Excelsior Mexico City 6/29/13
Opinion entitled “Mexico and immigration.”
Ciro de Constanzo
The sun has set, painting the horizon in a spectacular fashion, where, in the backdrop, the majestic Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl volcanoes can be seen.
The clouds that receive the solar reflection from above both giants draw an orange and rose colored path that contrasts with the very blue Mexican sky.
And there’s no doubt about that. Our Mexico is one of the most beautiful countries of the world.
However, we’re at the same time an expeller of emigrants, whose individual monetary remittances to their families maintain the country’s delicate social balance.
Ohh, my beautiful Mexico.
Aperitif: Mexico in the world. Despite Mexico’s great potential and beauty, you mustn’t believe that all Mexicans prefer to live in our country.
This was reported in a recent study of the Investigative and Economic Educational Center (CIDE) in its 2012-2013 The Americas and The World Biannual Report, presented by the Ministry of Foreign Relations (Mexico’s Dep’t. of State) headed by chancellor Jose Antonio Meade.
The study points out that 42% of Mexicans would leave Mexico if they could. Of that entire number, almost 60% would head to the U.S.
The thing is that a country that shares three thousand kilometers of border with the planet’s largest consumer cannot divorce itself from the giant’s dynamic economy.
There are many who think that China is the country that consumes the most. Nevertheless, the American Union consumes six times more than China and India together.
Can you imagine our neighbor’s voracity?
For these reasons, together with the fact that our economy is diametrically smaller, I not only respect that of the U.S. but I also respect our citizenry’s economic needs; everything the United States does has an impact on us.
The same study reports that in 2012, 49% of Mexicans had a relative abroad. Of this total, 88% of those relatives live in the United States.
I’ll go even further. It’s not just about the 300 thousand emigrants whom we expel yearly to the American Union in search of a better future.
It’s about the fact that the individual monetary remittances that those emigrants send to their families are this country’s second largest source of foreign currency.
We’re speaking of something around 20 billion dollars. Just in 2012, 19% of the population received these remittances.
Is it now clear that the phenomenon of immigration is fundamental for Mexico?
Ohh, my beautiful Mexico.
Piatto forte! (sic) ( Italian for highlight or main dish) Immigration reform.
You’ll understand the relevancy for Mexico of an immigration law in the United States.
As a matter of fact, this week the Senate of the U.S. gave a go ahead to the most ambitious immigration reform that has been presented in the last century.
And it’s ambitious in various ways. On the one hand it opens the possibility for 11.4 million undocumented persons to gain access to naturalization. That’s not a small number.
For Mexico it is madness, because the great majority are Mexicans. This means (among other things) that, being legals, they could get better jobs and would send more monetary remittances to the Mexican families that, as we’ve seen, could reach 20% of the population.
Just imagine. This could bring wellbeing to a great number of Mexicans….in Mexico, not just in the U.S.
It’s true that the agreed upon reform is no cakewalk.
It sets forth a long and tortuous road toward legalization of the undocumented persons, especially those of scarce resources.
This from the fact that to be able to become legal they will have to pay a fine, pay back taxes, have no criminal record, know English, satisfy all the paperwork and requirements only so that they will obtain a provisional status in ten years, and three years later, their much desired residence status.
Tortuous, without a doubt. Nevertheless, it is a way, a possibility, they acknowledge a proper treatment for our fellow citizens, and abandon the awful tendency to criminalize someone who only looks for a better quality of life.
Ohh, my beautiful Mexico.
Dolce. (sic) (Italian lang.) The sweetener. Border security.
The same way as the immigration reform is ambitious in the possibility of opening the legalization of so many millions of persons, it is also ambitious in the matter of border security.
It envisions the horrifying amount of 30 billion dollars to seal the border with Mexico.
What are these measures?
To double the quantity of Border Patrol agents, to extend the fence more than a thousand kilometers along our common border, to increase the use of “drones”, or unmanned airplanes and, in general, to reinforce border security.
According to the approved project, the undocumented will be able to obtain permanent residence only when these additional security measures shall have been implemented. Do you realize what this means for Mexico? And they say that it’s not our business.
Today, coffee has an urgent character.
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