulated or expressed. Societal and demographic change, however, require such societies to change or at least revisit notions of citizenship. The article shows that the print media places the onus on migrants to adapt to society, but also on Koreans to accept the “inevitable reality” of multiculturalism. Editorials advocate a form of conditional citizenship, whereby migrants are incorporated into society without disrupting current notions of what it means to be a South Korean.