October 15, 2007
Emigration Limits Available
Work Force in Mexico
Frontera NorteSur
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."
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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
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Frontera
NorteSur (FNS)
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
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(Reprinted with authorization from Frontera NorteSur, a free,
on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news source. FNS can be found at http://frontera.nmsu.edu/)
Translation FNS
