Migrating Concepts: The Transatlantic Origins of the Bracero Program, 1919–42.

This article examines the origins and development of the Bracero Program (1942–1964), a bilateral labor migration agreement between the United States and Mexico that enabled over four million Mexican men to work temporarily in the U.S. It highlights how Mexican politicians, intellectuals, and labor activists shaped the program’s design through two decades of engagement with European models of state-regulated temporary labor migration, particularly those from Italy and France, rather than solely through North American or imperial frameworks. While U.S. officials initially resisted adopting European-style bilateral agreements, wartime labor demands in 1942 prompted them to negotiate with Mexico, where longstanding transatlantic knowledge influenced Mexican negotiators to insist on principles like equality of treatment for migrant workers—though these principles were compromised in practice due to differing labor conditions and racialized exclusions in the U.S. The article argues that understanding the Bracero Program requires recognizing this complex, transnational entanglement of ideas and actors beyond the immediate U.S.-Mexico border context.