Widely praised as a splendid addition to the literature on the great wave of post-1970 immigration from Mexico as a result of which an estimated 6 million undocumented Mexican migrants now live in the United States The World of Mexican Migrants, by acclaimed author Judith Adler Hellman, takes us into the lives of those who, no longer able to eke out even a modest living in their homeland, have traveled north to find jobs.

Hellman takes us deep into the sending communities in Mexico, where we witness the conditions that lead Mexicans to risk their lives crossing the border and...