Mexicians Feel Pull to USA
This is the by-line from a USA Today article Page 1 this last week.
The article states that 40% of Mexican adults would move to the USA if they could, and would do so illegally if necessary.
It seems that this is happening allready, I refer to MR’s stats in his post “I don’t want to live in Mexico“.
My question to the people of Mexico is What makes your country so bad that you wish to leave?.
In this day and age if something is wrong we do something about it, not just in this country but other parts of the world as well.
No one can argue that a little revolution every now and then is a healthy thing, it changes what needs to be changed (Not always for the better) and draws attention to injustice and problems with a given region or circumstance.
If Mexico is so bad then why don’t the citizens rise up and do something about it, We hear about how corrupt it is in Mexico, well do something about it!
Get up off of your lazy butts and take to the streets and the polls for a better way, If the polititians are corrupt, vote them out, If this cannot be done in your style of government change it. You do not have to stand for anything less than life, Liberty, and the persuit of Happiness. This is just not only words in our constitution but something that every human on the planet should be striving for every single day.
Coming across the border as fast as you can run away from the problems you face will not make Mexico a better place, it does nothing but overcroud the United states and make our goverment programs even thinner.
We all know that the vast majority of illegals coming out of Mexico are coming over here just because they can get on any number of government programs as soon as they get here and get a illegal green card.
I also have a problem with this “Guest Worker Program” This does nothing but provide the corporate fat cats with low cost labor, I am tired of hearing the excuse” They are doing the jobs that you people don’t want to do” Well if the businessmen will pay a real living wage they will not have to rely on cheap labor to get the job done. Yes they are doing the “Shit” Jobs but that is because the wage for these jobs would not even support a single person much less a family, If you take away one of the incentives for illegal immigration that will curb the flow a little.
Now don’t get me wrong I have no problem with Immigration as long as it is legal and done through the proper channels, and when you immigrate to the US that means you want to be an Americian, so start acting like one. Work hard, Become a citizen and register to vote, and vote to change what you think we do so wrong in this country that you wanted to live in in the first place.
My point is if America is so great that you want to live here, why don’t you try to make Mexico just as great, it can be done all you need to do is get up and do something about it.
Ok I have my Flak Jacket on so let em fly.
August 22nd, 2005 at 10:46 pm
“Get up off of your lazy butts,” what a great way to perpetuate a stereotype. The Mexicans that I’ve known have been very hardworking and generous people.
I could go on and on about this post, but I’ll try to keep it short. I think just about any nearly-third-world country that you poll would have the same percentage of people wanting to move to the U.S. People who immigrate illegally do so out of desperation and at risk of death.
While most of my ancestors were on this continent before 1776, one set of my great-great grandparents were immigrants and most of this country is made up of the descendents of immigrants.
If this blog is going to become a repository of posts complaining about immigrants, then count me out. I don’t wish to be affiliated with these opinions, especially when they’re made using phrasing like “We all know…”
August 23rd, 2005 at 1:16 am
“In this day and age if something is wrong we do something about it, not just in this country but other parts of the world as well.” This is certainly an oversimplification. What do you propose they do? Throw out the whole government and start from scratch? That would definitely be worse.
These concluding paragraphs from The Economist article titled Does Mexico really want to move up the development ladder? published on 24JUL2003 may shed some light on the complications. These are problems that can’t be (directly) fixed by everyday workers.
The border crossers and would-be border crossers you speak of so poorly are desperate to survive. Many millions of Mexicans and their familys are forced to live on what amounts to $4 (US) dollars a day. It’s going to take a lot more than bitching to fix it.
August 24th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
My comment is more germane to the other immigration topic, but I’m posting it here, anyway. I suggest reading “Mexifornia” by Victor Davis Hanson, a Classics professor at Cal State Fresno and family farmer. He contrasts the current Mexican immigration pattern with prior immigration events like the Irish, Armenians, Germans, Chinese, and Vietnamese (and in 1930s California, Okies). He argues these prior groups comprised a lot of volume, but they were basically transient events that took place over a few years. His main thesis is that the current Mexican immigrant is not following the assimilationist (cf. “melting pot”) model that these previous immigrants followed. The first generation immigrants of these previous groups largely performed manual labor of the day (e.g. the Chinese railroad laborers in the west) just as the Mexican immigrants do now, and frequently suffered under those conditions. However, subsequent generations tended to become land owners, proessionals, etc., at about the same rates as those who had been here for a long time. There’s plenty of blame to go around, politically. He feels that the lack of assimilation is a direct result of the lefty multiculturalism-uber-alles principle. And big agribusiness loves the plentiful supply of cheap, expendible labor, which is too much volume for the assimilation model. Furthermore, he argues, Mexico encourages the export of what it considers it’s lower class citizens. It’s a thoughtful, enjoyable book, though not scholarly like his others.
