Mexican Migration: Migration of People is an Age-old Phenomenon

Mexican Migration
Carolyn Nguyen
Excelsior College
Mexican Migration
Introduction
Migration of people is an age-old phenomenon. It has been part and parcel of human existence, and has played a huge part in the sociopolitical and socioeconomic order that has shaped the present. There are numerous reasons that immigrants might cite as the driving force behind numerous instances of migration. One of the present largest human migrations involves the movement of Mexicans from their home country, North into the United States. There are a number of push and pull factors that facilitate such migration (Jackson, n.d.).Among the push factors include the high rates of crime within the Mexican borders, which are usually contributed to a large extent by drugs. There is also a high rate of unemployment in Mexico, which forces them to move northwards, seeking for opportunities. Among the pull factors include the better living standards in the United States than in Mexico, a large Mexican community in the United States which makes it easier for these migrants to easily fit in (Jackson, n.d.).With the migration come numerous impacts, both positive and negative, to either side of the divide. The Mexican immigration has more advantages than the disadvantages to the American economy, they include, provision of cheap labor, introduction of new skills and competencies to the U.S and cultural benefits to the local communities in the United States.
Mexican Migration Intensity
Researchers from the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that there are 11 million undocumented individuals in the United States (Bacallao & Smokowski, 2007). This represented a 30% increases from the 8.4 million in the year 2000. Six million of these undocumented immigrants are Mexicans. The researchers further estimated that 1.7 million people of these population are younger than 18 years (Bacallao & Smokowski, 2007). They mainly move into the southern states of the United States, which are in close proximity to the Mexican border. In order for them to get into the United States, these Mexicans have to go through the border between their country and the United States. This is usually a long stretch of land striding a total of ten states shared between Mexico and the United States
Positives
Economy
The first benefit brought by the Mexican migration is that it results to the introduction of new skills and competences to the United States. One of the reasons for the migration of Mexicans to the United States is in search of opportunities and better living conditions than in their native nation. These individuals are usually qualified in various fields, and when they migrate to the United States, they bring their expertise with them (Diaz & Albo, 2013). Green stone and Looney report (2010), indicates that more than 11% of foreign-born workers in the United States have advanced degrees, a fraction which is slightly above the percentage of Americans with post-college degrees. More importantly, more than 1.9 % of the immigrants have PhDs as compared to the U.S born citizens with the PhDs at 1.1%. With such differentials in the education levels between the immigrants and the natives it’s no doubt about their contribution to economy especially in the fields that require high levels of training and professionalism. This helps the country acquire skilled labor in various sectors of its economy. The long-term effect of this is that it results in an economic boost for the economy. According to Badkar (2012), Mexican immigrants contribute 4% of the American GDP.
The Mexican immigrants provide cheap labor for the industrial sector in the United States. There is an increased competition among business organizations and the need to stay competitive in the market is driving the pricing strategies of these businesses. Therefore, the companies focus on reducing the costs of production so that their product pricing is relatively cheaper as compared to their competitors. By employing the unskilled labor from Mexico, the costs of production are relatively lower. The lesser the costs of production the lesser the pricing of the product. In essence the consumer receives the benefits of reduced pricing of the product which helps in consumer savings. Patricia Cortes, (2006) puts this argument into context. In the CPI Patricia found out that immigration reduces prices by 1.3% in the immigrant intensive industries, which consequently reduces prices in other competitive industries by 2% with every 10% increase in labor. According to Patricia, in the year 1990, this trend led to 6.5% increase in the purchasing power of the high skilled natives and 2.66% increase in purchasing power of the low-skilled Native Americans.
Culture
Secondly, the migration of Mexicans to the United States is that it has brought cultural benefits to the regions they migrate to. When these Mexicans come to the U.S, they bring with them their cultural practices, which they spread to the regions they settle in. The Mexican immigrants in the United States have necessitated a number of changes in the education curriculum so as to take into consideration the immigrant born students. Multiculturalism has been given a lot of weight in the United States Education systems (Curwen, 2011). The increased rate of immigrants especially from Mexico has necessitated the need for an integration of an understanding of the Mexican culture in the education system of the Americans especially in schools in the South. Through the introduction of the studies on the Mexican culture, the teaching fraternity can help deal with the cases of discrimination among students. This is based on the fact that the students are made to understand the Mexicans better and remove some of the stereotypes about the Mexicans. For so long these factors of discrimination against the Mexican students have affected the Mexican student performance in terms of grade score in the schools (Orozco, & López, 2015). The reorganization of the education systems and policies that are geared towards the acceptation of the Mexican immigrants among other immigrant communities, it has helped the American society admire and embrace the Mexican culture. For example, Mexican cuisine and cultural festivals have become very popular in these regions. Taco and other fast food outlets have resulted in this opening up. In addition, there is also the Mexican music which also makes up part of the cultural diversification of the American community (Camrota, 2001).This has brought about cultural composition of the society in the United States.
Negatives
Economy
There is however a negative impact of this Mexican migration. First, when these Mexicans migrate to the U.S., they take up low-paying, menial jobs that are provided by most industries. This was initially very advantageous to these industries as well as the general American economy. However, the present situation is proving to be tricky since there is a steady rise in unemployment of American citizens. This makes most of them look for any job, including these menial, low-paying jobs. They still end up not getting them since they are mostly taken up by Mexicans. The effect of this is that it results in the growth of social tension between the natives and the immigrants, with the natives believing that the Mexicans came to take up their jobs.
The Camarota report of 2001, puts this point in its right context. In his report, Camarota asserts that the Mexican immigrant high school drop outs are a substitute to the native-born high school drop outs. Borjas (2007), in his research found out that natives and immigrants who lack high school education work in the same sector and therefore they compete for jobs, thus the Mexican immigration had a greater impact on the natives in the job market. Camarota (2001) cites that a st...