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 Editorials | At Issue | July 2006 
Mexico Moving Immigration Debate to World Stage
 Barnard R. Thompson - MexiData.info
| | President Vicente Fox arrives for the opening ceremony of the Iberoamerican congress on Migration and Development in Madrid last week. Fox said Tuesday his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush had expressed 'commitment and conviction' toward approving major immigration reform by the end of the year. (AP/Paul White) |
The Mexican media has run a number of migration related stories as of late, many tied directly to U.S. immigration and policy. Yet for the most part they received little coverage in the English language media, owing possibly to timing with the broad coverage of Mexico’s contested presidential election and other world affairs.
But the Spanish language reports include some important data, proposals and plans, and the people, comments and events they describe should not be overlooked. Especially since some of what is taking place is without United States participation – maybe tit-for-tat for what Latin Americans perceive as a growing U.S. nationalism and myopia in a unilateral process (albeit the right of a sovereign nation) that excludes regional views.
The Diario de Yucatán reported in mid-July, quoting the head of Mexico’s National Population Council (Conapo), that 17 percent of Mexicans between the ages of 15 to 24 emigrate to the United States in search of employment. This means, according to Conapo, that among the 11 million Mexican residents in the United States, approximately 1.86 million are young people.
The article notes that the Mexican Youth Institute (IMJ) classifies, among Mexico’s 105 million residents, 34 million as youth. (The National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics reported that Mexico’s population reached 103.3 million in 2005, having more than doubled since 1970 when the total was 48.2 million people.)
Conapo quoted the annual salary of emigrant youth as US$15,000.00, compared to a US$22,000.00 average for older Mexican emigrants. Six out of ten of the young people crossing the border have less than 12 years of education, most are single males from urban areas, and few of the youth have been part of the migrant current.
Undersecretary of Government Lauro López Sánchez talked about the increased number of Latin American undocumented transients in Mexico, of all ages, in an El Economista (Mexico City) piece. As an example of the complexity of Mexican and regional migration, López said that while 1.2 million Mexicans tried to cross into the United States in 2005, some 100,000 Central Americans wanting to get into the U.S. traversed Mexico. The Mexico City daily El Universal referred to those migrants as “South Americans who are fleeing violence and poverty.”
López also said, of an estimated 11.2 million undocumented migrants in the U.S., some 6.2 million are Mexicans.
On July 18, in Madrid, Spanish President and Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and Mexican President Vicente Fox, inaugurated the two-day “Ibero-American Meeting on Migration and Development.”
“Solving the world’s migratory phenomenon calls for prejudice-free global solutions, that attempt to deal with it from the perspective of security and trade,” Fox is quoted as saying in a press release by Mexico’s Presidency of the Republic. And he stressed that countries do not advance by closing borders, building walls or treating migrants as criminals.
“‘The flow of persons from one country to another should not be seen as a burden,’ said the Mexican president, while urging countries to overcome the fear that prevents migration from being acknowledged as a factor of development in order to pave the way for adopting integral policies.
“Mexico’s position, he said, is to defend the dignity of all migrants, ensure the unrestricted respect of their human and working lives and guarantee them the decent, inclusive treatment they deserve.
“The Mexican government is therefore convinced, he said, that the best way of effectively combating the illegal trade in people and labor, and the violence and crime that this generates, is through the adoption of a global migratory policy that incorporates the protection of people’s human and work rights.”
The press release continued: “President Fox pointed out that during his recent participation in the G-8 summit, Mexico brought the issue of migration under discussion. ‘We did so because Mexico is a country of origin, transit and destination for migrants, and because we are a responsible nation that feels it is necessary to promote a new global perspective in defense of migrants, their rights and dignity,’ he added.”
With reference to the Madrid meeting, both El Universal and El Economista quoted a comment by Undersecretary of Government López during a panel discussion: “Mexico demanded the ‘elimination (of) repressive and discriminatory policies that impede, aggravate or assault the movement and rights of migratory workers.’”
“Regarding the emigration of Mexicans to the U.S., he said ‘there is a historic tradition and structural roots, in a segment where there are forces that have contributed to the building’ of the neighboring country to the north.”
Barnard Thompson, a consultant, is also editor of MexiData.info. He can be reached via e-mail at mexidata@ix.netcom.com. |
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