Thread: Calif. Focus:What Happens if Mexican Labor Supply Dries Up?

This contains interesting information about the huge population explosion which Mexico experienced over the past 60 years, transforming it from a nation of 18 million people in 1942 into one of over 107 million today. According to the author, that population growth is now stabilizing.

California Focus: What happens if Mexican labor supply dries up?

By Thomas Elias

It's long been the dream of some activists and their intellectual allies, and it is coming true because of the current recession or economic downturn or whatever you want to call it:

Illegal immigrant Mexican workers are leaving this country in droves, crossing the border north to south and going back home. Some are already coming back because things are even tougher in Mexico, but so far, not most.

The reasons are many, including increased enforcement activity against American employers who hire illegals and more cooperation from local police in various parts of this country.

But economics are the main reason immigrants are leaving. As more companies cut budgets and banks foreclose on many thousands of homes, employment opportunities for unskilled illegal immigrants have diminished.

Over the last 18 months, according to Carlos Flores Vizcarra, the Mexican consul general in Phoenix, more than 2 million Mexican immigrants have returned home because of diminished opportunities here. That amounts to about 10 percent to 12 percent of all illegals who were in this country two years ago.


It may be the realization of a fantasy for the anti-immigration lobby, but it also might be a hint of a nightmare to come for other people and businesses. For one thing, farmers in many parts of America complained both of the last two years of a labor shortage. Whether or not it's coincidence, the prices of many foodstuffs rose steeply during that time and they're still going up.

And homeowners who are staying put may soon be paying more for roofing, fencing and many other chores long performed by Mexican migrants. Not to mention the prices of restaurant meals, hotel rooms and car washes, to name three industries also known to employ many illegals.

The suggestion these things may be harbingers of the not-to-distant future comes in some remarkable demographic information Flores disclosed this fall in an unpublicized but significant speech to students at Arizona's Thunderbird School of Global Management.

"Mexico will not be a never-ending source of human beings as it has been for the last 60 years," Flores said. "There will be shortages of labor in Mexico." If he's right and Mexico does experience its first-ever labor shortage, Mexican workers here almost certainly will return home in numbers far larger than those of the last two years.

Why a labor shortage in a nation that has long suffered massive unemployment, driving would-be workers to risk the dangerous migration to this country?

Flores said the population increases Mexico has seen since the early 1940s are ending. In 1942, when America began sending large numbers of its young men to war overseas and Mexicans moved in behind them to do essential work both illegally and under the old bracero guest worker program, Mexico had only 18 million persons in a territory almost half as large as America. Today, population exceeds 107 million, a five-fold increase in just over 60 years. The huge and fast Mexican population explosion "is like a revolution that no country could have digested," Flores said. "What has been our safety valve? The USA."

In short, Mexico had no room for the approximately 22 million migrants living in America during the peak of the illegal immigrant boom earlier this decade. America did.

But internal Mexican projections now indicate population is stabilizing, with forecasts that the number of Mexicans will actually begin dropping after about 2040.

In short, the end is in sight for the population explosion that created masses of immigrants and a seemingly endless supply of cheap labor for America. At the same time, prosperity in Canada and a strong Canadian dollar are drawing more and more Mexican workers there, providing new competition for Mexican workers.

Which led Flores to ask this: "Within 30 years, nearly 77 million Americans (known as the Baby Boom generation) will be retiring. Who will take the place of those folks in the work force?"

No one knows just now, but the presumption long has been that it would be immigrants, with Mexico the most obvious likely source. But no one knows what might happen if that labor source dries up.

Which is a completely new scenario for the anti-immigration lobby to ponder.

Thomas D. Elias is a syndicated columnist on California issues.

(Nov. 11, 200

http://hanfordsentinel.com/articles/200 ... 118401.txt

The answer to the question asked by Consul Flores is the baby boomers children and grandchildren. There will be certain industries that might migrate abroad and some will come back from China

Oh, there will always be another population of people from some other country that will be ready to accept the same kind of exploitation, so it's a never ending problem.

I really wish these morons would get a better view of the picture than they do before they make those kinds of "all encompassing" statements and predictions about insourcing slave labor.

Richard, man you said it all. These idiots have no vision.

Hi Texas2Step,

If the writer had brought his manuscript to this ALIPAC website before going to press, he would have gotten his answer.

The answer comes from the fastest growing source of illegals - India.
More Info:
http://www.antioffshore.org/index.php?o ... 2&Itemid=2

A recent federal analysis of unauthorized immigration reveals that the most rapidly growing source of illegal aliens in the US is India - the same country whose engineers and programmers are sending American workers to the unemployment lines!

Illegal Indians represent a 125 percent jump since 2000, the largest percentage increase of any nation with more than 100,000 illegal immigrants in the United States.

The skills desired by corrupt, anti-American employers come from the Hindu Caste System:



Ever wonder where you and I would fit in the Hindu Caste System? Keep in mind, one can only be born (or twice born) into the caste system. In the eyes of the Twice Born, we are polluted laborers or outcastes. Even their beloved American employers are "untouchables!"

In short, the end is in sight for the population explosion that created masses of immigrants and a seemingly endless supply of cheap labor for America.

What they forget to mention is their population explosion happened in the US, where they profited from each anchor baby they popped out. Mexicans tend to have LESS kids in Mexico, because the Mexican govt is not as stupid as the US govt!

Originally Posted by miguelina

In short, the end is in sight for the population explosion that created masses of immigrants and a seemingly endless supply of cheap labor for America.

What they forget to mention is their population explosion happened in the US, where they profited from each anchor baby they popped out. Mexicans tend to have LESS kids in Mexico, because the Mexican govt is not as stupid as the US govt!

Excellent point Migueline! Many of these same people would have one, perhaps two children max if still in mexico. Mexico does not subsidize their own people to have babies, yet they come here illegally and our government does just that.

Combine this with lack on education/ignorance, a sense of entitlement manifested through race based groups such as la raza, and you get an explosion of anchor babies from these illegal invaders.

Hi, Coto,
Thank you for the information. Indians comprise the largest growing group of illegal aliens in Houston now, and I read, contrary to all of the publicity about the burgeoning Latino population, that Asians (and Indians are classified as "South Asians") are in fact the fastest-growing group of immigrants to the United States at this time. And that would be counting only those who come legally.

I say don't sweat it, just work it out 30 years from now!

we have enough problems just trying to hang on to our sovereign nation.

At the moment we seem to be fighting our government,the Mexican government, ethnocentric radical racist groups, special interest groups, corporate America etc.

I think our plate is full for now!

The U S doesn't need cheap labor from anywhere. If there is a shortage of stoop labor the U S can always use robots and automation to fix the problem. And if there's a shortage of skilled labor the solution is obvious. Just educate or reeducate the workers in the labor force.

Originally Posted by Justthatguy

The U S doesn't need cheap labor from anywhere. If there is a shortage of stoop labor the U S can always use robots and automation to fix the problem. And if there's a shortage of skilled labor the solution is obvious. Just educate or reeducate the workers in the labor force.

Yeah, tell that to that greedy BILL GATES!!!