The history of the United States of America, as is the case with most of the countries around the world, is replete with stories of migration. It is a fact, that unless you are the progeny of the indigenous peoples of any land or slaves taken there against their will, you are an immigrant. First, second, third, fourth, even fortieth generation immigrants of various countries, live in other countries around the world, which they call home.Diversity experts, as they are called in the US, have traced the patterns of immigration over the years, beginning with the Europeans and including the recent wave of Europeans and “people of colour” from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. They have followed the trends, totted up the statistics and surmised that if current trends continue, by the turn of the century, if not before, White Americans will be in the minority once again as they were before the decimation of the American Indian tribes, as will Blacks and Asians. Hispanics or Latinos, who now constitute the US’s largest group of immigrants – legal or illegal – will rule the roost. However, on the other hand, when the economists crunch the figures, it becomes obvious that the US economy and its utilities and services, particularly health care, cannot support today’s burgeoning wave of immigration.
This would be part of the reason then, that the US’s neighbour Mexico has been in the news frequently of late. According to news reports, millions of Mexicans have crossed/are crossing the border to live and work illegally in the United States. Studies reveal that most of them work at two or three jobs and send millions of US dollars back to Mexico annually to support their families, many of whom live in abject poverty. This seeming affluence encourages more of them to cross the desert in pursuit of opportunity.
Evangelina Hernandez Duarte, Co-Editor of the City Section of El Universal, one of Mexico’s largest newspapers, has looked at the issue from the Mexican side of the border and offers a different perspective. She has seen, up close and personally, the thousands of immigrants from Central American countries like Guatemala and Honduras who sneak into the south of Mexico each day and at risk of life and limb, make their way across that vast country in order to try and slip into the US undetected. Some make it, many don’t. Some are caught by Mexican authorities and deported only to try again the next day or the next week.
Ms Hernandez reveals that in order to cross from the south of Mexico to the North, where its border with the US is, the Central American immigrants must ride on trains for hours on end. They cannot afford the train fares, so they ride on top or clinging to the side of the trains. She said some of them purchase pills which they take to keep themselves awake. Others tie themselves to the trains in order to keep from falling off. However, many do fall off and under the trains and either have their limbs amputated or are killed. She has photographs of hospital wards in Mexican states filled with amputees; some have lost an arm or a leg, others both arms or both legs. For them, the dream of pursuing opportunities in the US has died. They now face double jeopardy as they are no longer just poor, they have become poverty-stricken amputees. Their problems have been amplified many times over.
And Central Americans are not the only ones using the Mexican route, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Resonance, a daily newspaper in Georgia, Malkhaz Gagua has revealed that Georgians and other Eastern Europeans routinely travel to Mexico to do the same thing. Ms Hernandez believes that something must be done to curb cross-border illegal migration, but remains convinced that the border fence is not the solution. She feels that determined illegal immigrants will find a way over, under and beyond the fence. She believes that her government as well as those in other Central American countries must find a way, with the help of the US, to stem the tide.
Whether or not this can be done remains to be seen. But it would take a structured approach and the US’s contribution would have to be largely monetary, perhaps in the same way that it helped fund Mexico’s attempt to curb narco-trafficking under its former President Vicente Fox.
It is estimated that there are some 12 million Hispanic or Latino illegal immigrants in the US at the moment. Some are criminals – in gangs and/or in the narco-trafficking trade – but the majority of them are hard-working farm labourers or are involved in other forms of menial employment. From all indications, there are at least another 24 million who would give their eye teeth to enter the US tomorrow, border fence or not. However, many of them might find themselves worse off than they were in Mexico and Central America, given the US’s current economic downturn. One hopes that the Bush administration has a Plan B.
