5.4 The Management of International Migration

Question 1

Mexico number of migrants

Answer 1

• 1970 - fewer than 1m in US
• 2000 - 9.4m
• 2007 - 12.8m
• Decreased of about 2 million unauthorised migrants

Question 2

How many Mexicans actually live in US and what percentage of US citizens were born in Mexico

Answer 2

• 47m
• 24%

Question 3

What percentage of mexico’s native-born population lives abroad and what is significant about this

Answer 3

• 11% - of this number 97% are in US
• Country with the most emigrants
• OF THIS AROUND HALF ARE ESTIMATED TO BE UNDOCUMENTED

Question 4

Advantages for the US of Mexican labour migration

Answer 4

• Illegal Mexican immigrants have long met a significant portion of the demand for cheap labour in the United States. The majority of the employed men are restaurant workers, truck drivers, gardeners, construction labourers or perform other types of manual or other ‘blue-collar’ labour.
• The US economy benefits from large numbers of willing low paid workers, which helps to keep prices low (e.g. of crops harvested) and standards of living high. With the current reversal of migration trends, Mexicans are being replaced by migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras

Question 4

Disadvantages for the US of Mexican labour migration

Answer 4

• Immigration always becomes a more sensitive issue in times of high unemployment due to widespread belief in the ‘lump of labour’ fallacy
• Tensions have risen between Mexican immigrants and other ethnic groups because of increasing concerns over the availability of working-class jobs to Americans and immigrants from other ethnic groups. Opposition to illegal immigration has been reflected in the emergence of ‘Minutemen’ groups - citizens who patrol the US borders and confront illegal workers in cities around the US.
• Money sent back to Mexico by the immigrants is theoretically ‘lost’ from the US economy

Question 5

Advantages for Mexico

Answer 5

• Reduced unemployment pressure as migrants tend to leave areas where unemployment is high. Also, less pressure on housing stock and public services.
• In 2005 the median income for Mexicans in the US was $21,000, a little more than half that for US born workers. However, it was still far in excess of the median income in Mexico itself. Much is sent back to Mexico as remittances.
• Remittances from Mexicans in the US have become one of Mexico’s most important sources of income ($28 billion in 2016) - second only to oil and surpassing the traditional tourism industry.
• The establishment of a ‘migrant culture’ has pros and cons. It begins as a way of ensuring economic survival, but has become a rite of passage for young men (moving from Mexico to US), and a way to fund an increasingly modern and consumerist lifestyle.

Question 6

Disadvantages for Mexico

Answer 6

• Loss of skilled and enterprising people, though migrants may return one day.
• Impacts on rural population structure – e.g., in Axochiapan, the lure of American money has created a town where fathers and husbands are absent for years on end, women are left alone to raise the children, and the community is dependent on money made elsewhere. Young adults tend to migrate, leaving ageing communities behind. With fewer children these communities will gradually die out.
• There are more Zacatecans now living in Los Angeles than in the city of Zacatecas. In the village of Jomulquillo, a couple of hours from the city of Zacatecas, there are only 80 people, whereas 300 live in Los Angeles. It feels like a ghost town.
• Critics argue that dependence on remittances can impair local initiative and create no incentives for people to move forward.
• Hundreds of illegal immigrants who cross into the US from Mexico have died in the scorching heat of the Arizona desert.