LINK

Immigration strengthens Mexico's link to U.S.
By Mason Stockstill
Staff Writer
Article Published: Sunday, April 10, 2005 - 11:50:53 PM PST

It's uncommon for foreign heads of state to play a role in making U.S. policy, but that didn't stop President Bush from meeting several times with Mexican President Vicente Fox while crafting his plan for a temporary worker program that would allow certain immigrants to travel freely between the two nations.

Fox's participation in developing the proposal was not surprising, given the increasingly important role Mexican immigrants here have played for the country that shares 1,951 miles of border with America.

"For the United States, Mexico has emerged as one of the three or four most important allies in any number of ways of measuring that," said Todd Eisenstadt, a political science professor at American University in Washington, D.C.

The two countries have a long relationship that spans wars, treaties, the transfer of land and hundreds of agreements covering everything from water rights to FM broadcasts. Officials from both sides of the border meet regularly as part of numerous cooperative initiatives such as the U.S.-Mexico Binational Commission, where cabinet-level officials from both presidential administrations discuss issues and potential policies affecting both countries.

The most obvious manifestation of that relationship is the level of immigration from Mexico into the United States: Close to 11 million Mexicans live here – about 4 percent of the U.S. population, but nearly 10 percent of Mexico's.

Linked economies

The explosive growth in immigration from Mexico began in the 1980s, and in more recent years, that exodus has had a broader effect on Mexico than in the past. Immigrants no longer come only from central and western highland areas, such as Zacatecas or Jalisco, but from communities all over Mexico.

The economies of the two countries are closely intertwined. More than 2,600 U.S. firms have operations in Mexico, and the U.S. accounts for more than 55 percent of direct foreign investment there. In 2001, for example, Citigroup purchased Mexico's second-largest bank, and General Motors leads all automakers in Mexican sales. Immigrants living here sent an estimated $16.5 billion home to their families in 2004, making "migradollars" Mexico's third-largest import.

The impact of that money is strongest in states where a larger portion of the economy is based on remittances. Rural areas in states such as Oaxaca or Michoacan depend on the money far more than urbanized areas, said Jose Ernesto Lopez-Cordova of the Interamerican Development Bank, a Washington-based international lending cooperative that focuses on Latin American countries.

"The variation across states, and across municipalities in those states, can be pretty large," he said.

Fox has said the temporary worker proposal will help the economies of both countries, particularly in Mexico, where better returns are possible on the money earned by immigrants in America. One effort to redirect that money is the "padrino," or godfather, program in which the Mexican government matches dollars sent home by expatriates – provided they go to specific community-building projects.

Most of the projects are in Mexico's impoverished rural areas, and Fox has urged immigrants in the United States to participate in the program.

"That's a very shrewd move for Fox, but on the other hand, it's a demonstration of the inadequacy of the Mexican government to provide for the needs of its people in these rural areas," Eisenstadt said.

Politicians in Mexico also want to harness the electoral potential of the millions of adult immigrants living here, by giving them the right to vote in their home country's elections at one of the 45 Mexican consulates in the United States. Action on a proposal is expected to be delayed past the 2006 Mexican presidential contest, but border state candidates still campaign and seek contributions from immigrant communities in places such as California and Illinois.

What economic growth Mexico has seen since the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 mostly has been focused in the maquiladora market – firms that manufacture and process goods exclusively for export – in the coastal and border areas, while much of the rural sector remains mired in poverty.

Since the 1980s, Mexico has transformed from a country where the chief export was oil to one where manufactured goods took the lead. Oil once accounted for 70 percent of the country's exports, but now is less than 10 percent. And because of its proximity to the United States and the free-trade agreement, the country benefits from foreign investment, such as Japanese electronics firms locating assembly plants in border cities.

Nevertheless, economic problems persist. Even with the growth that followed NAFTA's implementation, wages in Mexico remain low enough that making the trip across the border to the United States is a viable option, even a necessity, for many.

The average wage in Mexico is below $2 per hour, with agricultural workers making less than half that.

"Mexico currently doesn't really create enough jobs to employ the total population and to absorb the new entrants into the labor market each year," said Jeff Passel, a researcher at the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C. The nation's official unemployment rate is around 4 percent, but that doesn't measure Mexico's vast informal sector, where many work for less than the average minimum wage of $4.15 a day.
Special Section: Beyond Borders

Cultural impacts

Mexico's population outflow also affects the country when migrants return.

Some use their earnings to start small businesses in rural Mexican towns and villages – or run for office, like Andres Bermudez, the millionaire "tomato king" who made a fortune in Central California agriculture. Last year, Bermudez was elected mayor of Jerez, Zacatecas, on a platform of remaking the town's services in an American mold.

Eisenstadt said immigration can disrupt traditional relationships within indigenous communities. For example, in Oaxaca, many who have left the country no longer perform customary public service duties, such as serving in neighborhood leadership positions, that everyone in the community is expected to share.

"There are religious, moral and ethical questions about that being raised in their communities," Eisenstadt said. "The conflict is between traditional people who stay behind and the migrants who want to come back and continue wielding authority based on their newfound savings and experiences."

That's a trend expected to continue. While the number of Mexicans who move back and forth across the border for seasonal work has shrunk since the 1960s, a recent survey by the Pew center found at least a quarter of Mexican migrants in the United States plan to return home within five years.

President Bush's guest worker plan would make it easier for Mexicans to move back and forth.

Finally, there's the oft-forgotten immigrants to Mexico: American workers and, increasingly, retirees. According to the State Department, more than 500,000 U.S. citizens are currently living in Mexico, and some estimates put the number closer to 1 million.

While many expatriates are drawn by the sunny climate and cheaper real estate, the experience for some goes beyond dreams of an idyllic lifestyle, said Chris Bublin, a retired teacher from New Jersey who moved to Ajijic, a small lakeside village in Jalisco, in 2003.

"Many of us live here because we enjoy the Mexican people, life and culture – not just because the climate is great and the pace of life is slower," Bublin said.