From the historical perspective of Mexico, the line between Mexico and the United States is not just a border; it is a scar that has never quite healed over. This frustrates many in the United States who think Mexico is stuck in the past. But, the reality is that policy makers in both countries know full well the problems are in the present and the future; it is just that the levels of mutual misunderstanding continue to be sky high.

No progress is being made these days as politicians in both countries posture with being tough. U.S. politicians want to get tougher and tougher on security with the idea that not only do "good fences make good neighbors" but also that good fences mean you don´t have to worry about your neighbor. Mexican politicians want to be tougher and tougher on standing up to the United States and protecting national sovereignty.

Whenever there is a stalemate or a knot in policy discussions, there usually is one issue that is a keystone. If that issue can be addressed in appropriately realistic ways, it tends to unlock other issues and highlight other steps. For us in this period, there is one keystone issue, and that is working toward a migratory accord - or probably a set of accords, cobbled together and refined over time, rather than completed in one great policy moment.

In the middle of this issue stands the Mexican undocumented worker. For more than a century, this worker has been going north and coming back home, or staying on in the new land. They are the migrants in our midst, something of an enigma when they are in the United States and even when they are "home" in Mexico. We try to reduce them to cross border flows and remittance levels, but they stubbornly refuse to conform to the stereotypes of the media or be pinned to the walls of our research units. Relatively independent of legality and policy, they are part of a vibrant and continually developing migratory culture.

Old studies tend to become outdated, and the diaspora of the migrants is now so vast that it is not easy to do new studies at the drop of a hat. MUND Américas, along with other academics and policy groups, is preparing for an extended survey of migrant culture, especially relating to the persistence of crossing the dangerous northern border and the insistence in coming back home to Mexico from time to time.

Following open-ended discussions in migrant communities of Mexico over the past year, we have a set of hypotheses to explore. It is worth sharing them, even before the formal study is undertaken, because any discussion of the hypotheses tends to refine and enrich them.

1. Mexicans leave for work in the United States for both economic and non-economic reasons. An interesting PEW Hispanic Center study of Mexicans standing in consular lines in the United States (waiting for their matrícula cards) indicates that most migrants had jobs at the time they left Mexico. The question of whether the jobs held in Mexico were formal or informal, and what they paid, can be put to one side. The point is that the Mexican economy could get much better over the coming years, and more jobs could be created, but the migratory process will not turn on a dime and stop.

2. In migrant sending communities, urban and rural, when young men and women reach 15 or 16 years, they begin to think of crossing the border. It is as much a coming of age as an economic opportunity. It is the professional equivalent of going to college; it is the job training equivalent of joining the army. This process is deep in the culture of families and communities.

3. The most secure forms for crossing the border have to do with family and community connections. Those with weak family and community connections are those scrambling over the wall, lost in the desert or desperate in the Rio Bravo. Those with strong family and community connections cross, as they have been for more than five generations.

4. The remittances are not so much amounts of money as a set of family and community social relations. Money is never just money; it has to do with relations of all kinds, and the remittances are no exception. It may be that whether the overall volume of remittances noted in the media is correct or not, whether the volume continues to grow or decline, are somewhat irrelevant. The remittances are not a policy alternative to other investments. They are sets of very specific social relations, and to not see this is to miss the point.

5. Increasingly, the visits back to Mexico can be understood as part of a sacramental pattern, as true for Protestants and non-believers as for Catholics. While many young men and women are finding spouses and life partners in the United States, a significant number of migrants return to marry in their home community. A surprising number of young families return to baptize or confirm or just proudly show off their children to the family in the home community. And, a steady group of migrants return in their time to die.

What is it to be a Mexican for a migrant far from home? To be a Mexican is to be from a family and a community, and to continue being a part of that family and community. This carries over into language, music, food, phone calls, emails, remittances, visits and the thousand and one ways that people define who they are. (Voting abroad is not yet seen as part of this definition.)

Dan Lund is a market demographics and public policy researcher in Mexico. dlund@mundamericas.com