Tuesday, September 24, 2013

How Mexican Brain Drain Saved Mexico

How Mexico became a magnate for foreign born talent at Pacific Standard magazine.

Theme: Brain drain and economic development.

Subject Article: "For Migrants, New Land of Opportunity Is Mexico."

Other Links: 1. "Pittsburgh, and the Magic of Failure."
2. "Your Casual Acquaintances on Twitter Are Better Than Your Close Friends on Facebook."
3. "Inbreeding Homophily."
4. "The Roots of Rust Belt Chic."

Postscript: I've reached the finish line with the idea that the exodus from Pittsburgh during 1980s could fuel an economic boom in Southwestern PA a few decades later. Mexico is rapidly developing today because of the talent exports of yesterday. The looming question was figuring out how that would happen. Turns out, Robert Putnam has social capital backwards. The weak ties make the world go round and open up a community to economic globalization.

3 comments:

DBR96A said...

"Reached the finish line," as in you've accepted or rejected the idea?

Jim Russell said...

As in I've fleshed out full the idea and convinced myself that I've got the right perspective.

Anonymous said...

Could be. Now I think why mexico has made it in car manufacturing is a lot of Mexicans went to Los Angeles in the `1980's and 1990's and worked in garment work or other manufacturing and some return to Mexico and devleoped the assembly skills in the in the US. Also, Mexican poor in rural areas which had low education and job skills went to the US and Mexico itself has worked on getting birth rates down so in the 20220's, Mexico is less of a young country.