Mexican immigrants and their social impact

Mexican Immigrants

The Effects of Poverty:Mexican Immigrants Living in America for the First Time

According to an article in the Chicago Tribune in August of 2002, at the end of the summer of 2001 one of the Bush administration's major initiatives was amnesty for Mexican illegal immigrants in the United States. The presidents of America and Mexico seemed all but in love, and borders appeared about to dissolve. A year later, at the time the article went to print, it was just after the shock of September 112. The war on terrorism was happening so the question was where did the mammoth Mexican immigration to the United States stand? Also being addressed was the issue of how Americans understood the character and threat of such an unprecedented new invasion by Mexican immigrants?

According to the Center of Immigration Reforms, in the absence of far more direct immigration controls than ever, Mexican immigration has only increased. In 1970 there were less than 800,000 Mexicans in America and by 2000 there were 9 million -- an 11-fold increase.

Perhaps the most disturbing new finding by the center and other groups is the worsening of educational attainment by Mexican immigrants in America. Studies show that among these immigrants, two-thirds lack a high school education compared to 10% among the American mainstream. Only 9.7% of Mexicans have some college education as compared to 28.6% in the American mainstream. Almost 66% of Mexicans here live near the poverty level and 29% at the poverty level compared to figures of 28% and 10% in the American mainstream. In all categories of welfare use, Mexican immigrants both legal and illegal have far higher uses of welfare than mainstream Americans.

Particularly discouraging is the fact, underlined in these new studies by the center; these figures only barely decrease with time spent in America. Of newly arrived Mexican immigrants 71% live at or near the poverty level and after 31 years or more 51% live at or near the poverty level. In fact second-generation immigrants are experiencing a downward mobility and a downward assimilation. These statistics are overwhelming.

Luis Rodriguez gives a true account of a poverty stricken life in America as a Mexican immigrant. Rodriguez's book Always Running gives real life accounts of life in California, his life of poverty and his eventual joining of a LA gang. Always Running is the account of Luis J. Rodriguez's growing up in poverty in Los Angeles and his ultimate turning to gang life as a means of preservation. The book chronicles his encounters with racism in school and on the streets, and his struggle to overcome prejudice, drugs, and violence. "And if they murder, it's usually the ones who look like them, the ones closest to who they are -- the mirror reflection. They murder and they're killing themselves, over and over."

As the nation's largest destination for immigrants in general and Mexican nationals in particular, Los Angeles needs to prepare quickly to pay the piper for the economic benefits of low-income labor according to two UCLA sociologists. Is this the answer to the poverty stricken Mexican immigrants? Is Los Angeles able to absorb and employ even the least skilled immigrants at a truly impressive rate? It appears just as incapable of offering them a living wage. New immigrants in Urban America indicate serious trouble unless the United State is able to develop the social infastructe to ensure that the children of today's unskilled immigrants do considerably better than their parents. Are the children of Mexican immigrants destined to a life of crime as described by Rodriguez in Always Running? Will the poverty levels increase if the children of the immigrants receive education? These questions and many others are being seriously considered by the government and immigration organizations.

With one-fifth of the nation's immigrants, Los Angeles's attracting the nations largest share of low skilled poorly educated newcomers. Yet thanks to informal social networks built over generations by immigrants, as Rodriguez explained n his book, even the least skilled immigrants from Mexico-LA's largest source-quickly get connected to a job. As in the case of Rodriguez they can quickly get connected to a life of crime as well.

For example, among Mexicans who arrived in Los Angeles during the 1990s, the typical man had only six years of schooling, but eight of 10 such men were holding down jobs. Among the city's blacks by contrast, the average man had obtained at least some college education. Even so, employment rates for this group did not match the level achieved by the most recently arrived immigrants from Mexico. Unskilled immigrants with far less education than the east schooled among the urban blacks, find jobs that according to conventional wisdom either should not or do not exist. Yet the poverty still exists.

But Los Angeles newcomers were much less successful in finding adequate employment or earnings at least 50% above the federal poverty limit. Among the most recent Mexican immigrants, the typical man has roughly a five in 10 chance of holding a job that pays a living wage. Odds improve with time spent in the United States, but only to a limited extent. Looking at those Mexican men who have lived in the United States for 20 years or longer only seven out of 10 were earning a living wage. Education proved more important for earning a living wage than time spent in the United States. So if employed, the typical black man had a nine in 10 chance of earning a living wage. The same social networks that help these immigrants find work, also appear to tunnel them in a narrow tier of economy where newcomers quickly saturate demand and compete with each other, further driving down wages.

Even if it were possible to turn the tide n this surge of immigration, Los Angeles would be loath to take he step. The metropolis's economy haws become addicted to the low-income labor that only thee newcomers tend to provide. While the regions established residents are at best ambivalent about the immigrants, its employers know a good deal when they see one, an incessant flow of job seekers willing to do any job at bargain-basement rates.

In fact Los Angeles responded to the nation's largest surge of immigration over the period in question by nearly doubling the positions in such immigrant absorbing, low skilled occupations, as janitors, gardeners and domestics.

While the children of Mexican immigrants do much better than their parents, they still fall behind the children of other immigrants on most ever socioeconomic measure. High school graduation, college attendance, finding adequate employment and entry info professional occupations. Unfortunately just as Rodriguez did many become criminals and may financially make more than their parents, socially they fail. As well this dangerous lifestyle results in murders of the delinquent Mexicans or jail.