Migrant Situation from a cross country view in Puebla, Mexico
Mary Crofford
University of Oklahoma
Abstract
This paper is an overview of my stay in Puebla, Mexico for five weeks this summer. The research topics are based on encounters from the people and experiences there. The focus is on migrant populations. The migrant families, their earnings as well as the situations they find themselves in away from home and the family they left in Mexico.
Paper:
Mary Crofford
University of Oklahoma
Abstract
This paper is an overview of my stay in Puebla, Mexico for five weeks this summer. The research topics are based on encounters from the people and experiences there. The focus is on migrant populations. The migrant families, their earnings as well as the situations they find themselves in away from home and the family they left in Mexico.
Paper:
The American Identity crisis as the right has often put it, leaves us with a sour taste of cultural integration in our mouth and mind. At the heart of the debate is migration primarily from our southern neighbor. Mexico has long since been at odds for various reasons. However, as they put it, “the border crossed us,” 150 years ago during the Mexican-American war. (Levine, 2007) With sentiments that compare the alienation of Mexico to the Berlin wall. (Pedersen, 2007) These dueling sociological groups have several contrasting factors while the border is loosened up buy travel, trade and mere location, regulations and rules are tightening for the movement of people.
The identity crisis that is at stake some would believe is America, as Patrick Buchanan said during his 1992 campaign, “there is war going on, it is a cultural war and critical to the nation that we will one day be”. He refers to this sentiment as a takeover or invasion by the third world. (Pedersen, 2007) Just as this movement is vying for a call of American/Western ideals another is in place based on integration and inclusiveness.
Mexican migrants come to America risking their lives to claim a better lot here, 575,000 a year since 2000. (Hendrix, 2007) The American anthem is sung in Spanish at protests against public policies that limit aid and make border crossing inhumanly dangerous. We now see ads in Spanish and more attention to diversifying the labor market.
However there rests one central idea for both groups that is to curb the movement of people. Mexico wishes to keep its young people there to grow the economy, while America wishes to limit the number of immigrants for job and capital.
My husband and I will be spending five weeks in the fourth largest city in Mexico, known as Puebla. Our main intent is to find out how to better serve the migrant population of students currently in the United States public school system. Another is to look at the panorama of the migrant situation.
We are coordinating our visit in conjunction with the OU College of Education immersion program. They send a group to Universidad Popular Autonoma del Estado de Puebla, (UPAEP) to immerse them in language and culture and look at the schools. We will be doing some activities (weekend trip; meetings) and working with the same office that coordinates the visits, however our research will be taking us out more to look at on the workings of individual schools and focusing on systems. We have scheduled visits to secondary and elementary schools as well as meetings with scholars and other authorities on migrants and educational systems for the first three weeks. However, for the last two weeks we will be visiting with locals, sightseeing, and delving into rural communities to look through a Human Relations lens. We will also be attending a conference on culture and systems of Mexico and Mexican people and taking Spanish classes.
I am here specifically to gather statistics as well as find out about the issues of migration from this perspective. To examine Human Relations issues that I see, and begin to understand them, I as find myself a part of them. To focus on those issues from a cultural understanding lens while inside Mexico. Families who have moved north to work or those who are planning on moving north to work will help to see what they have left behind. What are the driving forces and the situational problems? Within that aspect will be the effects on the children and family. This will be examined through an eyeball account of schools, both rural and urban as well talking to people we encounter.
Besides the basic learning process of cultural norms and language barriers while here, daily accounts and interactions with people in Puebla make-up the basic framework of this paper, and the research arose out questions from those encounters. Therefore several statistics on various topics are included.
Ciudad Puebla
As we arrive in Mexico City the streets are loud and highly over crowded. The cars are backed up like nothing I have ever seen, because I have never been out of America. Beggars fill the streets with wash buckets for car windows; Chiclets, candy or juice are for sell. The streets are marked clearly with lines but no one seems to care, they make four lanes out of two, or three where there should be one. Puebla sits about three hours south of Mexico City, and we are headed there and for UPAEP. We settle in our first night in our apartment it is little but very comfortable.
