M.I.A. from the Immigration Debate, Creating Economic Opportunity in Mexico
Could an influx of foreign aid to Mexico solve America's immigration problem?
For all the talk about immigration reform on the Hill, there has been notably little discussion about what is driving Mexican immigrants to pour over the border into the U.S., let alone any debate about measures that might go to the root of the problem. According to Laura Carlsen, the director of the International Relations Center's Americas Program, the reason behind the "massive out-migration" is fairly clear. Put simply, she wrote not long ago, "Mexico is not producing enough decent jobs for its people—and the United States is hiring." It would seem, then, that one potential answer to the United States' so-called immigration problem would be an effective development policy toward Mexico (whose citizens make up 56 percent of America's undocumented population, according to the Pew Hispanic Center), including both private investment and foreign aid. As it stands, Mexico receives the bulk of its aid not from the U.S. government or corporations but from immigrants themselves.
Despite having incomes well below the national average, many Mexican immigrants regularly send a portion of their earnings home to support their families and sometimes entire communities. Remittances from immigrant workers now stand approximately equal to oil revenues as one of the two largest sources of foreign income in Mexico. According to Guillermo Ortíz, head of Mexico's central bank, they totaled $23.54 billion in 2006.
These remittances – the vast majority sent from the United States, primarily in payments of $100 to $200 -- exponentially exceed foreign aid to Mexico. According to the Century Foundation, for every dollar in official foreign aid that goes to Mexico, immigrants send home $150. The bottom line is that these remittances have become a substitute—and a poor one at that—for effective development policies aimed at generating employment and stimulating rural production.
While the United States frequently grouses to the Mexican government that it ought to provide economic opportunities at home that will keep its citizens from teeming over our border, we've been less quick to provide Mexico with much help in doing so. To the contrary, the U.S. continues to exploit Mexico's resources for its own needs. Those resources, of course, include the very undocumented workers we complain about, which, like the illicit drugs we likewise condemn, would soon cease to flow north across the border if there were no demand for them here.
The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was supposed to be a tremendous boon for Mexico, as well as for the United States and Canada, creating the beginnings of a common market for the benefit of all. More than 13 years later, though, the relationship still smacks of colonialism. Howard Zinn, the author of A People's History of the United States who has documented the history of U.S. colonialism in Latin America, says of the current immigration debate, "Why should capital go freely across borders while people cannot? These are human beings trying to make a better life, for god's sake. Why is the wall on the Mexican border more acceptable than the Berlin Wall?"
Contrast all this to what's happened in the European Union, which was formed just two years prior to NAFTA, in 1992. Through the post-war years and well into the 1980s, most of the huge number of foreign guest workers in then-richer nations like Britain, Germany, France, and Switzerland came not from the so-called Third World, but from current European Union member-countries like Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Ireland. Instead of just employing foreign workers, though, the wealthier European nations also jumpstarted the economies of their poorer neighbors with billions of dollars in investments. As Douglas Massey, a Princeton University sociologist and co-director of the school's Mexican Migration Project, told the San Francisco Chronicle last year, if "the United States had approached Mexico and its integration into the North American economy in the same way that the European Union approached Spain and Portugal in 1986, we wouldn't have an immigration problem now."
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Yeah, a massive infusion of aid money handed to the Mexican government would probably work to solve Mexico's problems about as well as it's worked for Africa for the last half century.
Mexico and the US would do better for Mexico if they follow India's model, which has worked, rather than follow the model for Africa, which hasn't.
'SOUNDS GREAT, BUT LESS FILLING...!!!THE 'COWARD-CRATS" WANT MORE IMMIGRANTS BECAUSE THIS PARTY IS PERSONIFIED FOR THE UNDERDOGS...aND, THE "RE-PUG-NICANS" DON'T BECAUSE 12 TO 20MILLION POTENTIONAL "COWARD-CRATS" WILL SINK THE,,," cAUTION , THE U.S. COULD BECOME A ONE-PARTY COUNTRY COUNTRY TO THE DEMISE OF OUR BELOVED AMERICA...
S. JIM RODRIGUEZ+ECLECTICIST SPIRIT SEEKER+
I like Ridgeway's idea. Maybe we could even increase social security by 50% if those folks would retire to Mexico and hire a maid and gardner and driver and cook.
S.J.: Are you kidding? It IS a one-party country. One party, two nominal-but-hardly-distinct wings, separated by no more than 2% when you look past rhetoric to results.
