Integration of the Americas: Labour Mobility between Canada and the United States

To promote trade in goods and services, chapter 16 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) facilitates the cross-border movement of businesspersons. This has allowed managers, technical experts and others to relocate in order to expedite production and support the increased trade that has followed trade liberalization. Since an overwhelming bulk of international trade is carried out by multinational companies, foreign direct investment theory suggests that there will be increased free trade between Canada and the United States to the extent that it encourages increased intra-industry trade and investment and is expected to increase economic incentives for labour mobility. This paper discusses the relationships among various factors of trade liberalization and their impacts on labour mobility between the Canada and the United States. It considers if and how the NAFTA may have affected bilateral flows of permanent and nonpermanent immigrants between the two countries. It also examines these effects in relation to future trade agreements such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)