The Wall
Last week, the Senate approved a bill to build a 700 mile double wall along the Mexican border. The ostensible purpose was to secure the border. The real purpose was to apply the brakes on the movement of Mexicans and Central Americans into the US. The bill was, after all, an immigration bill.
Mexicans see the bill as an insult, which comes as no surprise. From an article written for the LA Times and also published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Few observers in Mexico expect the new barriers to stop Mexicans and people from Central America from seeking a better life in the United States. New smuggling routes are expected to open through ever-more-remote stretches of desert, or over the river that Mexicans call the Rio Bravo del Norte.
But the bill approved by both houses of Congress, and soon to be signed by President Bush, might signal the end of an era that has seen dramatic cultural and demographic changes in both countries.
...Latin Americans see the initiative as a rejection of the cultural changes brought forth by Hispanics in the United States. In angry editorials and speeches, Mexican writers and politicians have compared the project to the Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China.
"The exploitation of fear among the citizens of the United States has been at the center of the debate," the newspaper El Universal said in an editorial Saturday.
"This wall, like all those built with xenophobic aims, will be far from effective."
...Lorenzo Meyer, a leading historian, argued that the plan revealed an essential hypocrisy in U.S.-Mexico relations.
"In 1993 we signed the North American Free Trade agreement," Meyer said. "It was supposed to be the beginning of a period of cooperation and friendship." Now the U.S. government has unilaterally announced the construction of a wall, he said, despite Mexico's strenuous objections.
"We see now that the idea of a united 'North America' is fiction," Meyer said.
"The reality is the wall."
Xenophobia certainly does seem to be one of the elements in the wall, but I think racism is another, perhaps larger element. As far as I can tell, so far there is no plan for a similar edifice along the northern border with Canada. I'm sure that our neighbors to the south have noticed that as well.
While an argument can be made that a northern wall is unnecessary because we are not being inundated by Canadians seeking jobs and security, that argument overlooks the fact that part of the reasons for the immigration pressure from the south is that some of the problems that NAFTA was supposed to address have not only not been addressed, they have been aggravated. Decent jobs with decent wages, fair trade (as opposed to free trade) just did not happen in Mexico. Oh, some jobs opened up in the zone just south of the border as American companies closed plants here in the US and relocated them to northern Mexico, but those jobs were a drop in the bucket, and the pay, benefits, and working conditions were not all that beneficial for the Mexican workers. Some surprise, that, eh?
Mexicans have been used and abused, and now they are being insulted.
Heckuva job, Congress.
Mexicans see the bill as an insult, which comes as no surprise. From an article written for the LA Times and also published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Few observers in Mexico expect the new barriers to stop Mexicans and people from Central America from seeking a better life in the United States. New smuggling routes are expected to open through ever-more-remote stretches of desert, or over the river that Mexicans call the Rio Bravo del Norte.
But the bill approved by both houses of Congress, and soon to be signed by President Bush, might signal the end of an era that has seen dramatic cultural and demographic changes in both countries.
...Latin Americans see the initiative as a rejection of the cultural changes brought forth by Hispanics in the United States. In angry editorials and speeches, Mexican writers and politicians have compared the project to the Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China.
"The exploitation of fear among the citizens of the United States has been at the center of the debate," the newspaper El Universal said in an editorial Saturday.
"This wall, like all those built with xenophobic aims, will be far from effective."
...Lorenzo Meyer, a leading historian, argued that the plan revealed an essential hypocrisy in U.S.-Mexico relations.
"In 1993 we signed the North American Free Trade agreement," Meyer said. "It was supposed to be the beginning of a period of cooperation and friendship." Now the U.S. government has unilaterally announced the construction of a wall, he said, despite Mexico's strenuous objections.
"We see now that the idea of a united 'North America' is fiction," Meyer said.
"The reality is the wall."
Xenophobia certainly does seem to be one of the elements in the wall, but I think racism is another, perhaps larger element. As far as I can tell, so far there is no plan for a similar edifice along the northern border with Canada. I'm sure that our neighbors to the south have noticed that as well.
While an argument can be made that a northern wall is unnecessary because we are not being inundated by Canadians seeking jobs and security, that argument overlooks the fact that part of the reasons for the immigration pressure from the south is that some of the problems that NAFTA was supposed to address have not only not been addressed, they have been aggravated. Decent jobs with decent wages, fair trade (as opposed to free trade) just did not happen in Mexico. Oh, some jobs opened up in the zone just south of the border as American companies closed plants here in the US and relocated them to northern Mexico, but those jobs were a drop in the bucket, and the pay, benefits, and working conditions were not all that beneficial for the Mexican workers. Some surprise, that, eh?
Mexicans have been used and abused, and now they are being insulted.
Heckuva job, Congress.
posted by Diane at 3:56 AM
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