Index » Mexican Americans » Immigration
Where do Mexican immigrants come from?
Mexican Immigrants come from the United Mexican States commonly known as Mexico.
Mexicans immigrate to the U.S. because life in Mexico is very difficult if you don't have money. Also, it is very hard to find a job in Mexico that you can live of, and even if you do find it you can loose it very easily.
Most of Mexicans are poor and have large families which mean that they desperately need money in order to survive, and that is where the United States comes into the picture.
There are millions of illegal Mexican immigrants working in the United States that send money back home so that their family has a chance to survive or have a dissent life.
In the United States, Mexican immigrants do everything that ordinary Americans consider beneath them. They clean streets, wash dishes, or clean houses.
They keep American cities and homes clean and they are underpaid. Also, they are often humiliated and discriminated against which is very unfortunate.
Nobody really knows the exact number because that number is increasing on a daily basis. However there are estimates that between 10 and 15 million of illegal Mexican immigrants live and work in the Unites States.
Is the Mexican immigration a serious problem for the United States and its economy?
This is a very complex question and there is no simple answer.
Some sarcastic economic analysts say that underpaid, illegal Mexican workforce is the best thing that happened to the south of the United States since the slavery was abolished. This is because Mexicans work a lot, long hours, are happy to have jobs that nobody wants and are paid bellow the minimum wedge.
Others say that the illegal Mexican immigrants pose a serious treat to the U.S. economy and its stability, especially if they keep coming to the United States as they have done in the past and are doing in the present.
In other words the answer depends on how you look at the question.
What do you think?
Dear Mexican Crew,
Let's be perfectly honest nobody loves the uninvited quests that insist on staying in your house, eating your food, sleeping on your couch, drinking your morning coffee and imposing their rules.
I'm an ordinary American that minds his own business, but I don't understand how am I supposed to be fine with the fact that the part of my country that I live in (the southern U.S. States) are becoming less American each day and more Mexican.
I'm not saying that American is better than Mexican or the vice versa, I'm just saying that the two cultures are very different, including the language, customs, and life style; and that since I'm an American I prefer the American way.
I mean, hopefully I don't need to apologize for having an American dream instead of the Mexican dream or for my preference of the English over the Spanish language.
I'm not a hardcore nationalist or a chauvinist but I love my country and the way it is. I would never harm someone just because he belongs to some other ethnic group because that is not right nor American.
We Americans are open-minded and openhearted but enough is enough.
Every day hundreds of illegal Mexican Immigrants cross the Mexican American border, and if that doesn't come to an end this part of the United States will be more Mexican than American in 20 years.
I'm not saying that we didn't have it coming (I know everything about the Mexican Cession and the injustices that were done to Mexico by U.S.A, as well as the government's "projects" which had the goal of cleansing the United States from Mexicans and even the Mexican Americas; also, there is never-ending discrimination against the illegal Mexican immigrants as well as the legal Mexican immigrants, and even the Mexican Americans) however I am saying that I'm not happy about the fact that if I want my grandchildren to grow up as Americans and not Mexicans I would most probably have to move north.
Maybe we live in their house that we have occupied in 1848 and maybe it's their couch we sleep on and the food that we eat, but what are we supposed to do now?
It seems to me that only some radical reforms can stop Mexican immigrants cross the border illegally and that the Mexican American border wall is only a first and a very modest step to accomplish that.
However, I believe that the radical reforms are not truly democratic or in some cases even humane.
My questions to you and all of your visitors are:
James from San Diego, California
Dear James,
It is obvious that you are not a nationalist but a true patriot that loves his country.
It is also quite indicative that you are well informed about the Mexican American war, Mexican Cession, discrimination against Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the United States, and that you are well aware of the constant demographic change of the Southern American States.
Therefore, we will try not to talk about the things that you already know and we will do our best to answer all of your questions.
The big ugly truth is that the United States actually supports the illegal immigration because its local (if not the entire) economy depends on the illegal cheap labor.
For example, if you had a magic stick and you are to make all of the illegal immigrants disappear from the United States do you know what the consequence of that would be?
Millions of Americans would loose their jobs, hundreds of thousands of businesses would go bankrupt, and tens of millions of Americans would be forced to spend much more money for the services that are now provided by the illegal Mexican immigrants.
In other words, that would be a major blow to the American economy because the Mexican immigrants help the U.S. economy.
Finally, nobody is whiling to pay extra if they don't have to, including you, us and everybody else.
This is really a massive question that can be answered from many aspects. However, in order to keep it simple we will focus solely on the financial aspect of the question.
There is no country like the United States when it comes to the possibility of making money and getting rich. After all, making a lot of money is one of the main parts of the American dream which many Americans have made come true.
Therefore, from the financial point of view and the possibility of the financial success the United States is definitely better place to live in, which is the main motivation of the illegal Mexican immigrants to leave everything behind and risk their lives to cross the Mexican American border.
Illegal Mexican immigrants are often illiterate in English language because there is no need for them to learn English in order to a part of the society.
Their jobs don't require the language skills and there are plenty people that speak Spanish in the South of the United States which is why they don�t have problems getting groceries, going to the movies, or doing any other social activities.
In other words, they can get along just fine without English language and they are not motivated to learn English in any way.
First thing you should know is this question and other question alike (e.g. how many Mexican immigrants are in the U.S. 2010) is impossible to answer with precision.
However, that being said, the number of illegal Mexican immigrants in a year is somewhere between 40 000 and 80 000 people.
There are many ways to try to do this however the best thing is to cure the United States from the addiction of cheap labor, thus minimizing the high demand of illegal immigrants.
Every other measure can only be partially successful including the American Mexican border wall and law legislation.
Finally, your last question we understand more as a comment and remark than as a question and we find it interesting and provocative which is why we will let our visitors answer it before we do.
In any event, the subject of the illegal Mexican immigrants is very serious and multidimensional which means that the quick fix and simple solutions don't exist. However, that doesn't mean that there is no solution.
After the Mexican American war in 1848 the new generation of the Mexican Americans faced discrimination on both sides of the border.
Nobody accepted them. For the Americans they are not Americans but Mexicans, and for the Mexicans they were not the Mexicans but the Americans.
The Mexican Americans found themselves in a very difficult satiation which is why they had to organize themselves in order to protect their interests and their right, thus the very first Mexican American Civil Right Movement was born.
The movement became very popular after WWII when the Mexican American veterans joined in the efforts by civil right organizations.
The fact that many Mexican American war veterans were discriminated against and were even denied medical services by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs was too much and something needed to be done.
This is when the Mexican American civil right movement gained the momentum and achieved many major legal victories.
Some of those victories are: the 1947 Mendez v. Westminster Supreme Court ruling which declared that segregating children of "Mexican and Latin descent" was unconstitutional, the 1954 Hernandez v. Texas ruling which declared that Mexican Americans and other racial groups in the United States were entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
1954 Hernandez v. Texas
As you can see the life of the Mexican Americans wouldn’t be the same with out the Mexican American civil right movement.
This is why if you are a Mexican American you should support the movement and become a part of it.
If you want the world to change you have to roll-up your sleeves, join people that feel the same way as you do and together start making changes.