 |
|
|
 Business News | October 2007 
Emigration Limits Available Work Force in Mexico
 Frontera NorteSur
go to original
Especially during the last three years, fierce debate has raged in the United States over the costs and benefits of immigration from Mexico. With the exception of the issue of economic remittances sent by migrants, less analysis has been focused on the possible impacts of emigration in Mexico. A recent article by Mauricio Farah Gebara, representative of Mexico's official National Human Rights Commission, suggests that the massive emigration which has uprooted entire Mexican communities could be holding back his country's economic development.
Citing the example of the so-called "Asian tigers," Farah argues that nations realize economic transformation when a large percentage of their populations are at a young, productive age. "Today (Asian nations) reap the benefits and are genuine economic powers, with high standards of living," Farah writes. "It is precisely from this experience which the expression demographic bonus derives."
In his treatment of the demographic bonus, Farah doesn't address other factors that could help explain the economic boom in the Far East. For instance, many Asian nations historically maintained high tariffs. On the other hand, Mexico began opening up its economy in the early 1980s, a time when its youthful demographic bulge was in full glory.
According to Farah, Mexico's demographic bonus began kicking in about 1970, when 47.5 percent of the population was less than 15 years of age and an even larger group, 48.8 percent, was between 15 and 64 years of age. The latter group represented a demographic spread that encompassed many people considered to be at the peak of their productive capacity. Almost forty years later, Farah notes, youths under 19 years of age represent 34 percent of the population; people between 20 and 64 years of age account for 55 percent of the total population.
Nowadays Mexican society is aging. While in 1970 only 4.4 percent of the population was older than 65 years of age, 11 percent of the population fit into the same age grouping by 2006. Paralleling the growing graying of the nation, Mexico's annual rate of population increase fell from a peak of 3.4 percent in 1965 to 1.42 percent in 2006.
Citing statistics from Mexico's National Population Council, Farah contends that emigration is limiting the availability of a domestic labor force. In 2006, he writes, two million Mexicans were born and 500,000 died, thus resulting in an initial population growth of one-and-a-half million people. Factoring in the estimated 560,000 people who moved to the United States, many of whom were in their working prime, Mexico's real population gain amounted to 940,000 people, according to Farah.
Since women account for approximately 43 percent of the new migrants, the feminization of emigration is having a profound effect on Mexico's population growth and demography, Farah contends. Unlike earlier, predominantly male migrants who frequently returned home, women tend to stay in the United States.
"The physical and intellectual work force that emigrated will produce in the United States, not in Mexico," Farah concludes. "We have to make sure that Mexicans construct the future of Mexico. We have to stop the exportation of our principal wealth."
Source: El Diario de El Paso, September 23, 2007. Article by Mauricio Farah Gebara. Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico
Frontera NorteSur (FNS)
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Frontera.NMSU.edu |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us