Sam Speaks

Immigration Reform

July 2007 

Sam believes in North American integration. SolutionsAbroad’s business model is based on one aspect of this: English-speaking North Americans (from the U.S. and Canada) spending time and perhaps even buying property in Mexico. This company was founded 7 years ago based on the assumption that a friendly, fun, and beautiful country like Mexico is bound to be an attractive second-home destination to millions of Americans and Canadians alike.

Add to that a growing interest on behalf of specific communities, like diplomats, multi-national corporations and 70 million retiring baby-boomers, and you’ve got a long-term trend. For us, this happy intermingling of nations is news. For the rest of the world, however, it is another aspect of North American integration, undocumented Mexican migration to the United States, that is the stuff of headlines.

Undocumented, or “illegal,” immigration is, by its very nature, impossible to quantify. Nevertheless, most estimates put the number of people residing in the U.S. without papers at around 12 million. Of these, between 6 and 9 million are Mexicans, depending on who you ask. To put this into perspective, there are 25 million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the U.S. and Mexicans represent 30% of all legal immigrants (about 1 million per year total) to the U.S., by far the largest supplier of new legal residents.

This means that Mexican migration to the U.S. is a multifaceted phenomenon. Despite the fears of many Anglos, most research points to a similar rate of assimilation as previous immigrant groups. Today, the Governor of New Mexico, the Secretary of Commerce, the Attorney General and the Treasurer of the U.S. are all Mexican-Americans.

Undocumented migration is fueled by better wages north of the Río Grande/Bravo, documented migration is a result of the preference the U.S. quota system gives to uniting families of American citizens, which also benefits Mexicans whose family ties to the U.S. are multiple.

Finally, there is “brain drain” migration, as hundreds of thousands of professional Mexicans migrate to the U.S. in order to “make it” bigger than they could in Mexico: from Salma Hayek, to post-grads who take the best job opportunities wherever they may be. As for OTMs, or “Other Than Mexicans” as Immigration and Customs Enforcement calls them, most are Central Americans who crossed through Mexico, but many others are from other countries who overstayed their tourist visas.

In the last few years, the immigration debate in the U.S. has changed dramatically as the numbers of undocumented immigrants has swelled. In the mid-1980s President Reagan passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) which was seen as a widespread amnesty that immigration foes have vowed never to allow again. So, negotiations have been both tortuous and acrimonious.

The latest news is that the Senate has reached a compromise on comprehensive immigration reform. There seems to be something for everyone: a “Z visa” for undocumented residents who arrived before January 1, 2007 that would temporarily legalize after a background check, fingerprinting, etc., a longer-term visa after that for those who pay $5,000 dollars in fines, pass English and civics tests and have a steady job and the move to a points system.

This last element is in-line with more “progressive” English-speaking countries like Canada and Australia in that it would benefit those with more skills and education, versus the old system that is based on family reunification. There is a guest worker program, also, that at first look seems like it might be too rigid to fulfill the needs of the industries most reliant on off-the-books labor.

Sam can’t speak for the millions of OTMs in the U.S. and hopes they may find the opportunities they seek. In terms of Mexicans, however, this continent, defined as Canada, Mexico and the United States, has a common history and shares a common destiny. Before security was tightened at the border Mexicans used to travel to the U.S. when needed and would return to Mexico, knowing that getting back North would not be a big deal.

Coordination with Mexico’s government to screen potential migrant workers and a comprehensive European Union-style program to both strengthen this country’s institutions and fulfill the needs of U.S. employers would provide the security and prosperity that North America so desperately needs. Paradoxically, it would also suit the needs of American xenophobes because it would reduce the pressure to establish permanent residence. As for our community, it goes without saying that such a program would include across-the-board employment privileges for Americans and Canadians wanting to work in Mexico.

North American integration is a reality that has our governments always reacting haphazardly. It’s time we saw some true leadership in this area.

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