Puebla is located about eighty miles south of Mexico City and is in Puebla valley (see insert figure 1). The capital city of the state of Puebla, Mexico it sits 7,091 feet above sea level. Founded in 1851, it is one of the oldest cities in Mexico with a population of roughly 1.3 million in 2000. The climate ranges from 40 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit year round with heavy rains in the summer months; it is ideal for growing fruit and flowers (Mulhare,1998).
Figure 1
Dr Alfredo Toxqui Middle School
Today is our first full day in Puebla and as we arrive at the Alfred Toxqui Middle school we are greeted several teachers and administration.
The school is fully concrete in the middle of a bustling neighborhood, there is no playground there is only concrete. We are told by one of the administrators that we may go into the main office, the door closes and I notice that we are not in an office with the head director but we are in a small front room surrounded by what feel like the entire faculty of six or seven maestros (teachers) that do not any speak any English at all, and we don’t speak Spanish I notice this and can’t help but think that if it were in America we would not doubt be behind a closed door with one solitary person that was heading up the whole school. Here we all listen to each other they all spoke and everyone sat around.
As we enter our first class of fourth graders I see a room of about twenty kids they are in uniform and very quiet as we walk in, they stand. We are introduced to the class and proceed to the back. I see that the weather is so perfect the low breeze with smell of city provides for the thermostat, they leave the windows and doors open all time you can hear the loud noises of the street over all the voice of the teacher yet none of the children are raising their voices nor do they ask for something to be repeated they don’t need too, they are totally attentive.
As we enter the next classroom I notice that the first graders here have virtually no teaching tools there are no books in shelves and there are not cabinets filled with the regular stuff that I see in American schools there is only a concrete floor and old wooden mini picnic looking tables that are used as the desks. They are worn.
The next day we return to Toxqui to observe. The second grade classroom that we are visiting is gracious as always, they are working with numbers and boxes. Something that struck yesterday has stayed with us. A boy in one of the classrooms hits another, throws a hard punch right to his cheek, while we were waiting for the teacher to return. We were stunned. My husband and I started talking to each other about how we would not have put up with that, and in an American classroom someone would have said something they would have hit back or at the very least been angry. No one said anything when the teacher returned it was like it did not happen. None of the kids were angry and no one told on him. So I wondered if this was a regular occurrence of hitting. If they punch and do not get in trouble, or if it seen as young boys just playing? But I also had to add our thoughts into the equation of America being a supposed culture of violence. Maybe it is in Mexico that the exception is a hitter. Could our classrooms just have an abundance of children that hit because of our culture?
The director of Toxqui is Manuel Hernandez, an attorney and kind man who invited us to his home like family. He told us as we walked in to that his home was our home, and welcomed us warmly. One thing we were surprised to see was that he took us in to his son’s bedroom and opened up the closet to show his clothes, he then stated, “I work very hard to provide everything that my children need.” We had spent very little time with this man but it was important to him for us to see how he lived.
As we visited Dr. Toxqui Elementary School again as usual were greeted warmly and made to feel at home. We watched the students practice their dances for a festival, carry out presentations on geometry topics, and play related games. One of the teachers expressed her frustrations with the students’ economic situations and how it impacts their schooling and ambitions. She said almost all the children are from single parent families and struggle to get by. The older siblings are often impaired educationally because they must care for the younger siblings while their mother works. She stated that much of the money the state and federal Mexican governments claim to provide the schools never actually makes it to them. In fact, she said they are lucky if each teacher receives 60 pesos per month for 30 students or more. Please note, this is supposed to pay for food as well as school supplies. She also suggested bringing teachers like her to the US would be an effective approach for improving migrant education in the US.
Dr. Ricardo Flores Magon General Secondary School
The following day we travel to a remote school that sits out side of the city by thirty minutes or so, the reality of what an economically contrasting country Mexico is hits us: we are only thirty minutes outside a major metropolitan area and we begin to see burros hauling wood and oxen pulling plows.
