This post is a quick explanation of why I don’t think that using European models of immigration policy are particularly useful in thinking about our own circumstances. The graphic above illustrates GNI per capita in constant dollars for Mexico, Turkey, and Egypt. Click on the graphic for a larger version. It doesn’t constitute cherry-picking—whichever growth model you might use tells very much the same story: growth in Mexico has proceeded considerably faster than growth in Turkey or Egypt although since 2000 Turkey has grown considerably.
Most U. S. immigration comes from Mexico. Most European immigration doesn’t. Their natural sources for immigration are mostly Africa, the Middle East, and, to some extent particularly in the United Kingdom, West and South Asia.
Now, consider a few facts. No European country shares a 1,500 mile border with a country with a median per capita income a third of its own. Our last experience with a “path to citizenship”, admittedly 30 years ago, was that only a minority of Mexican citizens in the United States made eligible to become American citizens did so. International travel and communication has become easier over the years and that includes between Mexico and the United States. Mexico is much wealthier than it used to be and its economy is growing robustly. Finally, the demographics of Latin America and the Caribbean, including Mexico, suggests that Mexico no longer has as large a surplus of young workers as it used to.
The story I would tell about Mexican immigration to the United States goes something like this. For many years, as much as a century or longer, there has been considerable immigration from Mexico to the United States, mostly in the form of migrant workers and depending on economic conditions in both countries. It’s been a way of life. From the point of view of both Mexican workers and U. S. employers, the border might just as well not have existed. People came; they returned home.
The tighter we made border security, the higher it increased the costs to the workers of crossing the border, the more likely it became that they would stay here rather than returning home regularly. That’s essentially the explanation given by Princeton scholar Doug Massey. Far from putting down roots here I suspect that a lot of Mexican workers are maintaining closer ties with the family back home in Mexico than ever before. The exceptions to this are probably individuals brought here as children by their parents, the so-called “DREAM-ers”. Improving economic conditions in Mexico make returning to Mexico more attractive.
Contrast that with the situation in Europe. The demographics and economics of the Middle East, North Africa, sub-Saharan AFrica, and West Asia are completely different from the conditions in Mexico. There’s practically no reason for those who’ve made it to the vastly better conditions in Europe to return home once they’ve arrived.
Hi Dave,
As many mexicans, I have family living in the US, in order to keep our family together, either we go to the US to visit them or the come. In my family´s case, it´s all about coming and going, my mother crosses the border, with papers of course, more than fifty or sixty times a year, going to see my sisters and their families in San Antonio, Tx, and my sisters come to Monterrey at least eight to nine times a year. I know many families who live with the same predicament. When I was a kid a knew a lot of people who wanted to go to the US, to work, today I hardly hear that from anyone anymore, demographics and slow but steady economic growth have translated into more and better paid jobs here in México, and the dangers and border hostility are also a big factor that stops many people from going to the US anymore. There are many central americans passing our territories, going to the US.
I think the situation in Europe it´s different, I think for the most part Mexicans are cristians and one way or another Mexicans and Americans have learned to live side by side for centuries, and American societal values and way of life provide for easier integration, I don´t that ´s the case in Europe, I read and see about millions of descendants of immigrants, mostly arabs, growing with a profound identity dilema.