That's why third parties are America's only real hope.
send all illealges back to where thety came from and have them go through the leagle process just as my grand parents did if they want better things in mexico and the other countries let them fight for it in their own land like we have, they come here and then try to change this country to another like the one they left,not o0nley do they not want to learn the language they want us to speak the Mexican language.
The change that the US will change the ratio from 1:150 to 1:1 in the lifetime of the biosphere is, alas, zero.
The corporate interests in the US make investments in Mexico as a part of their custom-made NAFTA economy, but they--out of greed and stupidity--use the Mexican factories to dump pollution and to continue the substandard wages that are the cause of the problem in the first place. Truly stimulate the Mexican economy and you create a market for US goods that would pad everyone's pockets, creating US jobs as well and cutting the record trade deficit. The answer then becomes, how do you overthrow the Corporate government (yes, 1 party) and install true democracy?
Mexico needs immigrants. People who will go to Mexico and become new Mexican citizens and help Mexicans get out of the ruts they're stuck in. People are the best foreign aid, not money.
Mr. Ridgeway's article is too logical for the ignorant xenophobes and kneejerk anti-immigrant zealots who will respond. He could also have pointed out that Mexican job-seekers do NOT cross the border because they want to leave their homes and families and friends in Mexico or because they prefer to live in a cold, unwelcoming country among people who scorn them because they have not yet learned English and are willing to work hard for low pay. Why would they take the risks and suffer the exploitation and indignities faced by undocumented workers if they had the option to stay with their families and earn a living in Mexico?
I'm with Peer and Brown (though Scotchee and Land have similarly provocative thoughts to consider !)--- let's think on the issues they've raised, while we're hoping that there's Someone (a necessarily great someone)who will have the fortitude to clean up the many smelly messes made by our so-called "representative" government (from its' highest, most corporate-interested level, down), someone we are able to heartedly support in leading the restoration of an American (and globally influential) integrity, and in positive valuation of world-wide human rights and prosperity. The next political go 'round is fast-approaching. Hope that we "little people" all make it through until then, understanding that we MUST demand fiscal and ethical accountability from our government, and take some responsibility for effecting beneficial changes, ourselves. Instead of name-calling or "just say no" silliness, try - TRY - to imagine what a wall really means, symbolically and literally; the "unconnected" immigrant looking for some means to adequately support his or her family isn't "the enemy." Small-mindedness, lack of imagination, self-righteous condescension, religio-political fanaticism, exclusive self-interest, profiteering, general short-routing for a long haul, inability to admit political error and redress it --- there are a few of the "enemies" of our kind; because they are traits or practices of many human beings, all over, the United States of America needs saner alliances and partnerships, not increased polarizations. By the way, gvc, I'll see what I can find out about India's "model," compared to Africa's, also asking what has been the nature of vested interest or the intended outcome, per our government's role in either. Please, provide more details, if you'd like. To all, thanks for sharing your views.
What if the "path to U.S. citizenship" included a mandatory year or two (or five)in a Mexican/American run peace corps style development program? Everyone's happy: conservatives get to see some Mexicans go home, Mexico gets an infusion of "bootstrap" hard work and financial aid, and immigrants get to feel good about both countries. I'll bet some would stay home, too, especially if the program resulted in an improved economy. Would it be expensive? Sure, but so is that damn wall, and which solution sends the better message?
1) The goverment has no interest in getting rid of illegeals because 20% of our social security budget is made up of the wages poured in that the illegeal will not receive.
2) The life style afforded to the illegeal here, has been changing the exspectations of the family and returning immigrants. Changes are starting to be made, but slowly.
3) Mexico, too, has an immigration problem, since all of latin and south america wait at their border to come to america - except they all speak spanish and don't stand out like here.
4)At least they are working for their forgien aide. We get something in return for the money they send home.
Just what is going on in Mexico is an issue i.e. those that have capital keep it and have a system by which few if any will get a penny....NAFTA is part of that system. It's like playing cards with a bunch of crooks that got the cards marked.
Under the policy of NAFTA, "Corn" the staple of the economy of the rural poor [Indians] has been destroyed by subsidized "American Corn" imports. The price is well below what farmers can get for thier crops therefore benefiting only American Agribusiness. The kind of "Foriegn Aid" we give to "Third World" economies is largely based on products [not money] for example; banned [shown to detrimental to the health of humans,animals and the environment] chemical fertilizers, "Genetically Engineered" seeds containing a "Killer Gene" that eradicates all native species. Making it so that Countries that accept this kind of aid will be dependent in the future to companies like Monsanto,Dow Chemical etc for thier food.
If Americans would stop hiring illegals they would stop coming here..problem solved. Blame the people that hire them for the illegal population in America. They are greedy people who hire illegals at way below minimum wage and pocket the profits from hiring cheap labor.
We should take into account our entire continent and not just Mexico which is having the same situation with illegal immigration that the U.S. is having.
In theory [economics 101] that's how free trade is supposed to work. If one nation has an advantage in labor costs that advantage erodes as demand for that labor increases until it reaches an equilibrium point. This doesn't work because government subsidizes the wealthy - at the expense of workers. The welfare payments and social security are a pittance compared with the real income that would arise from a truly free market. Free markets for consumers of labor and government subsidies for wealthy investors.
This approach makes more sense than our current non-policy of supporting millions of undocumented workers. This type of investment in the long run would probably cost less and yield some positive outcomes for our country. What can you say about a country that spends more money on its military than all the other countries, and is the only country that maintains a carrier fleet and nuculear submarines, and building a 500 millions plus embassy in Iraq.
Peer and Brown said it perfectly. This problem with illegal immigrants is exactly the same problem that we are having in the US, only we are not yet quite as far down that road as Mexico is. And the problem is due to the huge gulf between the haves and the have nots, both in Mexico and in the US. It is the corruption of human life due to the HUGE greed for money and political power. In America it is due to Reagan, Bush and Bush; the stupidity of the concept Free Enterprise(which is nothing more than a euphemism for exploitation of the have nots to benefit the haves.
In America it is due to the Republican party mindset of more wealth only for the already wealthy at any and all costs. 8100 families control 90% of the wealth in America and they have the gall to enforce the mentality that tax dollars paid by the average taxpayer must be used to make them wealthier and must noty be used for the benefit of those who paid the damn taxes. IE. our tax dollars are only to benefit them. That is horrible and totally unacceptable. But the religious right is totally supportive of that concept in America(Pope John aligned himself and the Catholic church, my church with the Rethuglikkkan party when Reagan became prez. That si exactly how the Republican party of religion and law and order can get away with all the crimes against the people of America. Falwell and his evangelical fundamentalists are also aligned with the Repug party.
In Mexico an almost totally Catholic country the problem is far, far worse. Fifteen families control 90% of the wealth. And american corporations are equally guilty of exploiting the Mexican people. But again, the american taxpayer is held responsible for seeing to it that the poverty in Mexico is our problem. Let's get some facts straight. And furthermore Mexico is not a poor country it just has egregiously undistributed wealth and a totally corrupt government, military and police.
And yet despite those facts the american taxpayer is being held responsible for the problems of a corrupt mexican system of endless poverty.
Can we all remember that the solution to mexican poverty was staring us in the face. Had the recent mexican elections brought Mr. Manuel Lopez Obrador to the presidency he was totally dedicated to bringing about the changes in Mexico needed to begin the solution to mexican poverty.
Who stopped that. Bush, the Republican party and Karl Rove. Rove sent Dick Morris, a eethug party strategist to mexico shortly before the elections and he destroyed the chances for Lopez Obrador to become prez.
How did he do that? Wake up America, he used the very same tactics the Republican party of right wing religion to do in Mexico exactly what they did in America to get Reagan, Bush41 and most especially Bush43 elected.
Not only is America in a huge mess due to the Republican party, of religion , but the mess of corruption just continues in Mexico; began when the Spanish invaded.
The ever so stupid and screaming Bill O'Reilly was on tv last night and he once again, being the 'fundamentalist catholic' that he is damned the idea that the distribution of wealth is wrong and due to us liberals and James Carville, his co-debator, was all wrong.
The problems in Mexico and America is due to the Republican conflation of religion, politics and endless greed for money and political power. Somethin the evangelical fundies(not all evangelicals) and the catholic fundies (not all catholics, but most) are the cause of.
This endless belief that they, rethugs, are right and moral and every one else is ALL WRONG because we are secular liberals(their code word for anyone who does not support GWB and the rethug party.
That my friends on this forum is the crux of the problem, namely, the hegemony of the corrupt and criminal rethug party and their supporters, namely, two big religions, american corporatocracy/wealthy and the neocons.
Stop anyone or even a part of one of those three elements and the republican theocratic dictatorship of america will end. We will once again have a two party system and a better form, albeit not perfect, of democracy.
Please remember that Scalia in a speech he gave in May 2000 advocated and called for the END of the rule of law in america and then went on to call for the end of democracy in America.
If you all want that keep the rethug party in power and the likes of Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito, O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rupert 'porn' Murdoch, Scarborough, Buchanan, Chris Matthews, Glenn O'Beck, Tucker Carlson, Rick O'Santorum, Sam Brownback, Bush and the entire Bush family of political corruption, Jeb Bush, and all the other right wingers on the air and in political power.
Can religion be corrupted, you bet it can, and it has been by politics. Can politics be corrupted, you bet and it has been by religious fundies and the endless greed for money and the willingness to do anything for political power.
Save our country and my religion by wedging it out of the slime of politics, all politics both left and right.
If the NAFTA treaty had contained environmental and worker protection provisions immigration would not be a problem for the United States.
Put it this way;There has never been a marshall plan for mexico or latin america.
The answer is no. NAFTA dd not solve the immigration problem from Mexico. Only a massive fence can save Americ from ruin.
From the debate raging in the US about immigration reform and how to aide the Mexican population to create a sustainable life for themselves, there are a few FACTS I find that are being wholely disreguarded: language, education, land ownership, and water.
Languare: In a speach delivered in 1847, Mariano Otero noted that one of the primary barriers to moderization of the then state of Mexican social and political fabric was lack of education amoung the native populations. The single hinderance to a standarized, country-wide education system was language. Ther was no single "National" language, but over 60 distinct languages spoken in the 9 states of Mexico. Today, in 2007, there are still approximately 60 languares spoken in Mexico, in addition to Spanish. Pause for a moment and imagine what quality of education we could offer our children if school systems had to contend with 60 seperate languages? Oh, some of those 60 languages in Mexico are not written languages but oral while others have no system of numbers.
Education: See "Language."
Land Ownership: In 1826 the state of Veracruz embarked upon a daring experiment to divide tracks of municipal lands into small tracks and to pass ownership to the native population. Before that time, native Mexicans were forbidden to own property. The program achieved a measure of success such that the Mexican government created, in 1856 the Ley Lerdo decreeing the division of communal lands. This grand vision did not work. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 was not about sizing political and military power but land: The powerfull still controlled all the agriculturaly productive lands-and still do, today. How can a country retaing its population if the social and political institutions refuse to allow their people to own the land they toil? There is nothing, other than family and tradition, to hold the people.
Water: HAve you ever been to Mexico City? 18 million people wedged into a spit of land from which all available potable water has been sucked. All of the city's water has to be pumped through existing pipelines. As more people poor into Mexico City from the rural areas, the available water per inhabitant drops. Mexico City does not have the water resources to support its rappidly growing population. ANd then there is the problem of waste. The city sits in a depression with no natural drainage. ALL waste has to be pumped out of the city and over a mountain. That is just in Mexico City. In the rural areas, water tables in some villages and towns has dropped about 100 feet in the past 10 years. Parts of the country are running out of water. People cannot survive without an adequate supply of potable water. PERIOD!
The next time you find yourself enbroiled in a running debate about immigration from Mexico and points South, reflect for a moment that what we are dealing with is not immigration for the sole purpose of finding employment, but what we are seeing could be the fringe of a mass human migration.
We animals; all animals, are hardwired for migration - been doing it since animals drew their first breaths. This being true, how do we propose to control with laws and fences and walls a drive from the most primal core of our being? How?
One notable difference in a NAFTA-EuroUnion comparison is stability in government. Mexico has a birth control problem compounded with third world graft-a-plenty attitude. No sane European investor would duplicate these imvestments in Mexico. China yes, Mexico no.
Remittances go directly to poor families, and are spent primarily on benefitting people's lives. What could be better for development?
You've correctly identified the problem but not the solution. The U.S. government is loathe to force Mexico to abide by its international agreements, including NAFTA and WTO. This is why there is a dearth of foreign investment in Mexico. For instance, AT&T lost $1 billion by trying to compete with Telmex in Mexico. The Mexicans were more interested in protecting Carlos Slim, one of the richest men in the world and owner of Telmex, rather than in expanding their economy. Meanwhile, the FCC bent over backwards to give Telmex licenses to operate in the U.S., despite its harm of American companies at home. If the U.S. is interested in expanding the Mexican economy and solving the immigration problem, it should turn the screws on the Mexican government and tell the likes of Carlos Slim that we don't need his dirty money, like Giuliani told the Saudis.
