Another perspective on immigration

This column does a good job of spelling out that businesses are pro-immigration and their reasons why, and this about sums it up:

Go ahead and make them pay a hefty fine for having broken the law. Introduce tamper-proof worker ID cards to prove who's legal and who's not. We need an immigration program that recognizes, rather than hypocritically ignores, the fact that the U.S. needs a steady supply of workers to do the backbreaking tasks few others are willing to do.

If the U.S. Congress has the vision to accomplish that, then at least the migrants will have a clearly marked, legal path that they can pursue. Then we can concentrate on patrolling the southern border to keep out the real enemy -- terrorists.

But the most interesting thing about this article to me was that he also makes some observations that a lot of people on either side of the issue don't think about, which is whether or not Mexico itself or Mexicans favor immigration, and whether favoring it or not, immigration is good for Mexico.

One of the anti-immigration arguments I heard recently (by a friend of mine who was playing Devil's advocate), was that Mexico favors legal and illegal immigration in order to rid themselves of millions of unwanted poor and uneducated people. To that end, he argued, the government gave out maps marking routes through the border.

That assumes, of course, that such an exodus is good for Mexico. Upon further reading, I have discovered that it is not all good for Mexico. As many of us know, Mexican immigrants send a chunk of change back home. From the Star-Telegram:

Money sent back to Mexico from those working in the United States reached a record high last year — $20 billion — making remittances from migrants Mexico’s second-largest income source, surpassed only by oil exports.

I know, I know, $20 billion is a chunk of change. But think, how much money do they spend here? And remember, this number is from both legal and illegal immigrants, so that's about 18 million Mexican immigrants all told. If all of them live on an average of $200 a month (which you must admit is a ridiculously low number; try it if you don't believe me), then that $200 times 18 million times 12 months. Well that number is $43.2 billion dollars. And yes, this is money that is produced by them being here, not just recycled money. Of course if we admit that they produce about $500 a month that number goes up to $108 billion. And it's more likely that the amount of money produced by them in the US is more like $1000 a month (think about it, that's barely more than $5.15 an hour for a 40-hour work week, so it's not unreasonable). That would be about $216 billion they contribute to the economy (although not in income taxes). My point being, them sending $20 billion back home is not an incredibly substantial amount. Still, legalizing immigrants could cause more of that money to stay here. That's the opinion of some Mexican economists.

A proposal in the United States Congress to legalize millions of undocumented U.S. immigrants could hurt Mexico's economy.

So say some Mexican economists, who say the legislation could slash the amount of money the immigrants send home to Mexico.

They argue that Mexicans with permission to work in the United States will want to bring their families north to live with them. That would eliminate the main reason they send money home. That would hurt Mexican businesses that have come to depend on the money sent down from the United States.

Miguel Cervantes Jimenez is an economist at Mexico's National Autonomous University. He said remittances from U.S. immigrants could drop by as much as 40 percent.

Well there's one more reason to legalize them! We'd keep the money here (and this is money which is created by them being here).

How do people feel about it though? Well, we know how people feel here. But how do Mexicans feel about immigration?

Mexicans back home are watching with some amazement as their compatriots assert themselves politically. "I think all of us were taken by surprise by the size and impact of the marches," says Mexican political scientist Sergio Aguayo.

Yet seeing the protesters also filled him with a sense of sorrow. "The migrants may have an emotional and cultural attachment to Mexico, but we're realizing that many of our most hard-working citizens are gone for good," he says. "They want to stay in the U.S. because they feel they can develop their potential better there."

Indeed, for decades the Mexican government has failed to create the proper conditions for solid economic growth. While NAFTA boosted export manufacturing, there aren't enough jobs for the millions who didn't complete high school.

Authorities have implemented an ambitious scholarship program to keep 5 million poor kids in school, which will make a difference in the future. But for now, many must take dead-end jobs with no fringe benefits in Mexico's informal economy, or cross the border, as about 400,000 are doing annually.

Primitivo Rodríguez, a historian who works to defend the political rights of Mexicans living abroad, is disturbed by the toll migration has taken on Mexico (see BW Online, 03/10/06, "The Fox in Winter"). In many rural towns, the only inhabitants left are small children and the elderly.

"Migration has been one of the biggest disgraces to hit Mexico," he says. "The continuing exodus has caused the disintegration of whole families and communities."

This topic is talked about at length in the Star-Telegram article.

Decades ago, before massive waves of young men fled north, Pedro Avila Salamanca helped his father harvest corn and fatten pigs. He learned to write his name in a one-room schoolhouse. Sometimes, he rode to town on a donkey.

It’s all a distant memory now. Everywhere, abandoned houses are crumbling. The towns are shrinking. And Avila, 89, who wears donated clothes and lives on the meager checks his daughters send from the United States, can’t remember the last time he ate meat. “What would I buy it with?” he asked.

Avila is a part of the immigration debate that neither Mexican political leaders nor cheap-labor advocates in the United States like to talk about: Heavy migration has all but emptied much of the Mexican countryside.

But the reduction of labor has been devastating. It has left the land dotted with near-ghost towns inhabited by the very old and the very young, their lives dependent on whatever money their relatives send home.

If there were economic development, there would be few working-age people to reap its benefits.