The rural school makes us feel very welcome. They have a social worker and we set up times for me to meet with her. She says there are several issues that she has to deal with, some are typical and others such as separation of family because one parent has to another country to work.
The next day is our first classroom visit to the secondary school, Ricardo Flores Magon. It is outside of Puebla near a small town called Chalchinuapan. As we arrive at the school the students are all walking in a huge entourage from the nearby village. They start out their day and week with a flag assembly in which all students participate, at 7:30 in the morning. All the students wear uniforms and stand respectfully, sometimes saluting, throughout the entire ceremony. The assembly was rigid, all the students moved in sync and they saluted and waved their hands in the air as they marched, it looked very European they practice this from a very young age. After the presentation of the Mexican flag, the students sing the Mexican national anthem, and then sing one for the state of Puebla, as well as a song specific for secondary schools. The school’s director or professor introduced us as representatives of the University of Oklahoma.
The setting of this school is rural and there are fields of prickly pear, corn, and other crops around, being plowed by burros. Some houses are large and Spanish style, they are structurally very beautiful but here a large with running water and clean facilities means one thing: that the father or son has gone to American for work. Figure 2 shows remittance flow in 2006.
Total Remittances………23053.8 USD
Money Orders………5.9%
Personal Checks………0.0%
Electronic Transfers………92.6%
Cash and In Kind………1.5%
Figure 2
Other houses do not have a roof. In fact, many homes have rebar sticking from the top, as families hope to add additional levels as they can afford it in the future. There are also large black plastic containers on the roofs, into which water is pumped, which then flows into the house when needed due to gravity. There is a huge contrast in the houses that you see in this rural area; as you look out you can see very beautiful countryside, almost European-like, while huge churches over look everything.
The school day gets underway with a short first hour due to the weekly assembly. There are various areas of curriculum being taught; Natural Science, Math, Spanish, English, State History/Geography, Art, Technology/Computers, and Music/PE. We are told that the school year breaks down into two semesters like their American counterparts, a semester of August to December and the second of January through June.
The classes have a smart board and computer as well regular boards, and the class size averages around thirty. Magon School has a complete and modern computer lab. Today we visited science and math seventh grade classes.
We returned to Magon Secondary School early this cold, cloudy, and rainy morning. Fog and clouds obscure the mountains and volcanoes. The director was not here to greet us but we soon settled into a third year mathematics class for a geometry lesson and practice problems. After touring the campus some more and visiting with the staff we sat in on a third year science class. The maestra lectured on electromagnetism, and the students took notes and read aloud. After that class we sat down for an interview with the social worker and learned several interesting things. She starts her day at 8 am and ends at 3 pm, and she does not go year round, instead she goes the length of the school’s year. She serves as a counselor and nurse as well. One of her more difficult jobs is dealing with the parents. Very few parents are vested in their children’s education, many of them want their children working or they are very preoccupied with trying to get from one day to the next. Many of the parents work as cleaning help or they make sponges, clotheslines, and so on to sell on the street. She estimated three parents out of the school of 200 students she knew of had steady jobs at the local Volkswagen factory.
The United States federally mandated minimum wage of $5.15 an hour is approximately ten times greater than that of the Mexican minimum wage which is 47.05 pesos in 2006, around 4.20 a day. (Levine, 2007) The figure shows the breakdown of job configuration, conversely we will see it becomes very hard to discern what constitutes “employed”.
Mexico Occupational Structure 2006
Total Employed 41,909
Agricultural Activities…14.5%
Goods Production…16.6
Construction…8.2
Total Services…54.4
Figure 3
Students here generally have one of three options upon leaving Magon assuming they complete high school; they may marry, go to the US and work, or make crafts and trinkets to sell. Financially, it is very difficult for them to go to university.
