BK has just never been the same for me.
Posted on 03/31/2008 8:02:06 AM PDT by SmithL
s a Mexican American, nothing tends to make me feel less Mexican and more American than spending time with an official of the Mexican government.
It's been my experience over many years of interviewing and writing about these "Mexicrats" that most come from the privileged class with life experiences far removed from those of average Mexicans and even further removed from the millions of Mexicans who head north in search of better lives.
As such, these officials hearken back to an earlier generation of dignitaries who couldn't have cared less about people like my grandfather who came to this country as a young boy. If there is a power struggle going on in Mexico between haves and have-nots, as many people suggest is the case, then I'm rooting for the latter.
And so, it's not often that I find a Mexican official who seems fair, reasonable and insightful. Maria de los Remedios Gomez Arnau, the newly installed Mexican consul general in San Diego, fits the bill.
A few weeks ago, Gomez met with the editorial board of The San Diego Union-Tribune. Topics of discussion included recent outbreaks of violence along the border, the drug war, trade and -- oh yes -- immigration. There was plenty of agreement, but also areas where we disagreed. In the end, people from different countries will see the world differently.
While stressing the "interconnection" of the United States and Mexico and the fact that there are two sides to every issue confronting the two countries, Gomez framed immigration as a global labor supply issue.
"We need to recognize," she said, "both that there are migrant workers needed here in the U.S. labor market while Mexico, and other countries that participate in the U.S. labor market, have the supply of those workers...
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
“We need to recognize,” she said, “both that there are migrant workers needed here in the U.S. labor market while Mexico, and other countries that participate in the U.S. labor market, have the supply of those workers.”
Horse hockey. What’s really happened is that Mexico has made it a tradicion to let us handle their poor. Even our lowest wages are better than the best they can offer their undereducated, underskilled workers ‘doing the jobs Americans won’t do.’ We aren’t sharing labor; what we’re sharing is global stupidity.
I have never seen numbers that are required to handle our crops. Any body ever seen this? As for Mexico, I have heard that there are seven major families that control Mexico.....not the government.
Translation: Mexico used the exportation of physical labor as a comodity to act as a safety valve for corruption at home.
BK has just never been the same for me.
Exactly. Don’t forget the importation of cash sent back by that labor force.
That shouldn’t be too difficult to find out. The problem is, our own government wants to sell us on the notion that these ‘migrant’ workers are spending the money here that they earn here. That’s a bald-faced lie; I know because I was a welfare worker. They go home when the crops are in. They go home for the winter, with American dollars.
If its a global labor market, where is the pressure on, say, France or Spain to receive these workers?
And, actually, it would serve Europeans to import Latin American immigrants rather than Moroccans or Algerians. The fact that their immigration policies do not tilt in favor Latin America is a huge mistake on their part.
Beyond that, if people want the services of Mexican workers, then the Mexican government should work on eliminating those factors that make it difficult for companies to locate their operations in Mexico. Specifically, the security issue. Given the choice between a country that is near its markets but its execs face kidnap and its truckers being hijacked, like Mexico, versus a country that is far from its markets, but your execs and suppliers are secure, like China or Thailand or Korea or Taiwan, companies are going to choose security.
Mexico is a natural, it is the most obvious place for companies to base their operations, and at one time there was a big move to base factories there. It hit a snag, though, and that snag is called “security”. Solve that, and Mexico will have labor shortages, and they’ll be forced to import workers rather than pushing them out the door by the millions.
The flow of capital is a circular one, not a one way street, at least not for an extended period of time.
Already happening. Go to any construction site in Italy or Spain these days and you will see Ecuadorians.
“NAWS” data revealed that most farmworkers (81 percent) were foreign born, a 1990s demographic change in rural areas known as “Latinization.” Migrant farmworkers were more likely to be foreign born (nine out of ten) relative to nonmigrants (only two thirds). More than half of farmworkers (52 percent) were unauthorized workers, and only 22 percent were citizens. Of the work-authorized farmworkers, 40 percent were citizens by birth; the rest acquired residence under the special agricultural worker program, family reunification programs, or other legal immigrant channels (Mehta et al., 2000).
___________________________________________________________
[source: ericdigests.org]
True.
I seem to remember that most of the farm labor upstate and in South Jersey back in the 1980s was done by Carribbean immigrants and, to a lesser extend, Puerto Rican migrants. The last white American migrant farm laborer in these parts probably retired 100 years ago.
When asked about whether Mexico believed it too had a responsibility to help police the border and prevent its citizens from crossing into the United States without proper documents, Gomez claimed that the Mexican government was working with federal, state and local officials to provide “an overview of the border” and that it is “aware that, in immigration and other issues that have bilateral impact, there is a joint responsibility.”
More `lip-service’ from the Mexicans. Their real position is admitted later in this paragraph.
You may be right. I know more about the west coast, having lived in southeastern WA for awhile. They were very much from Mexico. We had an apple orchard in our backyard. The migrants let us have any fruit that fell to the ground, but they protected what was on the trees.
Reuben describes himself as a Mexican American. I prefer to refer to myself as an American. If pressed on ethnic background I say that I am an American, of Mexican descent. Preferably I call myself a Westerner. I just think it is instructive that poor ol’ Rube calls forth the Mexican part first. His allegiance is still to those South of the Border...
I've heard similar things only not that small a number. The problem in Mexico as I've heard it explained by an Hispanic professor that writes a column for the local paper is:
When Spain colonized the New World, it divided up the territories into Royal Land Grants given to enterprising (usually aristocratic) individuals who would develop them for benefit of the crown. This was essentially a continuation of the feudalistic system still present in Europe at the time. As everyone knows, this system is pretty rigid when it comes to socioeconomic change among individuals.
When Mexico gained its independence, it maintained these Royal Land Grants along with the economic and social order they created. Nothing has changed to this day.
Ironically, one of grievances of the mexican-american advocacy groups is how Texas, upon gaining its independence, abolished the royal land grants therein!
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.