Immigration: Migration Means Survival

Economic desperation and repression are major sources of pressure on people to migrate. About 30 million Mexicans survive on three dollars a day. In rural Mexico over 10 million people have a daily income of little over a dollar(12 pesos).Around 40% of the 106 million Mexicans live in poverty, and 25 million live in extreme poverty.Oaxaca and Chiapas are the two poorest states with 75% of the citizens living in poverty.In Oaxaca, 900,000 out of 3.5 million receive health care services and the illiteracy rate is 21.8%.

Oaxacan poverty is a result of Mexican economic development policies for the past two decades. Under pressure from the World Bank,the International Monetary Fund and conditions placed on U.S. bank loans and bailouts,the government has encouraged foreign investment while cutting expenditures intended to raise rural incomes.Oaxaca is a state of small farmers,whose main crop is corn.For many years,Mexico's state-owned CONASUPO grocery stores purchased corn at high subsidized prices,turned it into tortillas, and sold them,along with milk and other foodstuffs,at low subsidized prices in cities.Economic reforms and NAFTA led the government to dissolve the system and end subsides.Prices were decontrolled and rose dramatically on all necessities.Now they pay more for milk than in the U.S.NAFTA lowered custom barriers that historically prevented large U.S. corn producers from dumping corn in Mexico.U.S.grain production is so large scale and highly mechanized,with large inputs of fertilizers,pesticides,and genetically modifies seeds.It's costs are lower than smaller Mexican producers and also subsidized by the U.S. farm bill.Under NAFTA,Mexican subsidies are prohibited even when the U.S. farms are supported.Once the agreement went into effect it became cheaper for large Mexican corn growers to buy U.S. corn and resell it than to grow corn themselves.For Oaxaca's small farmers,the price of yellow corn simply couldn't cover the cost of growing it. When farming families couldn't sell enough to buy food and supplies for the coming year,many had to look for another way to survive. Migration meant survival.

Oaxacan poverty means seeking work outside their state in Mexico.They really have been migrating within Mexico for twenty years before NAFTA when government policies of rural development and credit began to fail. They first worked for the coffee and sugar cane planters of Veracruz on the coast.Then they traveled 1000 miles north to Sinaloa's and Baja California's new factory farms growing tomatoes and strawberries for U.S. supermarkets. Eventually, they began crossing the boarder into the United States. These productive workers are constantly sending revenue(remittances) back home to Oaxaca and other states within Mexico.In 2006,the total reached 25 billion.

More from "Illegal People"(David Bacon) in the near future.