Amnesty is an issue on the table for those already here, and I’m personally willing to entertain it, but the border simply must be sealed. For national security as much as any other reason.
Even a thoughtful discussion of this topic is guaranteed to get you called a bigot in some circles.
August 24th, 2005 at 10:17 pm
“Even a thoughtful discussion of this topic is guaranteed to get you called a bigot in some circles.”
If that’s directed at me, well I don’t know what to say. It didn’t seem particularly thoughtful to me, it seemed like a bunch of bitching about “lazy” Mexicans trying to get illegal green cards so they can get on government programs. I think I could here that kind of thoughtfulness any day on my local right-wing-nutjob radio station. But yeah, maybe I’m just an uber-lefty multicultural blah-de-blah and therefore responsible for the country’s problems (nevermind that the Right controls all branches of government).
We already have more people in prison than the rest of the world, so we should just build a wall around the country and be done with it.
Ah well, what’s a blog good for if not ranting?
August 25th, 2005 at 7:23 am
Actually, TTop, I wasn’t directing that comment at you or your critique of the first post. I was more or less echoing a sentiment expressed in the VDH book that open, good faith, non-ranting, scholarly discourse on this topic can get you labeled a bigot. And there’s plenty of blame to go around, both for the left and the right.
August 28th, 2005 at 4:15 pm
Thank you all for some inciteful comments on my post, Ok Here goes.
Jek; What’s wrong with “Oversimplifing the problem? A lot of the problems that I see now days are hampered by the tendency to make problems more complicated than they really are, Some times the best solution is the easiest one, and as I see it the problem that the mexican prople have is the government . Well go to the polls and change it.
So why can’t they stand up and change it ? Lech Walenza was just a dock worker, Remember we are the all the master of our own destinys. No matter what nationality we are.
TTop; I agree somewhat, Some of the Mexicians that I have been associated with have been hard working persons, the LEGAL Immigrants that is, The Illegal ones that I have met just care about one thing, that check on Fri.
The company that I used to work for now emploies a majority of Mexicians and I know for a fact that a vast majority of them are illegal (I will not state my evidence here) But when this trend started happening the quality of the product that we made went downhill to the point that we started losing customers. When discussing this with the management I was told that and I Quote ” At least they are here every day” to which I stated What about quality, I was told “I am not as worried as much about quality as absenteeism”
And yes if I am to be called a Bigot for my beliefs then so be it, I am a Right wing nutjob and am proud to be because right is right, and wrong is wrong and it is that simple.
Illegal immigration is wrong, and granting amnesty to those here is also wrong. Yes we need to close the borders for the fact of National security, this week the governors of New Mexico and Arizona stated this week that the problem is an EPIDEMIC, and must be dealt with immidately.
Thanks for a spirited discussion on this topic everyone, this what makes this country so great the fact that we can have this discussion without fear of government reprisal, but I would still initate this topic even if trouble were to arrise from it, Remember If persons like Solzhenitsyn, Sakarov, Tutu, Lech Walenza, Mandela and others like them had not stood up and started discussions like this one where would their respective countries be now.
MR. I know i took it around Venus and Mars but I think this trip was worth it.
August 28th, 2005 at 10:21 pm
It must be nice to live in a world where things are clearly right or wrong. For me, and I hope most others, this is not the case. Solutions to problems worthy of discussion are typically complex. If they were simple and obvious, then it’d be clear to everyone what to do. The answers, “[Mexicans] take to the streets and polls for a better way” or “the border simply must be sealed”, sound good, but Mexico already has a democracy with voting people and the border is closed, though people still make it across. These are both easier said than done.
August 29th, 2005 at 4:26 pm
[Speaking for myself not JJ here, obviously] Jek, I’m generally for a thoughtful approach, but we have to start with reasonable premises in all their glorious complexity, eh? Your statement/response, “The border is closed,” is true in only the strictest political or meteorological (attempting to cross the 120 degF desert) sense. The reality is that the border is exceedingly porous. “Mexico already has a democracy” overlooks 70 years of fraud-propagated one party rule by the PRI prior to Fox’s election in 2000.
August 29th, 2005 at 9:38 pm
It’s not like the Mexican border is open like the Canadian border. Of course I agree that the border is not keeping people out (or we wouldn’t be having this discussion). Is it really economically or physically possible to completely seal the border?
Overlooking the one party rule is part of the point: Mexico has been a democracy for quite a while so why would the solution to entrenched problems be for people to take to the polls?