Foolish Fences

Editor,
Regarding Douglas S. Massey's statement that, "Instead of viewing Mexican migration as a pathological product of rampant poverty and rapid population growth, we should see it [as] a natural byproduct of economic development in a relatively wealthy country undergoing a rapid transition to low fertility in close association with the United States:"

This is brilliant analysis, as the most natural thing in the world for a middle-class Mexican to do is risk his life and limb fording a sewage-saturated river, then trek across a deadly desert for several days to land a $6/hr job as a construction laborer in a place where he knows no one and is hunted like a criminal.

Apologists for neoliberal capitalists invariably conflate the impressive financial gains of the investor class in developing economies with the desperation of farmers and others who are displaced by so-called "free trade" and associated changes in local government spending mandated by the IMF and World Bank.