[CTC] DeFazio Bill Passes House with focus on currency & trade practices

[Andrew Gussert]

Boneheaded Economic Policies of U.S. Drives Many Immigrants to Our Shores

Most immigrants would prefer to stay at home with their families and live
their own culture, eat their own food, and listen to their own music 

 

July 21, 2010

By Manuel Pérez Rocha 

 

President Barack Obama did the right thing by supporting comprehensive
immigration reform that would place millions of undocumented workers on the
path to citizenship. Obama even went a step further, suing the state of
Arizona for its unconstitutional and racially profiling immigration law.
That law would punish and divide families, many of whose members have worked
years for this country.

 

However, the U.S. immigration debate tends to ignore a fundamental question:
Why do so many people migrate here from Mexico and other countries in
Central America? The answer is that they need to look for jobs because there
aren't enough jobs at home. Several years of the wrong economic policies
have destroyed millions of jobs, both in the countryside and in cities.
These economic policies tend to concentrate wealth. They're based on what's
often called the "Washington consensus" because they're designed and
dictated from institutions based in the U.S. capital like the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund.

 

During the last 30 years, Mexico and other countries that have followed
these policies have eliminated support mechanisms to local producers, while
with trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
and the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) they
have allowed big transnational companies to import cheaper products into
their countries. That's meant, for example, the arrival of cheap corn and
other basic food staples, which crowded out local production and ultimately
forced millions of small farmers off their land. Another result of NAFTA is
that tens of thousands of small and medium companies, which provide 90
percent of Mexico's jobs, have wound up bankrupt due to a lack of financial
support.

 

Also in accordance with the "Washington consensus," Mexico has scrapped
millions of government and state-owned company jobs. An example of this is
the 2009 dismantling of a state-run power company in the Mexico City area,
which axed 44,000 jobs. Although the Mexican government says it did this to
remove an "inefficient company," the real reason was to get rid of a vibrant
union that was hindering efforts to privatize it. Today, unionized
electricity workers continue their struggle with an almost three-month-long
hunger strike. Sadly, the mainstream U.S. media is ignoring this story. I
bet there'd be plenty of reports on this hunger strike had it happened in
Cuba, Venezuela or Bolivia instead.

 

Mexico's official unemployment rate of 5 percent is a joke. Only 14 million
workers have a formal job with full benefits, while the other approximately
40 million in the country's economically active population are counted as
"employed" even if they just sell chewing gum on street corners. There are
around 7 million young people without access to higher education or a job.
They see little option but to migrate.

 

Although some people in the United States might think that Mexican
immigrants opt to come here because they're lured by the American way of
life, mostly it's because they're desperate for a job to send money back and
help their families. Most immigrants would prefer to stay at home with their
families and live their own culture, eat their own food, and listen to their
own music. The lack of opportunities to live a decent life and even feed
their children sends them north.

 

Therefore, any serious discussion about immigration must address the reasons
why people are obliged to emigrate. It's time, as Obama had pledged during
his campaign, to rethink NAFTA and make trade and investment between our
countries work for working families and help them stay at home.

 

Manuel Pérez Rocha is an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Policy
Studies, where he is leading an initiative on the Security and Prosperity
Partnership.

 

http://www.alternet.org/economy/147603/boneheaded_economic_policies_of_u.s._
drives_many_immigrants_to_our_shores?page=2 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20100723/7b38eb4e/attachment-0002.htm>