The Mexican working population breaks down as 22 percent earn the minimum wage or less, two-thirds only earn three times that, combing to make a total of that 83% earn only up to five times the minimum wage (Levine, 2007). The unemployment numbers often register as very skewed due to lax definition of “employed population,” …all persons of working age (fourteen plus) during the reference week participated in economic activities for monetary wage, nonmonetary wage, or no payment, and those who would be starting a job within the space of a month (Levine, 2007). The effort here was to cover the sporadic and unofficial economy employees which count for roughly half (Levine, 2007). The workers have little to no benefits. Forty eight percent of wage earners have no contract, while 20 percent work less than 35 hours a week and 27 percent work a reported 48+ hours weekly. The Mexican social security system will provide health care, however only 32 percent are covered (Levine, 2007).
The social worker talked about medical care for the students and the Mexican system. For example, if a student gets injured at school they are able to go to the clinic in town and the social worker will take them. They have cases where a traditional family will not go to the doctor because they believe that a medicine man will heal them better and faster than modern medicine. Another instance was a girl came to school with a severe cut on her arm; it had happened over the weekend but the parents did not take her for medical care because they could not afford the visit. In Mexico, for example, total expenditure on health care is only 5.6% of the gross national product—compared with about 15% in the USA (Ruelas, 2002).
One thousand public hospitals have 75% of the beds; 90% of the 3000 private hospitals have ≤20 beds, often as few as ≤5 beds. In fact, some “private hospitals” can hardly be considered hospitals at all, since they have no laboratories, radiography equipment, or even nurses (Ruelas, 2002).
Many of the children in this area live below the poverty line so health care is limited and they pay a heavy price. If one child is born in the Native Indian part of the state of Chihuahua and another is born the same day in Monterey, those children immediately face inequities: the child born in Monterey has a 17-year longer life expectancy. While yearly around 3 million people in Mexico face catastrophic expenses due to major illnesses or injuries (Ruelas, 2002).
As the social worker she estimates that 70-80% of her parents are migrants, which means that many of them were being raised by single mothers who cannot find work. And when they do, it means they will be left to care for their siblings this was not specific to rural populations, as it is the same in urban areas. The social worker said that the migrants in the US are telling people at home not to come to America, but many people are determined to get there. Another obstacle the children face is not knowing their family, some children have never met their fathers and on occasion their mothers either; they are being raised by their grandparents, because they moved to America to work as well. This is distressing to me, because my observations so far have revealed basically good schools with motivated and knowledgeable teachers who truly care about their pupils.
The students themselves are bright, respectful, and hard working.
Although a new trend is happening as children can be left without both parents, in that women are no longer the companion migratory rather they are crossing the border and finding employment for themselves. Figure 4 shows trend of migrant women.
1995 2005 Total Percentage Total Percentage
Citizenship Status 3,089,367 100.0 4,914,161 100.0
American Citizen 482,83 15.6 1,105,348 22.5
Non-American Citizen 2,606,484 84.4 3,808,813 77.5
Arrival in the US 3,089,367 100.00 4,914,161 100.0
Before 1986 1,834,340 59.4 1,418,406 28.9
1986-1994 1,225,027 40.6 1,167,668 23.8
1995-2000 -- -- 2,328,087 47.4
Figure 4
This shows only the female demographics. Mexican’s constitute the largest sector of the foreign born population living in the US (Perez et all, 2007); with around 11 million in 2005 immigrants here. within these population figures the number of house hold headed by Mexicans total 4,070,910. This labor market integration is a collection of push/ pull factors involving economic reorganization and innovation, which has left Mexico with a large population of surplus labor. Therefore they better their by chance by coming to America. There are however, socioeconomic constraints awaiting their arrival in the US as well. The Latino labor force holds a median income of 651 USD weekly. This show approximately 18 million Latino workers not just Mexican migrants. With the largest percent holding janitorial or cook positions (Levine, 2007).
Today we visited a Magon English class. They were in seventh grade and they were learning basic English vocabulary. After the English lesson we gathered four children for an interview to go over what their daily life is like.
