Emigrant Claims and Consular Protection Services in the United States: Mexico’s Department of Protection Data, 2010-2015

• In Event: 2174 - Immigration, Federalism, and Integration in U.S. States and Localities

Abstract

The majority of Mexico’s 12 million international migrants live in the United States. Though historically clustered in the American west, southwest, and large metropolitan gateways, immigrants have been increasingly attracted to new destinations, where they encounter diverse contexts of receptions patterned by heterogeneous social, demographic, economic, and political climates. The dispersion of Mexican immigrants across the United States has resulted in a parallel expansion of the Mexican consular network, which is increasingly engaged in protecting the rights of emigrants and facilitating their integration in the United States. Although many studies find that local context impacts migrants’ daily lives and integration experiences, it is less clear how variations across contexts impact the services and types of assistance emigrants request from the Mexican state. This paper addresses this gap by analyzing data from an administrative database that documents claims processed through the Mexican consular network (2010 through 2015). I draw on a variety of data sources (e.g., the American Community Survey) to construct measures of consulate district characteristics to reflect diverse social, economic, and political landscapes. This research expands our understanding of how, if at all, the cross-border policies of nation-states are influenced by subnational, local-level forces. The relationship between local contexts and emigrant-sending state diaspora engagement is important because of the pluralistic nature of receiving states with regards to immigrant control, immigration policy, economies, political environments, and socio-demographic conditions. Results suggest that socio-demographic conditions of consulate districts largely pattern the frequencies and types of claims that consulate outposts manage as well as the relative distribution of claims across broad categories (e.g., migratory, labor, civil, etc.). In contrast, other contextual factors, such as localized immigration enforcement programs impact only the relative distribution of claims across categories.

Author

• Ricardo David Martinez-Schuldt, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill