With a fourfold disparity in GDP per capita, the flow of people is inevitable. As is, the folks crossing the border are the ones with the least to lose in doing so: the poorest of Mexico’s underclass. Some find this objectionable, but short of the proposed border wall this will continue.
So why not fully open up the immigration process? The economic incentive for middle-class Mexicans would be quite decent, and the US stands to gain. After all, we import professionals from half the world. Why not from next door?
It is very easy for Americans to work legally in México. Owning land is also allowed although I’m not sure what that has to do with immigration. Plenty of foreigners who don’t live here own land here.
Can you explain more? It seems that if you own something you don’t have to renew anything. What is involved in the renewal of the title? And what happens if you do not renew it?
Because it’s corrupt, and has been for a long time.
I’m only beginning to learn about this (I currently am taking a Spanish class on Mexican history and culture), so I welcome anyone more knowledgeable to point out my errors, but as far as I understand, NAFTA in 1993 changed everything. It allowed the Mexican government to purchase agricultural goods from the U.S. at a cheaper price than they can be produced in Mexico. Which is what both the U.S. and Mexican governments want, because they have a stake in the oil industry in Mexico. The government tried kicking Mexicans off their land using violence and oppression, but it didn’t really work until they started starving to death. Currently there is so much product going into Mexico from the U.S. that they are destroying tons of unwanted grain (corn too, I think.) Simply put, the Mexican farmers just can’t compete with the cheaper costs of importing from the U.S.
Emigration out of Mexico and into the U.S., while always present in some way, became a phenomenon starting in 1994, almost immediately following the passage of NAFTA. I find it interesting that whenever people attack immigrants for coming into the U.S. they completely negate the conditions that are driving them here in the first place. The U.S. has been meddling in the affairs of Latin America for-freakin’-ever. Every time the people uprise and try to establish a legitimate government (by “legitimate” I mean democratic and backed by the people), the U.S. government cries “communism!” and takes out that fledgling government to preserve its own economic interests. The Civil War in Guatemala (to protect the interests of the United Fruit Company) was one such example, and that had a direct impact on Mexico, resulting in a near-communist revolution in the state of Chiapas. Mexico for much of its history has been marked by violence, conflict, and betrayal by its own government.
Well, that’s as much as I know, at the moment. But I’m writing a big fat research paper on NAFTA and emigration at the end of the semester so maybe we can revisit the topic then.
There are many areas where nobody can own real estate. It’s called federal land and it’s a consequence of the many half-started, half-baked, all-the-way-blocked attempts at property redistribution Mexico has had. People have been building on that land: houses without sewers, without running water, with stolen electricity, that can not get any of those services legally because, since it’s everybody’s land, nobody can use it :smack:
As a friend once told me (only, she was speaking about the PA DOT): “hey, we’re equal-opportunity, we screw everybody!”
Only in certain areas? Like in over 90% of national territory? And foriegners can own land in the restricted areas through a fidecomiso OR outright by simply forming a Mexican corporation which can be 100% foriegn owned. Now quit trying to argue that same old mistaken ignorant opinion.
How about relieving the giant headache/money pit which is immigration services and border patrol, and greatly increasing the pool of able-bodied workers in the U.S.? Isn’t labor (and don’t forget entrepreneurship) a resource, just like capital and land?
I for one can’t see anything to gain by continuing to waste money on keeping harmless and helpful people out of the U.S.
Why don’t we just let them become American people? And then we can help them, and both our countries in the process?
It is. But even America has just so much water and other natural resources, every person means more polution and less land. And, these dudes come in at the bottom, where they are a drain on the tax budget- every poor person costs one of us in the middle class quite a bit in extra taxe- and costs the rich even more.
Like most economic problems, there is no easy answer.
