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Jobs program tries to discourage immigration to U.S.
Many rural towns in Mexico have seen populations dwindle
- Eliza Barclay, Chronicle Foreign Service
Thursday, October 27, 2005



Tendeparacua, Mexico -- Maria de la Luz Arroyo works quietly, her sewing machine clacking away as reams of polyester disappear, reemerging as neatly folded comforters and pillowcases.

"There used to be several young women working here with us, but when the men came back from the United States at Christmastime, they all married and went to live up there," Arroyo said as she and one other employee toiled in a raw cinderblock space with five idle machines.

Arroyo, who is in her late 40s, says that even though she has children and siblings in the United States, she wants to remain in this rural village in the central state of Michoacan, where she earns about $150 a month. Arroyo owes her job to "Three for One," a program that covers 26 Mexican states and that has funded more than 500,000 projects nationwide in an attempt to stem the wave of migration that has turned many rural Mexican towns into ghost towns.

The initiative requires federal, state and municipal governments to match donations or investments made by Mexican migrants in the United States to fund development and infrastructure projects in Mexico.

It has the support of the Bush administration, which unveiled more details last week of its own proposed immigration reform initiative, aiming to better police the border and regulate illegal migrants already in the country through a guest-worker program.

"We want to create job opportunities here so that migration does not have to be a necessity to escape poverty," said Claudio Mendez, head of the Michoacano Migrant Coordination Office, which was created in 2002 to offer the state's 2.5 million migrants advice on health and finance and coordinate joint development projects to create jobs and improve local infrastructure and education.

It hasn't been easy, though, to discourage migration to the United States.

Twenty years ago, Tendeparacua had 6,000 inhabitants. Today, there are only 1,000. Many Michoacanos have relocated to Northern California and the Central Valley, where they often work in agriculture. Last year, Michoacanos sent home an estimated $2.1 billion -- money that is paying for new roads, schools, churches and small businesses. In the first six months of this year, they sent home $1.2 billion.

They are part of the larger exodus of Mexicans pouring into California each year in search of work. Nearly 4 million, or 44.3 percent, of California's foreign-born population was born in Mexico, and about 1.5 million of them are illegal immigrants, according to 2000 Census data analyzed by the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

In Michoacan, state officials estimate that more than 226,500 people have benefited from 343 projects funded through the Three for One program, ranging from school and road construction to seed money for small agricultural enterprises. This includes more than 1,600 new jobs, such as Arroyo's workshop, according to Eneida Reynoso, subdirector of planning for the Michoacano Migrant Coordination Office.

The sewing enterprise has a capacity for seven machines. Since its inception four years ago, it has produced a wide array of clothing and goods for local towns. Seed money was provided jointly by an association of migrants living in Pinole and Oxnard (Ventura County) called Club Tendeparacua, along with municipal, state and federal governments.

"The number of jobs so far is small, but we are hoping to see a big increase this year and next," said Reynoso.

Both Mexican and U.S. critics are concerned about the Bush administration's proposal to give the estimated 5 million illegal immigrant Mexicans in the United States and 6 million other illegal immigrants temporary guest-worker visas.

Under the plan, illegal immigrants could get a work permit for up to six years once they pay a fine for entering the country illegally. After the six years are up, they would have to return home and wait at least a year before re-applying for a work permit.

The plan is similar to bipartisan legislation proposed by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., though their plan would allow guest workers to remain in the United States after the six years and apply for permanent residence. The McCain-Kennedy bill also calls for expansion of programs like the Partnership for Prosperity, launched in 2001 by Bush and President Vicente Fox, which mandates U.S. investment in small business, housing, agriculture, roads and other projects in Mexico. Like Three for One, it is aimed at reducing economic pressure on Mexicans to emigrate.

Supporters of the proposed legislation say immigration reform is desperately needed. But critics on both sides of the border argue that if the Bush administration guest worker proposal becomes law, would-be immigrants would have an even greater incentive to enter the United States illegally. In Mexico, business executives worry about losing labor-intensive jobs in agro-industry and construction.

Heriberto Lugo, mayor of the nearby town of Huaniqueo and president of the local lentil growers association, says rural communities are likely to continue losing citizens to El Norte because of the North America Free Trade Agreement signed in 1994 by Canada, Mexico and the United States. About 1.5 million Mexican farmers lost their livelihoods because of the pact, according to the watchdog group Public Citizen.

"Our lentil growers cannot compete with cheap Canadian and American lentils that are grown on farms far more technologically advanced and efficient than ours," Lugo said. "Here we still use horses to plow the fields. The bulk of the municipality's farmers have left, and only a handful can afford tractors or other expensive machinery."

And even though micro-enterprises are sprouting throughout Michoacan under the Three for One and Partnership for Prosperity programs, Arroyo's nearly barren factory is a reminder of how difficult it is for authorities to break the lure of El Norte.

"There are so few opportunities here for young men, so they go north, and the girls don't want to stay because there are no available men their age," said Magdelena Varajas, a middle-aged woman who works alongside Arroyo sewing comforters. "The only ones left are young children, older women and old folks who are healthy enough not to need a lot of medical care."

Alfredo Montoyo, a rural development specialist in Huaniqueo, said many young migrant workers return for the holidays in December and January, flaunting shiny new trucks and sporting confident smiles.

Young women "wait all year long for December to roll around again, when a muchacho might scoop them up and take them north," Montoyo said, gesturing at several teenage girls eating ice cream on a park bench. "They all have family members in the United States, and so few of them will ever consider doing anything else."

Despite the grim employment prospects, Arroyo is optimistic that the idle sewing machines will soon be filled with teenage girls.

"There's a few muchachas who are just old enough to work here," said Arroyo. "They should want to work with us -- at least for a while."