As we sat down with two boys and girls ages 13-15 in eighth and ninth grades, we began to discuss their favorite school subjects. All the students said they liked the science classes the best because they found it more interesting and there was more to do.
All of the children walk from the town to school and it is about a 10-minute walk. Their school day is from 7:30 in the morning until 1:15. We asked why is it that when we pull into the school all the kids are walking in almost one huge group, why is that? How does that happen? He said all just start waling and just see each other. If you can imagine this tiny community, to see a hoard of 200 some children walking to school every morning, no one has a car and they are so close in proximity, they all end up walking together and this represents a sense of reliance within the community. American communities are much bigger, but to get a group of that size together takes organization and planning.
We began to talk about what they do after the school day is done. One of the boys said that he goes to work. He told us that his family has a store. And that he goes to the store after school, to sell the candy, pop and other odds and ends. The other boy said the he must go home and help his mother look after his other siblings due to the fact that his father is in America working. The Migrant center in Puebla sets up phone conversations with television-like screens where toddlers often see there fathers for the first time. Three of the other children live with their parents while he lives only with his mother. While girls must go home and help also some of them make stuff to sell.
They have several of the interests as their American counterparts, sports and reading but there is little in the way of extracurricular activities. They read and watch TV and go for walks in the town.
All of the students said that they want to keep studying after high school; they wanted to be accountants, or work in technology. We had several more question as we began to wrap up, I wanted to dig further about the boy whose father worked in New Jersey, but in a situation like this it becomes hard to assess what is it appropriate to ask and not.
Cuetzalan, Mexico
As the weekend got underway we joined other exchange students, teachers, social workers, and nurses on a trip to the city of Cuetzalan in the mountainous part of the state of Puebla. We departed early and enjoyed a comfortable four-hour bus ride through winding and hilly terrain. Upon arrival we checked in and immediately hiked to and explored a local cave. We saw wild coffee, banana, and papaya plants growing amongst the lush vegetation and cultivated fields of maize and other crops. Birds, butterflies, and other animals were numerous. We could choose between shopping in the picturesque town, rappelling and swimming in a waterfall, or horseback riding. The local cuisine was exotic and sumptuous, and at night the UPAEP and hotel staff held a cook out for us. We were also able to explore the Mayan ruins near the village of Yohualichan.
We were explained to on the bus by the UPAEP official that the region around Cuetzalan is famous for growing coffee. It began to resonate with us that we were at the heart of a globalization process that some believe degrades the worker and others that it allows more power to buyer and seller. These are the farmers who work the coffee fields, and grew, picked, and sold the coffee. This aspect of research was very important in order fully understand these very real and complex Human Relations issues. I bought some coffee from a girl selling it on sidewalk to try, and it was delicious.
The daily cup I now sip on is not what I expected to have one the most profound influence on my trip, but it did. This intricate market we now participate in, has us drinking from a global trading system. According to PBS Frontline World News (2003) a coffee bean can change hands up to 150 times before reaching you. In Mexico 90 percent of coffee farms are 12.5 acres or less. The majority of them are owned by indigenous people. We traveled to these beautiful areas past the naturally growing plants. The profit is not equally distributed cross the board. These indigenous workers who grow the plant, which takes coffee plant around three years for a plant to produce around 2000 cherries which is only a pound of coffee. They then must hand pick at just the right time to guarantee the quality. They receive 10 to 12 cents on the dollar. I was looking at their homes and some live on dirt floors and they peddle juice or crafts they have made for a few pesos. One big issue is that production exceeds the use. The average cup goes from growers to traders that often have the only link to the outside knowledge of market worth, to shippers, roasters, and then retailers. Seeing this first hand had a profound impact on my sense of global community and corporate responsibility (Rubin, 2003).
We left with a realistic account and deeper understanding of a major Human Relations concern.
Teacher Interview and the SEP
The week got underway with a visit to Magon science class, where the children were presenting on Natural Phenomena. They presented reports on meteorology and astronomy as well health benefits of science, and they were prepping for a botany exercise that will improve the grounds of the school.
