The Pros And Cons Of Transnational Migration
Migrants and immigrants have political and economic structures that produce experiences of danger while crossing the United States and Mexican border and they have poor public reception and policies to help them cross. Before reading this article, I thought I had a decent amount of knowledge about transnational migration and people crossing the border between Mexico and the United States. I knew that thousands of people attempted to cross the border every year, but only a few achieved their dream of making it to the United States. There were many different reasons for individuals to cross the border, such as, the opportunity to make more money, escape conflict and violence, and to create better lives for their children. After reading this
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One of the biggest political and economic structures that stand in the migrants’ way is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The author states that “since the passing of NAFTA, every household in the Triqui town of San Miguel has at least one person working in the US and sending back remittances” (Holmes, 2013). The reason every household had to send at least one member of the household to the United States because “cheaper yellow corn from the US first entered and later dominated the markets by underselling the locally grown diverse varieties of corn” (Holmes, 2013). “The relatively poorer Mexican government was forced to erase tarrifs, including on corn, the primary crop produced by indigenous families in southern Mexico. However, NAFTA and other free trade policies do not ban government subsidies. Thus, the relatively wealthy U.S. government was allowed to increase corn subsidies, effectively enacting a reverse tariff against Mexican corn” (Holmes, 2013). I agree that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) hurt many small time farmers because I remember reading in my Spanish class last year that starting in 1994 there was a jump in immigration to the United States because small farmers could not compete with genetically modified midwest corn, and the farmers also only had enough crops to feed their
One of the biggest political and economic structures that stand in the migrants’ way is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The author states that “since the passing of NAFTA, every household in the Triqui town of San Miguel has at least one person working in the US and sending back remittances” (Holmes, 2013). The reason every household had to send at least one member of the household to the United States because “cheaper yellow corn from the US first entered and later dominated the markets by underselling the locally grown diverse varieties of corn” (Holmes, 2013). “The relatively poorer Mexican government was forced to erase tarrifs, including on corn, the primary crop produced by indigenous families in southern Mexico. However, NAFTA and other free trade policies do not ban government subsidies. Thus, the relatively wealthy U.S. government was allowed to increase corn subsidies, effectively enacting a reverse tariff against Mexican corn” (Holmes, 2013). I agree that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) hurt many small time farmers because I remember reading in my Spanish class last year that starting in 1994 there was a jump in immigration to the United States because small farmers could not compete with genetically modified midwest corn, and the farmers also only had enough crops to feed their