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Sueño Americano
Sueño Americano (that's American dream in Spanish). Maybe I should say Sueño Canadiense
as well (Canadian dream) since the dream really amounts to heading north to make
some cash that is so illusive a bit farther south. In Acapulco, it seems everyone
has a relative that's gone to the U.S. or Canada to work both legally and illegally.
It also seems like half to people you meet have vague plans to do so themselves...
one day.
One thing not often captured in the horrendous statistics thrown about on networks
like Fox News, which make the Mexican immigration issue sound like an uncontrollable
plague of locust, is that most who cross illegally into the U.S. and Canada, return
home once they've earned the money they wanted to buy a house, car, pay for their
kids school, or whatever.
Here are a few immigration facts:
In a 2002 survey, of the 32.5 million foreign born U.S. residents, some 30 percent were Mexican.
Mexico is the largest source of undocumented immigrants. There were an estimated 9.3 million undocumented immigrants in the United States as of March 2002. More than one in every two Mexican immigrants is an illegal, compared with one in in about six for other foreign born residents.
Mexicans represent 20% of the legal immigrants living in the U.S.
Source: http://www.migrationinformation.org
One thing that may shock Americans is that the Mexican government all but encourages illegal immigration. It's not hard to see why. A 1990 study found that Mexico’s Gross National Product (GNP) rose by between $2.69 and $3.17 for every dollar Mexican households received from workers in the United States. In 2003 alone, Mexican immigrant sent back home some $11 billion USD.
Although publications like the CIA World Factbook state a 2003 Mexican unemployment rate of 3.3%, the methodology used is suspect. No, not suspect, more like totally bunk. Anyone that's here for a day can see it's much, much, much higher. They also understate underemployment at 25%. Arguably, nearly the entire workforce is underemployed.
It's also not hard to see why the U.S. looks the other way. U.S. business makes
out like bandits with this source of low cost labor for which the costs are largely
passed along to taxpayers. What's more the U.S. dollars immigrants send home end
up making their way back to the U.S. in the form of payments to service Mexico's
huge U.S. foreign debt of $160 billion, or about 20% of their GDP. It not far
fetched to wonder if stopping the inflow of illegal immigration could cause Mexico
to default on its debt and provoke a financial meltdown of global proportions.
The Mexican government even publishes literature about how to cross the boarder illegally, but safely and responsibly. For example the page above is what you should do in case you get caught entering the United States illegally.
It says: "Your Rights: To know where you are being held. To ask that you are allowed to communicate with a representative of the nearest Mexican Consulate in order to receive help. Don't make statements on the record or sign any documents, especially if they are in English, without access to a defense lawyer or a representative of the Mexican Consulate."
What I personally found most interesting about this publication are the incredibly hot women one apparently encounters when making an illegal crossing.
I'm planning my illegal crossing right now.. and I'm a U.S. citizen.
(Actually, the folks did the illustration are obviously the same that make Mexico's famously sexy and highly addictive comic books.)
For the record: In Mexico, people that cross illegally are known as mojados,
which means "wet ones" (i.e. wetbacks) because many literally get wet crossing
the river.
There's also a little known Mexican Dream, of course. Not captured in the data
are the growing number of Americans moving to Mexico, such as yours truly.
There are two, differing, figures about the actual number of Americans living
in Mexico. The most widely quoted is 500,000. Another is about 150,000. I would
say it's somewhere in between.
The author of this excellent article on the subject gives an estimate of less than 150,000 based on the speculation that most American expats apply for formal resident visas and few are slipping through the cracks.
Based on personal observation in Acapulco, I don't think this is the case. Nearly
all the American expats I've met that live here full time or part time don't have
formal resident visas. I've been here almost two years straight (as of 2005) and
I still have tourist visa and continue to slip through the cracks (though I'm
planning to apply for one soon.).
The reasons are that many can't demonstrate a stable monthly income from abroad.
Others are afraid that getting involved with a government bureaucracy might compromise
their happy, tranquil lives in Mexico. Others plan on only staying a year or two.
Others just don't want the hassle. I would say there are more Americans here as
quasi-legal tourist-residents than legal residents. Many who own property here
and live in it don't even both with resident visas.
The truth is that there's really no need for a resident visa if you have so much
a driver's license, a little cash, and can manage to stay out of trouble because
you can get a new 6 month tourist visa every time you exit and re-enter.
Most U.S. expatriates living in Mexico live in Baja California, Guadalajara, especially
the temperate Lago Chapala area, Mexico City, and surrounding cites, especially
San Miguel de Allende. On the west coast here, far more expats live in Puerto
Vallarta. and especially Los Cabos. than in Acapulco (though a disproportionate
number of Americans own the multi-million dollar villas in Acapulco's luxurious
Las Brisas). If Mexicans are taking back Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California,
they're losing Baja California and the best areas of Mexico like Las Brisas fast.
Immigration is a two way street.
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| What's happening
in Acapulco? |
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