Throughout history native-born Americans have pissed and moaned about large waves of immigrants: Germans and Irish in the 1840s, Chinese in the mid-19th Century, Jews and Italians in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. (If you remember the old Marx Brothers movies, Chico played a stereotypical Italian immigrant, a vaudeville-stage stock character.)
But, until recent decades, not so much about Mexicans. Why not? Mexico has always shared a border with the U.S., always been poor and overpopulated – why was it only recently that Mexicans started coming here in droves?
Well, a great deal of the recent immigration" has been of the illegal variety. And while there used to be a great fear of being deported as soon as you were found out, that’s now longer the case. Now we have some areas in the country where illegals are even allowed to vote in school elections.
Is that true? I know that in San Francisco there was a proposal to allow non-citizens to vote in school board elections, but I don’t think it actually was approved.
I would think that a lot of it is simply that cities in the Southwest have grown so much. There’s more to immigrate TO. More cities, more people, more jobs, more opportunity.
Historically, the racial/cultural makeup of Southwestern society has hardly been lily white.
The Native American population suffered greatly but was hardly eliminated. Spanish & Mexicans began settling centuries ago–long before the Anglos arrived. And Texas was a slave state, further “polluting” the fictional whiteness of one part of the Southwest.
I’ve heard our increased obsession with guarding the Mexican border given as a reason; since it’s not as easy or (especially) safe to come and go as it used to be, once they get here they just stay.
Also, ISTM during the times of the past, the cross-border traffic would have generally stayed just that: cross-border. Southwest states and Texas. The border was always porous but much of the crossing would have ended up with the persons staying at some American-citizen relative’s home in the region, in a town or neighborhood where there was already a high Mexican-American population concentration and generally being inconspicuous,and would not have an incentive to be where he or she would be noticeably out of place. Also, many of these people operated on the “come in, make a couple of bucks, head back home” system.
Then, after WW2, it happens as mentioned, that…
And thus a greater draw for immigration across the SW border. Not only that, but greater ease of transportation (interstates, airlines) and the growth of other concentrations of Americans of latino origin (e.g. Puerto Ricans in the NE and upper midwest) then make it attractive and feasible for these immigrants to spread out from the SW to other locations and thus the demand side increases even further.
I did a quick search and, admittedly, just scanned the article. So, apparently, I was wrong, and illegals are not able to vote in even school board elections. (But I still vaguely recall reading that somewhere a year back or so. Oh, well…)
So, I amend my statement read:
Some people actually want illegals to be able to vote in local elections.
Also Miami-Dade County, Florida. The Cuban refugees came in 1960, established a local Latino community with Spanish-speaking social networks, organizations and media – which made it more attractive to Latinos from all over Latin America. Now, Miami-Dade’s population is 57% Latino and 51% foreign-born.
This is my understanding as well. Many would come here to work for seasonal jobs, then go home. Now with a tight border - once you are here, you stay.
I had a Polish friend who would get a 3 year work permit to come to the US, work his tail off, then return to Poland and live like a king. He had done this several times, and had a nice house in the burbs, a good used car, etc. thanks to working construction jobs in the US. I think that there are a lot of Mexicans who would happily come to the US to work for awhile, then go back to Mexico to live a nice lifestyle. By making those work permits hard to get and poorly controlled, that avenue is not open. Instead of just one person going for a while, we get the whole family trying to come in instead.
A well run bracero program would benefit both nations.
This article does not seem right, at least the mention of San Francisco. I live in the Bay Area and I remember the uproar when this idea was proposed a year ago. I’m sure I would have heard if it were actually enacted. I just spent some time trying to find a local news article that indicates it was actually enacted, and I can’t find one.
I can see that as absolutely being the reason for increased Mexican immigration. I would absolutely pay large sums of money to a coyote and risk death if I heard that a small number of people supported giving me the right to vote in school board elections if I finally made it to the US.
I have read that a big reason for increases in illegal immigration is that NAFTA helped to irrevocably change agriculture in Mexico. Because of the removal of tariffs and the efficiencies of agribusiness in the US (as well as agricultural subsidies), small farmers in Mexico (which were the majority of farms in Mexico) could no longer compete and they went under. Because of this, millions of newly unemployed farmers needed to find work and went to where the jobs were, while Mexican agriculture switched over to industrial agriculture as it is practiced in the US to compete.
Anyway, this is just something I have read and I don’t have any cites to back it up…