“For the governing class, immigrants become the solution. They leave. They reduce the political and social pressure. ... They even reduce the costs of public-works projects,” said Rodolfo Garcia Zamora, an economist and immigration expert at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, the government-operated university in Zacatecas state. “They can only hope that everybody leaves and sends home collective remittances.”

Ah, so there's the possibility that the government does want everyone to leave. But that of course would depend, as they say, on people sending a lot of money home. Again, in reference to the earlier article, Mexican economists believe that if we legalize the immigrants, that money would stay in America. So if the Mexican government favors immigration, they must also favor people staying illegal over here and sending their money to families left in Mexico.

In five states, including Zacatecas in central Mexico, remittances from abroad now equal 100 percent or more of local salaries. In the state of Michoacan, which faces the Pacific Ocean, money from the United States is 182 percent of in-state incomes.

No corner of Mexico has been untouched by emigration. In 31 percent of Mexico’s municipalities, population is shrinking steadily because of migration to the United States, according to figures provided by Garcia Zamora.

In Zacatecas, known for silver mines and dry, mountainous terrain, 45 of the 58 municipalities are shrinking. The state’s population of 1.5 million would double if all its emigrants and their offspring returned from the United States.

Ok, Mexico can't favor illegal immigration to the point where they have no citizens left. I say this because in order for the government and businesses to make money, there must be people there! You might argue that they're going to keep living well off the money sent back by immigrants, but I remind you that people are still coming here. If all their family is in America, why would they send any money back to Mexico? Look at this example:

The population drain is no secret in tiny Joaquin Amaro, just up the road from the tiny rancho where Avila Salamanca was born in 1916. Nine times as many people from this town live in Cicero, Ill., than in Joaquin Amaro.

Florentino Rodriguez, 75, is back after spending most of his working years — from 1951 to 1994 — in the United States. Nine of his 10 living children reside there. His wife recently died.

Tears rolled down Rodriguez’s face when he was asked to describe life in his shrinking hometown.

“It’s hard. I’m all alone,” he said. “The men go to the United States, and they stay. Only the old ones are left behind.”

His children may send him money, but only until he dies. And if it is the case that most of the people left are the old and the very young, well, it's likely that someday those young people will leave too and we know that the old ones will die sooner or later. Then were will the money be? All in America, that's where. We'll be keeping our riches to ourselves, which is the way anti-immigration advocates want it.

Now briefly to go back to the Mexican government handing out maps:

The Mexican government has been criticized for its efforts to help illegal immigrants. A little over a year ago, the Foreign Affairs Ministry published a 32-page booklet, modeled after a popular comic book, titled Guide for the Mexican Immigrant. While counseling against illegal crossing, it gives advice on when to cross the desert, how to dress for a swim across the river and what to do when lost: “Guide yourself with light poles, train tracks or dirt roads,” it says.

This year, the independent federal Human Rights Commission published maps showing illegal immigrants how to find water and highways when crossing the desert into the United States. After an uproar, plans to distribute the maps were shelved.

I don't see anything about marking where the Border Patrol is or any of that nonsense.

As some business leaders say, the only way to keep people in Mexico is to create a strong economy for them.

As Congress debates enhanced border security and guest worker proposals, experts and many immigrants say the only way to keep people in Mexico is to create good jobs.

That was the idea behind a proposal put before Congress in 2004 to create the North American Investment Fund, which would have sent $20 billion in American and Canadian development aid to Mexico to start projects. The proposal went nowhere.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who sponsored the 2004 bill, said it may be a long time before Congress is willing to take that step.

“We’ve got a lot of education to do,” Cornyn said. “I don’t think the American people support the idea of just taking their tax money and giving it to somebody else just because we want to help them out.”

I'm not saying we should do this on our own without forcing Mexico to make it a priority, but I think we could do that. I also don't think I need to argue the point that a richer Mexico would mean a richer America, as we could actually invest in growth markets there. But Mexicans need to have money to spend on American products in order for us to do that. For money, they need jobs. In short, if we prime the pump by creating employment down there, we could eventually make a lot more money off of it than we put into it.

Now on the human side, I am not for the destruction of unique cultures. Many people may not believe that this current wave of immigration is harmless and will be absorbed like we have routinely absorbed all others. I'll try to get some numbers up on that later, but for now, take it for granted that the children of the immigrants (legal and illegal) will grow up speaking English and being part of our culture. Sure, they may put Mexico stickers on their cars, but being American citizens themselves, do you think they'll ever move back there? And not to sound smarmy, but I know these people. I work with a customer base made of citizens, legal and illegal immigrants, and their children. And you know what? All the children are the same. They speak the same language. They wear the same clothes. They may eat different food at home, but they eat the same in public. They watch the same tv, too.

I have no fear that Mexicans are coming here to take over the place. They come to English classes and they love our country. But despite the joy of seeing a shot of youth injected into our culture (because I firmly believe in the strength of hybrids), this is tragic for Mexico itself. What will they become? If things don't change, will they all leave and the history of so many old towns be forgotten? Will their children who have forgotten their ways someday look down there and see an opportunity to move back and take America with them? Will they become just another southern outcrop of the US as we export our culture along with our economy?