Types of Migration Enabled by Maquiladoras in Baja California, Mexico: The Importance of Commuting

This article analyzes a relatively new stream of labor migrants from Mexico to the US, those who have worked in export-processing industries, or maquiladoras, in Mexico before or at the same time as crossing the border to work. The focus is on what kind of migrants they are, addressing how those with maquila work experience compare with the traditional migratory stream of agricultural workers. The methodology is Grounded Theory and use is also made of typology theory, showing how the emergence of particular ideal types of migrants are dependent on Mexican job, labor market, place of origin, documents and social and human capital. We find that former and current maquila employees most often begin as a recurrent type of migrant, especially commuters, which is one of its subtypes. Many tend to transform over time into immigrants. Maquila employees are more likely to be commuters than agricultural workers due to differing origins. More skilled maquila employees become immigrants and recurrent migrants through a diaspora process in which the multinational corporation plays a key role, providing an organizational structure through which they move. The return type of migration is not strongly represented due to borderlander identities and less opportunity in Mexico.