Mexico’s agricultural assistance program is inadvertently subsidizing migration to the U.S.

For those Mexicans that choose to do so, migration to the U.S. can be both incredibly costly and risky. But with annual wages less than a third the cost of migration, how are migrants able to afford to do so? Jeronimo Cortina looks at the role of Mexico’s Procampo agricultural assistance program, finding that its cash transfers are inadvertently encouraging many Mexicans to emigrate to the U.S. He argues that for the subsidy to achieve its purpose, then it must be conditional, or that instead, the Mexican government should create a regional structural fund aimed at rural counties in which migration is not yet prevalent to provide incentives to transform idle arable land into a productive investment, thus minimizing migratory pressures.