The prevailing Mexican and US definitions of undocumented migration are poles apart. The US views it as a criminal problem. Mexicans view the undocumented migrants as actors in an economic game in which the rules are extremely disadvantageous to these migrants. Migrants themselves and their communities view the undocumented as a positive element. It is necessary to move toward a bilateral focus and bilateral negotiation on the issue of migratory workers. This proposal derives from several assumptions: 1) the external debt is a bilateral or multilateral issue, 2) it is important to avoid forcing debtor countries to choose between stimulating economic growth or making payment on their foreign debt, 3) prevailing public opinion in the US favors halting undocumented migration, 4) the US views the migration of undocumented Mexicans as the result of forces endogenous to Mexico and exogenous to the US, 5) the US views both Mexico's ability to make payment on its external debt and to halt emigration as tied to the Mexican government's ability or inability to reconcile political stability with scarce monetary resources, and 6) political instability in Mexico could augment emigration to the US and undermine Mexico's ability to address its foreign debt. The following proposal suggests means to link negotiation on the external debt to that of undocumented migration: 1) The Mexican government could reach an accord with the US to channel a portion of the actual interest on the external debt as a fund to be invested in Mexico to construct a system of labor intensive agroindustrial productive units designed to attract former or potential migratory workers; 2) the total amount of these funds would be deducted from interest payments on the principal of the actual external debt and redefined as an ad hoc loan to Mexico to finance these production units; 3) part of the production from these units would be incorporated into ongoing US food relief and food assistance programs; 4) the program by which the US would import the production of these agroindustrial units in Mexico would retain previously migratory workers in Mexico; 5) a feasibility study would precede implementing an accord on the amount of financing and the terms of operation; and 6) the time during the binational study would be a grace period, during which payment of a portion of the interest of Mexico's foreign debt would be temporarily suspended.

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