 |
|
|
 Editorials | Issues | November 2007 
Why U.S.-Mexican Relations Matter
 Alex Sherbany & Carlos Bortoni - Harvard Polital Review
go to original
 |  | It is not only a matter of what Mexico can do unilaterally. In order to solve the immigration issue, the United States must also play its part, and this requires carrying out an integral immigration reform.
- Dr. Jose Carlos Borunda |  | |
In 2001, less than year after his inauguration, President Bush declared that “the United States has no more important relationship in the world than our relationship with Mexico.” This was more than just a diplomatic nicety. With goods and people continuing to move across the border in ever greater numbers, issues of immigration and economic development must be understood in terms of the complex and ever-shifting relationship between U.S. policy and the Mexican economy.
The United States and Mexico share a number of policy priorities, collaborating often on issues including drug trafficking, customs office corruption, and border security. At a North American summit meeting held in Cancún in 2006, for instance, President Bush highlighted the need for “smart, secure borders,” including a plan he and then-President Vicente Fox developed after September 11 called the Border Security Partnership.
But the issues that continue to dominate the U.S.-Mexico relationship, as they have for most of the last decade, are immigration and economic development. And while the two nations come at these issues from somewhat different perspectives, they are beginning to realize quite how intertwined their economic destinies truly are.
The signing of NAFTA in 1994 heralded an unprecedented liberalization of markets in North America, causing a monumental increase in economic ties between the United States and Mexico. Each year, trade between the two countries totals over 250 billion dollars. More than 2,600 American companies have operations in Mexico, and Mexicans account for approximately 17 percent of the agricultural workforce in the United States.
And while Mexico has risen to fourteenth in the world in nominal GDP over the past decade, poverty remains widespread. Malnutrition, high mother-child mortality rates, and low educational attainment levels continue to affect significant percentages of the country’s population. Such conditions have spurred millions of Mexican to attempt dangerous and illegal crossings into America, along with established, legal channels of immigration.
With Mexico’s poverty providing a constant supply of would-be immigrants, and NAFTA fueling the demand from U.S. companies, America’s visa laws help determine how the two can interact, as well as which interactions are forced below the radar. Among the many varieties of visa that the U.S. government issues, one type specifically intended to regulate legal Mexican immigrants working on American farms is the H2A visa, also known as the “work visa for seasonal agricultural workers.” Technically, the government does not set a limit on the number of H2A visas it will issue. However, lack of information, processing delays, extensive paperwork, and cumbersome bureaucratic procedures combine to make the hiring of legal immigrants a complicated task.
Alejandra Ocádiz, director of the Office for the Coordination of Migrant Workers in Nuevo Leon, one of Mexico’s border states, argues that a migrant would rather pay a smuggler than apply for a visa. “A migrant would prefer this because there is no one to guide him through the process,” she said in an interview with the HPR. At the same time, Ocádiz points out that despite being able to hire as many legal Mexican immigrants as they want, American farmers end up hiring them illegally because they also do not know what steps to follow.
For their part, applicant farmers in the United States must first meet the requirements stipulated by the Department of Labor and make a compelling case that there are no US workers available for such spots. In turn, immigrant workers enjoy all the benefits of a regular employee, including free housing, transportation, and meals provided by employers.
Though only one small facet of the broader immigration issue, H2A visas illustrate the potential for greater collaboration and information sharing among the U.S. and Mexican governments. Dr. Jose Carlos Borunda, general director of International Affairs in President Calderon’s Office in Mexico, stressed the need for shared responsibility in an interview with the HPR. “It is not only a matter of what Mexico can do unilaterally. In order to solve the immigration issue, the United States must also play its part, and this requires carrying out an integral immigration reform.” With U.S. elections approaching in 2008, and Mexican congressional elections in 2009, both countries will have a critical opportunity to review their interrelated roles in the immigration debate. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us