The Right to Stay Home: How U.S. Policy Drives Mexican Migration

This well-researched and story-rich piece of investigative reporting fills in an important hole in most teaching about immigration: Why do people leave their homes for the United States? And does the United States have responsibility for why they can’t stay at home?

The first chapter, which would work for many high school readers, takes on the impact of NAFTA and the role of Smithfield Foods in destroying the Perote Valley in Veracruz. Bacon catches up with members of the community, forced to emigrate and now working at a slaughterhouse in North Carolina. Oral history narratives follow each chapter. [Description by Rethinking Schools.]

ISBN: 9780807001615 | Beacon Press