In Ex Mex, former Mexican foreign minister and well-known scholar Jorge G. Castañeda draws on his experience in both capacities to dispel some of the most widely held and mistaken ideas about the United States’ largest, most controversial immigrant population. Through Castañeda we learn just who the newest generation of immigrants from Mexico is, why they have chosen to live in the United States, where they work, and what they ultimately hope to achieve. Castañeda also offers an insider’s account of the intricate and confidential negotiations that took place between Mexico and the United States in 2001 and 2002—contradicting some of the official versions published here—and the unilateral actions that were taken by his government to improve the conditions of Mexican migrants when talks between the two countries stalemated.