Working on the immigration problem

BY RICHARD TAYLOR

In the wake of Arizona’s oppressive new law monitoring immigrants, it’s useful to reflect on the causes of accelerated immigration from Mexico in recent years. Along the way, we might conclude that a more suitable term for “illegal aliens” is “people who need to make a living.”

A key element in fomenting the rising tide of immigration has been the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the U.S., Mexico and
Canada. NAFTA proved to be a boon for the big American grain companies. Since the agreement went into effect, their products, such as corn, could enter the Mexican market without tariffs. Given the big companies’ technological advantages and economies of scale, they’ve been able to undersell the product of small peasant farmers. As time passed, more and more small farmers were pushed off the land and forced to try to find work in cities and towns. The dearth of jobs in Mexican cities and the lure of better wages across the border in the U.S. had the predictable effect of driving larger numbers of Mexicans across the border.

NAFTA’s supporters in the Clinton administration and Congress were well aware of this dynamic because 1994 was also the year that legislation was passed to build a fence to keep the migrants out. We might note here the hypocrisy and contradiction of a free market theory that touts the free movement of commodities and capital but not the free movement of labor. In the 19th century, even the implacable free marketer Thomas Malthus acknowledged that if English workers couldn’t find work at home, they should be encouraged to go somewhere else. And many did go somewhere else—like the U.S. for example.

Another factor spurring immigration from Mexico has been the disruption in the maquiladora industries located just across the U.S. border. Foreign transnational corporations set up shop there to take advantage of cheap Mexican labor. For example, American auto companies send auto parts to plants in Mexico to be assembled and then ship these back to the U.S. duty-free. In other words, this process is not so much one of international trade as it is a process of transactions internal to corporations seeking to capitalize on cheap labor.

In 2008 as the latest financial crisis and recession set in, workers in the maquiladora industries were laid off in droves. The plight of unemployed people desperate for income has further stirred up the cauldron of civil strife in Mexico and drug smuggling to the U.S. People who would never have been tempted to get involved with drugs and smuggling have been enticed by the prospect of at least getting some money by carrying out dangerous and illegal activity.

It’s quite possible that the course of building bigger fences, implementing more oppressive laws, and cultivating intimidation and fear will slow down further immigration, but it won’t stop it because repression doesn’t address the root causes described above. This course will certainly intensify bitterness, hostility and xenophobia.

There is a rational and humane answer to the problem, in fact the only real solution: build an economy on both sides of the border where workers have gainful, secure and rewarding employment. This would provide incentives for Mexicans to stay in their native land and diminish the resentment of American workers who fear the competition of immigrants. Of one thing we can be sure—as long as inequality deepens, unemployment escalates and despair spreads, there will be no justice, and as the old adage goes—where there is no justice, there will be no peace.