We had a chance to sit down with the teacher and ask a few questions, and we found out much information. She had been teaching for three years. In order to complete a teacher certification it takes six years, she was in her third year leaving three to go. One of the most interesting answers we found was given to us when we asked, “What do you need from the government to better serve your students”? She replied that it would be very good to have a breakfast provided for the students. They often come to class tired form watching their siblings all night, or working long hours, and there is not enough food. Parental involvement was needed as well, because so many of the parents have gone to work in America and that becomes an issue for the government because of a lack of jobs that pay well.
We also later found out that the average starting teacher pay in Mexico is 6,000 pesos a month, which is roughly 600 USD. Education in Mexico is regulated by the Secretariat of Public Education ( Secretaría de Educación Pública) or the SEP. In Mexican schools, students must master specific skills before being promoted to the next. Uniforms are traditionally worn by all students in elementary and middle schools for the purpose of lowering clothing costs, minimizing social class differences, instilling discipline and creating a school environment where all students have a sense of belonging (Roybal, 2004).
Educational standards are set by this Ministry at all levels except in autonomous universities chartered by the government. Basic Education comprises preschool, primary school, and lower secondary school. Preschool covers children aged three through five and is generally provided in three grades; Secondary Education, and Upper-Secondary Education is separate from Basic Education. This stage is non-compulsory and has three pathways: General upper-secondary, Technical professional education, and Technological upper-secondary. Until 1992, education was compulsory only through the end of primaria, or sixth grade. Many families still consider education important only through the primaria years, and there is significant attrition after sixth grade in urban as well as rural schools. (Stein, 2004)
For our dinner that we grabbed tacos from a taco stand and the young man cooking the food asked us if we were from Estados Unidos, when we replied yes he informed us that he was going to Chicago to work. Our Spanish improves so much through these conversations, as well gathering information about the people of Puebla. So many of the people that we address speak to us about leaving, that is what they want to do, all they want to do, and their main goal.
Additional Visits
The next week encompassed writing and reading and joining OU and UPAEP students and staff for short two hour visits to Manuel Acuna Primary School and Miguel Hidalgo Elementary School in Puebla. The focus was on special education in Mexico. We learned that Mexican special needs students are mainstreamed into the public schools, numbering anywhere from three to twenty per school. Special Education teachers and other personnel rotate through the schools 2-3 times per week. We observed pre-school and elementary students reading, dancing, singing, and in physical education. The second school that we visited did not have any electricity, as the bill had not been paid.
My husband and I attended our Spanish class later in the day, and bought bus tickets for our weekend trip to Veracruz, the largest port in Mexico.
The Immersion classes graduated today, and we attended. We enjoyed a huge ceremony, with wonderful traditional Mexican food, and entertainment by a Mariachi band. In Puebla they have a dish called Mole Poblano; it is made of several ingredients including chocolate and various chiles. The origin of Mole Poblano, this thick, rich, chocolate-tinged sauce made so famous in the colonial mountain city of Puebla (Nemerovsky). I know now that the word, “poblano” means the “Puebla people” like Oklahoman or Mexican, so anything with that word has origins of Puebla.
We also had Spanish class with our wonderful instructor, Rosario Robles. Our Spanish is improving significantly; some things are made so much harder due to the simple fact that we can neither speak nor understand the language very well. Afterward we boarded a bus for Veracruz, arriving late and checking in at the hotel near the beach. Joining us was Sherry Cox, OU Spanish instructor.
Veracruz, Mexico
We spent the weekend in the port city of Vera Cruz. Veracruz is Mexico's largest and most important port, and serves today all of Mexico's central and southern states with the extensive rail and road networks directly connected to the port. The port serves with its direct access to the Atlantic Basin all the eastern coast of North America, Central and South America, Europe and Africa (Wallengren, 2006). From 1994 to 1998, the cargo handled at the Port has increased from 8,000,000 to 13,000,000 tons (Sorensen, 1998).
