Trump, Migration, and Agriculture

Philip L. Martin

doi:10.33182/bc.v9i1.674

Authors

Philip L. Martin Agricultural & Resource Economics, University of California, Davis

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33182/bc.v9i1.674

Keywords:

immigrants, emigrants, developed countries, less developed countries

Abstract

The US is the country of immigration, with almost 20 per cent of the world’s 260 million international migrants. The number two country with international migrants, Germany, has 12 million, a fourth as many as the almost 48 million foreign-born US residents (UN DESA, 2017). The US stands alone among industrial countries in having a quarter of its immigrants, almost 11 million, unauthorised (Passel and Cohn, 2018). President Trump made reducing illegal immigration a priority. Major migration issues today include the fate of programs such as DACA, what to do about Central American families who apply for asylum, and whether to build a wall on the Mexico-US border. In December 2018-January 2019, there was a partial shutdown of the federal government, the third in Trump’s first two years as President, because Congress failed to include $5 billion for the border wall in bills that fund DHS and other federal agencies. Meanwhile, Mexico agreed to issue humanitarian visas to Central Americans who enter the US and apply for asylum, so that Central American asylum seekers may wait in Mexico for US decisions on their cases

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Author Biography

Philip L. Martin, Agricultural & Resource Economics, University of California, Davis

Philip Martin is Emeritus Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of California, Davis and a member of the Commission on Agricultural Workers established by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. He is the author of numerous studies and reports on immigration, including Trade and Migration: NAFTA and Agriculture (1993). Prof Martin has guest-edited two issues for Migration Letters on Competitiveness in US and Japan, Migration and Development; comparing US and Mexico, and on Migration Expert Commissions. He has also been co-chair of The Migration Conferences organised since 2012.

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