Posted on 04/25/2006 6:25:47 AM PDT by FreedomSurge
Atotonilco, Mexico - They name their babies Johnny and Leslie, so certain are they that their kids' future lies in the United States. Returning migrants sprinkle English into their speech as they talk knowingly about job markets in U.S. towns.
The U.S. may want to stop illegal immigration, but most Mexicans accept it as a fact of life they can't imagine changing.
Mexico's economy, society and political system are built on the assumption that migration and amnesties will continue - and that the $20 billion that undocumented workers send home every year will keep coming, and almost certainly grow.
In fact, the government is counting on continued cash from a Mexican-born U.S. population it predicts will rise from 11 million to between 17.9 million and 20.4 million by 2030.
"There have been amnesties and reforms before, and they will continue to occur periodically," said Jesus Cervantes, director of statistics for Mexico's Central Bank.
President Vicente Fox is one of many Mexicans who considers the migrants "heroes" because they send money to their impoverished home villages and in some cases risk death walking into the U.S.
Many families give their babies "American" names, figuring it will help them fit in when they make the trip north. In one central Mexican village, men on a dusty side road knowingly discuss which Long Island towns are best for day-labor work.
Cervantes avoids using the common metaphor of migration as an escape valve for Mexico's social tensions but says the country of 105 million people would be in trouble if 11 million migrants returned en masse.
On the ground, the lure of the U.S. is evident. Abelardo Gonzalez, an elementary school director in the southern state of Oaxaca, said of his students: "From the time they are little kids, they have this idea of going north." So many people have left the farming town of Atotonilco in central Tlaxcala state, 480 miles from the U.S. border, that a sort of U.S. job-placement network has grown up. Migrants send word home of a vacancy for a gardener in Los Angeles, a carpenter in Houston or a dishwasher in Raleigh, N.C.
A proposal in the Mexican Senate last year that would have kept migrants away from particularly dangerous border crossings when temperatures soared was denounced as doing the United States' "dirty work." It was withdrawn.
Agustin Escobar, an immigration scholar at Mexico's Center for Research on Social Anthropology, is a maverick. He questions whether migration is good for Mexico, given that a migrant puts less money into the economy than a Mexican who stays.
But he doesn't get much of a hearing. "There is a great deal of resistance on the part of the government to even consider analysis of these issues," he said.
"Mexico can't imagine closed border"
Why should they when not only are they permitted to steal from Americans, they are encouraged to do so by our elected officials.
Apparently, they haven't seen their southern border.
Unfortunately, neither can our President.
'Imagine there's a border,
it's easy if you try,
no America to run to,
you have to stay and fight.
Imagine there's a fe--nce
Big and wide and hi -----gggh,
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm ... (doobi doobi doo)
xxxx
And the world can live as TWO.
If they know they are going to dump their lower class into the US, why don't they teach the kids English in the schools? Because it's against Mexican law, that's why. The Japanese children and the Russian children learn English at their schools, but the terminally stubborn Mexicans don't allow it. Children from the USA who go to Mexican schools are expected to learn Spanish from day 1, and there are NO bilingual classes, as our assinine government requires taxpayers to pay for here in the good old USA.
LOL!
They are encouraged by their government, and ours, and businesses here. I can't say I'm surprised at all.
That really frosts me too.
My ancestors came here and had to learn English - were happy to.
"Mexico's economy, society and political system are built on the assumption that migration and amnesties will continue"
That's a safe bet if I ever saw one. Because judging by recent polls there are a lot of "Americans" who are nothing more than consumers. They will have a heart attack if they have to pay a quarter more for a gallon of gas, but they won't give a damn if their country is overrun by Mexicans.
Maybe they should change the name of this country to the "United States Free Trade and Migration Zone" and get it over with. Come one, come all- you can be an American too. Just break our laws and wait for the next amnesty. And don't forget to vote Democratic.
Makes me want to throw up.
Mexico has become a tumor in the side of America.
Corrupt and racist leaders like Fox make sure the villages of the dark skinned, and indigenous stay impoverished. The ones that can't be coerced into jumping the border are coerced into being sterilized.
Hey, watch what you say, this is our presidents best friend.
Why should they when not only are they permitted to steal from Americans, they are encouraged to do so by our elected officials.
-----
Exactly. When you have a President and Congress that not only give them carte blanche, but are working hard to reward their criminality, why not take advantage of it??
Russians have a saying about English: they say it's the easiest language there is to learn to speak badly, by which they mean that if all you NEED is to speak it badly, or well enough to get by in an English-speaking country, that can be done in a couple of months.
I'm starting to get seriously pissed at this constant "Choose a Language: English/Spanish" thing at banks, grocery stores and everything I do which involves ATM machines. Has anybody on FR considered the possibility of organizing a boycott of stores which do that?
Mexicans are truly fortunate to have a shepherd like this pile.
Instead of making the southwest Aztlan, Americans should re-enact the accomplishments of Winfield Scott and annex Mexico.
The ISthmus of Tehuantipec is more defensible than the present southern border and Mexico has lots of oil - besides he Mexicans are hard workers - or so the libs keep telling us.
People should stop calling them immigrants because most of them have no intention of becoming Americans. They should be called migrants or even invaders since they are not invited here (guest workers, my eye). We don't need more low-skilled workers in this country, we got enough homegrown thanks to our public education (so called) system.
Tehy are hurting two countries by their actions.
We should place a heavy, burdensome tax on money being sent out of country by noncitizens (at least to all money sent to Mexico.) We can sell this as something to get more tax dollars for the government, but it will also create a disincentive to more illegal immigration and likely cause some illegals to go home.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.