This brings the issue of international trade to the table. Seeing as how I was once again witness to a global dynamic, so I thought I should further my knowledge.
One subject that was to curb migration as well as stimulate the trade between America and Mexico was the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). President Salinas of Mexico in the early 1990’s boasted that NAFTA would help Mexico to, “export goods and not people.” This came with a promise of modernizing the Mexican economy, higher wages and more jobs. México has figured in the past decade one of the top three trading partners, for both imports and exports, of the US (Levine, 2007). After NAFTA the foreign trade rose to over 50 percent which left Mexico’s economy vulnerable to our fluctuations. (Levine, 2007)
Let us take Tontaca for example, an area in the state of Veracruz where maiz or corn production is not just a crop but a way of life, and with a large Indigenous population they believe gods created humans from a mixture of blood and maiz dough. Maiz is a staple food and consumed on a daily basis in the form of tortillas. After NAFTA, Mexican markets opened to a flood of U.S. exports. From 1994 to 1996, maiz grain prices dropped by as much as 48 percent (King, 2005). Familiarizing these issues is important to understanding the places visited.
Early Saturday we ventured to the Malecon, or board walk, Mercado, and the famous “Grand Café de la Parroquia” for lecheros, which are espresso coffee and steamed milk. We took a boat across the harbor to the fortress of San Juan de Ulna, which for centuries has served as not only a fortress, but also a prison and government building. It was ironic how we pride ourselves on so many advancements in facilities and structures. This fort kept its prisoners there by filling the escape waters with sharks. However inhumane, they stated that no one had ever escaped in the time that it was a holding for criminals. After visiting the beaches near our hotel, we had a traditional Veracruz dinner and called it a day. On Sunday, before leaving for the bus station, we had time to rent another boat and visit Isla Sacrifios, in the Veracruz harbor. We observed fish, sea stars, sea urchins, coral, and other marine life. A brief visit to the world-renowned Veracruz Aquarium was unfortunately cut short due to our travel schedule. We return to Puebla with a few days to go.
After wrapping up and preparing ourselves to disengage from our apartment we had grown to call home and people that had helped get our bearings we were preparing to say good buy. What we have chosen to take with us varies from person to person.
Identity, through this lens, takes on a new meaning; it can call to question one’s stance on public policy of your own country. As you begin to understand the human relationships develop between two countries, your part and place and how you choose to nurture that connection becomes a reality. One group believes that they are at the mercy and dictation of a larger more powerful group with the only option to assimilate, where do we find ourselves in the equation?
Socioeconomic factors, disparities, and problems that separate families and divide countries cannot be solved by individuals alone but by mass movement, like migrations. I learned the issues cannot be tagged or labeled as one, but rather become a conglomerate force. Movement into America comes with a hefty price tag that many do not see, like a three year old boy who sees and hears his father for the first time over a TV screen and/or a phone call from America. Or the alienation that a foreigner feels thousands of miles away from home and family in a place where he or she cannot understand the language and is are not accepted, as public policy proves.
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Viallrreal, M. & Davy, M. Sending Money Home the Dynamics of Mexico-US Remittances. In Ashbee, E., & Clausen, H.B., & Pedersen, C. (Eds.), Politics, Economics and Culture of Mexican-US migration. (pp 91-106).New York: Palgrave-McMillan.
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Levine, E. From Precarious, Low-Paying jobs in Mexico to Precarious Low Paying jobs in the United States. In Ashbee,E., & Clausen, H.B., & Pedersen, C. (Eds.), Politics, Economics and Culture of Mexican-US migration. (pp 63-90).New York: Palgrave-McMillan.
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Saucedo, S.E. & Perez, M.A. & Olvera, S.G. The Other Side of the Migration Story: Mexican Women in the United States. . In Ashbee, E., & Clausen, H.B., & Pedersen, C. (Eds.), Politics, Economics and Culture of Mexican-US migration. (pp 39-61).New York: Palgrave-McMillan
