06/06/2007
James Ridgeway writes at Mother Jones and Common Dreams:According to Laura Carlsen, the director of the International Relations Center’s Americas Program, the reason behind the “massive out-migration” is fairly clear. Put simply, she wrote not long ago, “Mexico is not producing enough decent jobs for its people-and the United States is hiring.” It would seem, then, that one potential answer to the United States’ so-called immigration problem would be an effective development policy toward Mexico … … As Douglas Massey, a Princeton University sociologist and co-director of the school’s Mexican Migration Project, told the San Francisco Chronicle last year, if “the United States had approached Mexico and its integration into the North American economy in the same way that the European Union approached Spain and Portugal in 1986, we wouldn’t have an immigration problem now.”
Dunnyveg responded:
"It is also not true that the illegals in the US are Mexico’s poor. This makes sense if we recall that it takes thousands of dollars to make a trip north illegally for transportation, coyotes, etc. The poor just don’t have the money. … … "Mr. Ridgeway argues that Mexico would be better off if only we were to fork over more of our tax dollars in foreign aid. This argument leaves much to be desired.Contrary to popular opinion, Mexico is not a poor country when judged by world standards; seventy percent of the world’s countries are poorer."
The gap between Mexico and the US is larger than any EU nation had. Turkey is close to Mexico in development measures-and its integration is faces stiff resistance. Also, Illegal aliens are only secondarily driven by remittances. The big transfer of wealth takes place when a Mexican become a US citizen and obtains citizenship that is enormously more valuable than that of Mexico. Illegal Employers effectively pay in immigration rights which cost them nothing.
I favor greatly expanded development assistance to Mexico. For this to work, it must be done carefully and creatively outside the of channels corruption.
Development assistance alone can’t immediately make a reasonable US immigration policy. Increased development assistance might mean that stricter enforcement of US immigration laws wouldn’t come at the expense of the poorest of Mexicans and Central Americans. This may important in getting broad popular support on both sides of the border of different immigration policies. Most Americans want less overall immigration unless they are wealthy or politically influential.
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