Illegal immigration fueled by NAFTA according to college students
Naomi Yaeger
April 27, 2006
Immigration is a hot topic in the United States, especially illegal Mexican immigration. Economics is the driving force behind the Mexicans move to the United States.
We can all agree that the illegal Mexican immigrants are here, but are why they here? What is going on in Mexico that they cannot make a living?
The Many Faces of Mexico: The Impact of Free Trade and Globalization? was presented by four University of Minnesota, Duluth students at the Kirby Center on Thurs. April 20. Those students included Sarah Fries, Katy Brandes, Jennifer Chamberlain and Jane Cahill. These students were part of a class, which spent two weeks in Mexico in January. Part of the two weeks was spent talking with U.S. and Mexican officials who support free trade polices. The last week was spent living with Mexican families in Teotitaln del Valle, Oaxaca. The instructors of the class were Susana Pelayo-Woodward, Director of the Hispanic, Latino, Chicana Learning Resource Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and Cindy M. Christian an Assistant Professor of Women?s Studies and Political Science at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She also works for the Alworth Institute for International Studies and the International Education Office.
Sarah Fries gave a brief history of Mexico from 1519 to the present. ?Mexico,? she said, ?has had a long history of foreign control.? Before the Spanish arrived, native people of Mexico had a history of communal farmland known as ejidos. In 1917, Article 27 of the Mexican constitution put communal farmland back into the hands of subsistence farmers. The 1994 the passage of North American Free Trade Alliance (NAFTA) changed the communal farmland to privatization and allowed for foreign in ownership. United States companies now own huge farms in what were once communal farms. The people who once lived off the land fled to the cities for employment.
In 1994 the price of Mexican corn fell 70 percent and 1. 3 million jobs were lost.
Maquiladoras are Foreign-owned assembly plants in Mexico. Companies import machinery and materials duty free and export finished products around the world. Wages at Maquiladoras are significantly lower than at United States factories.
At the same time that NAFTA went into effect, Mexican workers flocked to the United States. In 1990 1,400 employers were fined for hiring illegal workers. In 2000, 178 employers were fined for illegal workers.
Definitions:
NFATA - All non-tariff barriers to agricultural trade between the United States and Mexico were eliminated. In addition, many tariffs were eliminated immediately, with others being phased out over 5 to 15 years. All agricultural provisions will be implemented by the year 2008.
Maquiladora - Foreign-owned assembly plants in Mexico. Companies import machinery and materials duty free and export finished products around the world. Wages at Maquiladoras are significantly lower than at United States factories.
Ejido ? Communal farmland which provides more food for the community. Under the ejido system, the land is owned by the government and is supported by a national bank. This bank pays for the equipment and goods necessary for the upkeep of the land. In essence, the bank has only just replaced the encomendero; however, the community member who works on the land gets paid for his or her work. The Encomienda system was a trusteeship used during the spansih coloniation of the Americas, whereby conquistadors were granted trusteeship over the indigenous people they conquered According to the 1960 census, 23% of Mexico's cultivated land belonged to ejidos.
The ejido system was abolished with the adoption of NAFTA There is currently no system for communal land ownership in Mexico.
Remittance - a payment of money sent to a person in another place. In 2005 the approximately 10 million Mexican nationals who reside in the U.S. sent back an estimated $20 billion in 2005, an amount equivalent to 3 percent of Mexico?s GDP. (Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas)
We can all agree that the illegal Mexican immigrants are here, but are why they here? What is going on in Mexico that they cannot make a living?
The Many Faces of Mexico: The Impact of Free Trade and Globalization? was presented by four University of Minnesota, Duluth students at the Kirby Center on Thurs. April 20. Those students included Sarah Fries, Katy Brandes, Jennifer Chamberlain and Jane Cahill. These students were part of a class, which spent two weeks in Mexico in January. Part of the two weeks was spent talking with U.S. and Mexican officials who support free trade polices. The last week was spent living with Mexican families in Teotitaln del Valle, Oaxaca. The instructors of the class were Susana Pelayo-Woodward, Director of the Hispanic, Latino, Chicana Learning Resource Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and Cindy M. Christian an Assistant Professor of Women?s Studies and Political Science at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She also works for the Alworth Institute for International Studies and the International Education Office.
Sarah Fries gave a brief history of Mexico from 1519 to the present. ?Mexico,? she said, ?has had a long history of foreign control.? Before the Spanish arrived, native people of Mexico had a history of communal farmland known as ejidos. In 1917, Article 27 of the Mexican constitution put communal farmland back into the hands of subsistence farmers. The 1994 the passage of North American Free Trade Alliance (NAFTA) changed the communal farmland to privatization and allowed for foreign in ownership. United States companies now own huge farms in what were once communal farms. The people who once lived off the land fled to the cities for employment.
In 1994 the price of Mexican corn fell 70 percent and 1. 3 million jobs were lost.
Maquiladoras are Foreign-owned assembly plants in Mexico. Companies import machinery and materials duty free and export finished products around the world. Wages at Maquiladoras are significantly lower than at United States factories.
At the same time that NAFTA went into effect, Mexican workers flocked to the United States. In 1990 1,400 employers were fined for hiring illegal workers. In 2000, 178 employers were fined for illegal workers.
Definitions:
NFATA - All non-tariff barriers to agricultural trade between the United States and Mexico were eliminated. In addition, many tariffs were eliminated immediately, with others being phased out over 5 to 15 years. All agricultural provisions will be implemented by the year 2008.
Maquiladora - Foreign-owned assembly plants in Mexico. Companies import machinery and materials duty free and export finished products around the world. Wages at Maquiladoras are significantly lower than at United States factories.
Ejido ? Communal farmland which provides more food for the community. Under the ejido system, the land is owned by the government and is supported by a national bank. This bank pays for the equipment and goods necessary for the upkeep of the land. In essence, the bank has only just replaced the encomendero; however, the community member who works on the land gets paid for his or her work. The Encomienda system was a trusteeship used during the spansih coloniation of the Americas, whereby conquistadors were granted trusteeship over the indigenous people they conquered According to the 1960 census, 23% of Mexico's cultivated land belonged to ejidos.
The ejido system was abolished with the adoption of NAFTA There is currently no system for communal land ownership in Mexico.
Remittance - a payment of money sent to a person in another place. In 2005 the approximately 10 million Mexican nationals who reside in the U.S. sent back an estimated $20 billion in 2005, an amount equivalent to 3 percent of Mexico?s GDP. (Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas)
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