Monday, December 31, 2007
Letter to MexiData.info
Response
to “A Narrative of Christmas Migrants and Immigration Today, by Carlos Luken”
Mr. Luken's article in your Dec. 24 issue is very well written and touching.
In
his final paragraph however, he makes the usual Mexican argument, placing the burden of correcting the immigration problem
on "… the United States and its neighbors…." He says not a word about Mexico addressing the problem.
People
do not like to leave their homes, families, friends and cultures to go to a foreign country where they clean toilets in a
foreign language and freeze their behinds off while frequently suffering verbal abuse from redneck foreigners.
People
do such things because they want the opportunity to eat, to work, to educate their children and provide health care for their
families.
The root cause of the problem is in Mexico. The educated and governing classes of Mexico refuse to accept
responsibility for the problem because they benefit from having cheap unskilled labor and a constant stream of emigrants'
dollars coming back into the country to feed their businesses. The only time in 35 years I have heard an educated Mexican
complain about the emigration problem is when my university-educated sister-in-law (educated through a master's degree at
public expense) said that the emigration situation was raising the price of cleaning ladies here in Guadalajara.
The
educated/governing classes benefit from this situation and see no reason to change it. They prefer to let the poor go
north so the gringo will take care of it.
The US and other interested parties need to be much more assertive at getting
Mexico to clean up its act so ALL Mexicans will have access to adequate education and equal opportunity at employment
which will support them. The same situation existed in Ireland, Germany, Poland and other European countries until the
mid-20th century. When those countries addressed their economic/political problems the emigration stopped. Mexico needs
to do the same thing or needs to be forced.
Jim Miller
Guadalajara, Mexico
jimmiller735@yahoo.com
December 29, 2007
