This divergence has created a set of compatible economic needs: Spain now has high wages and a decreasing population (a trend commonly seen in industrialized countries), while Mexico now has low wages and an increasing population (frequent in countries suffering from underdevelopment).

These changes have created a deficit of workers in Spain—“labor lagoons”—that can be filled by Mexico’s surplus workers.

What is needed to leverage this classic case of comparative advantage is an organization that can help improve access to information among interested parties in both countries by matching workers in Mexico—predominantly from poor backgrounds—with companies in Spain. This must be done in a strategic, scalable and, most importantly, in a humane fashion.

Intersourcing

Puentes enables the cross-border movement of low-income migrants in a number of ways: we increase “information flows” between workers and employers; we coordinate multiple resources and institutions; and we inject efficiency, legality, and wide breadth of knowledge and experience into global labor movements.

The theory in practice

We recruit workers from Mexico (our Associates) and place them in companies in Spain (our Partner Firms) through our “intersourcing” strategy.

This process leverages:

• Spanish law, which enables foreign workers with specific skills that are demanded by Spanish companies to work under temporary, renewable contracts with full social benefits—healthcare, public education, pensions, unemployment insurance. Their families are also entitled to move to Spain after one year, providing the worker’s contract is renewed. Family members are then also eligible for full social benefits.

• The demand from Spanish companies for immigrant workers willing and able to perform jobs turned down by locals.

• The vast supply of poor yet highly experienced laborers in Mexico.

• Mexico’s interest in using immigration as a much-needed escape valve from a 40% poverty and 25% underemployment rate—both of which are currently increasing—and to boost remittance flows to families in poor communities.

• Spain’s need to increase its worker base amidst a decreasing birth rate, an ageing population, and the strains that these variables will place on the welfare system.

Geographic Coverage

We chose Mexico as our “sending country” and Spain as our “receiving country” not just because of economic and demographic considerations. Several other factors make these countries incredibly well matched:

• The deep linguistic, cultural, historical, and religious links between the citizens of both countries.

• The relatively high acceptance level of immigration from their governments and domestic populations.

• Spain’s favorable and stable immigration and employment laws.

• The professional and personal networks of Puentes’ leadership.

We plan to expand our coverage to the U.S.-Mexico migration corridor within two years if “comprehensive immigration reform” is enacted there.

We will be updating our website in English from Nov 29th to Dec 2nd. We apologize for the inconvenience. In the meanwhile, please see our website in Spanish. Thank you for your understanding