Excuse me, but the inflow of money sent 'home' by Mexicans living in the US effectively doubles the capital coming from the US. Doesn't do a darned thing to stop immigration or drastically improve the standard of living in Mexico.
As long as Mexicans view the US as a land of endless opportunity, as they as we continue our Open Door Policy of forgivenss for illegal entry, as long the highly profitable black market transport of illegals to the US is tolerated and encouraged by Mexican authorities as a cheap solution to overpopulation and povery - nothing can fix the problem of massive influx of Mexicans across the US border.
Apples to oranges comparison of Mexico and Spain/Portugal. Beyond having double the population, Spain did not export her poor to other European nations - instead, it has it own problems with illegal North African and Canary Island immigrants.
Just as the polar oceans can't endlessly absorb excess CO2, neither can the US endless absorb excess Mexican and Central American immigrants.
Thowing money at the problem won't solve it, either.
WAIT A MINUTE!
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN PRES. CLINTON BAILED OUT MEXICO. HE DID THAT AT THE OBJECTION OF BOTH THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE. THAT WAS JUST ONE OF MANY LOANS NOT PAID BACK.
THE REAL PROBLEM IS A CROOKED GOVERMENT.
I REALLT CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT I JUST READ.
I think rewriting the US Farm Bill so it doesn't bankrupt the Mexican Farm Economy would be a whole lot more effective. If Mexican Farmers weren't competing against US subsidy crops sold in Mexico, they would have a chance of actually making a living in the place where they live now, instead of being forced to move as an alternative to starving.
Mexico doesn't need foreign money to do what will create jobs and a vibrant economy. It merely needs to escape the shackles of the socialist underpinning and mindset of the current governance, which, when combined with the holdovers from terrible and unjust land ownership laws of the past and other disastrous legacies such as cartels, price fixing, State distribution of resources, all adds up to keep Mexico mired in the mud. Get the Mexican govt out of the oil bidness, get the mexican govt out of the buisness of fixing agricultural prices, and move towards a less socialist and more capitalist economy, and Mexico will have plenty of jobs and a booming economy. Not one penny needed from the US...or the Mexican govt. merely the willingness to do what every socialist leaning state has learned already...to generate wealth and jobs, get your fingers out of the pie and let the citizens earn, own, and work.
How does this common sense get injected into the debate? And by whom?
Mexico is more than capable of "taking care of its own". What needs to happen is a redistribution of wealth. The Mexican population that makes up the very top on the pyramid are very, very wealthy. The other 99% of the population is dirt poor. The problem is the wealthy power brokers don't want to give up their power, control or wealth. Mexico needs to restructure their whole economic culture instead of creating millions of refugees. I have nothing against Hispanics and I wish them all well. But, we have enough American citizens that need their own country's help in moving up the ladder. Simply put - Mexico, fix your own problem - you created it.
It amazes me how lightly Mexico's problems are dismissed as "the fault of a corrupt culture and an interventionist government".
For sure, there is much of that, but ...
I wonder if the shameful land-grabbing the US inflicted on Mexico had its weight on the latter not being as rich and developed as the former.
I don't know what kind of historical reparation is in order, but discussing the problem of Mexican immigration without having this subject in mind is kind of hypocrite, in my opinion.
i hate white cfops or who ever works in the damn [deleted]ing border theyre making us mexicans harder when we just try to get money for our family thats all mutha[deleted]ers fuk you all puero mexico putos!
i think that the border is so damn queer.when i grow up i would loveeee to work by the border and let my people free from danger and actually find a better life in the united states.as we all see we are the most hard working in the us.if it asnt for us everything would be diffrent.things wouldnt be the same thanks to us we invent alot of stuff and work for everything i hate racist people us mexicans are the best hard working people so dont wory my mexicans latinos voy acer un cop by da border and let u guys pass freeeee
Mexico
Mexico is known for its great tourist destinations like the Meso-American ruins and beach resorts. It is also the highest spender when it comes to tourism in the entire Latin America. However, Mexico isn’t generating too much jobs for Mexicans that is why a lot of them are crossing the border to the United States to look for a job. But the US authorities aren’t happy about the issue of illegal immigrants that is why the US is securing the border very tightly. And now, the latest issue is about the swine flu which originated from Mexico that already killed a hundred and is now spreading to other countries like New Zealand, US and other neighboring countries. But these problems didn’t stop Mexicans to celebrate the Cinco de Mayo.
