The chances that you’ve been exposed to, by any measurable degree, opinions, facts, statistics or forecasts relative to the immigration issue via your news medium of choice over the last several months are remarkably high. Unless you’ve spent the last consecutive six months outside the country, you’ve seen or heard of what seems to be a lettering arrangement of SB or HB while seemingly arbitrary numbers follow.
Trite figures of speech and expressions are routinely adopted to simulate the extent to which our country has been affected by this international circumstance. Ascending tides, endless waves, daunting floods and threatening charges are all metaphors that have been used to assist us with better visualizing this migration issue.
However, these creative depictions are ostensibly closer to the natural reality this country is faced with when framing our immigration state of affairs. Tellingly, for example, there are approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. In several states, Latinos will soon surpass whites as the majority population – including Texas by 2015.
In many states, including Texas, California and Arizona, one out of every two pupils enrolled in these states’ respective public school systems is Latino. Statistics and projections akin to these are widespread and countless. Consequently, ascending tide and expressions closely resembling it don’t necessarily give an impression that’s too far removed from reality.
Practically all policy makers, as well as some citizens, would like to believe they understand the functional details of international migration. The commonsense wisdom is that the United States is a rich country, and Mexico, by comparison, isn’t. But an overriding, even broader assessment would more sharply point to the consolidation of international economies – also known as globalization – as the fundamental cause.
The adoption of economic reforms, particularly North American, has led to an abundance of economic prosperity over the last several decades. But unfortunately, especially for those who are the least thriving economically, these agreements have produced unintended consequences that have seemingly exacerbated an already tenuously fragile immigration order. International trade liberalization, the centerpiece of these economic agreements, has taken many progressive steps forward, but regrettably, labor market mobility has taken steps backward.
International agreement officials have efficiently, effectively and capably navigated the commercial integration and consolidation of our international economies - and at an aggressive level, too, since 1994 when NAFTA took effect. Authorities have impressively integrated North American markets for goods, capital, information, raw materials and services, but simultaneously not allowed the same for labor markets.
Instead of incorporating the movement of folks who want (and need) to work into the commodity inclusive free trade model, government officials have restricted the movement of those potential workers. This, in essence, is a contradictory set of policies that are essentially residing within the same international agreement. We’re seemingly moving toward the consolidation of international economies, erstwhile insisting upon separation - moving toward integrating North American markets, save one: labor.
Can a free trade/free market system truly be free even though this type of selective integration exists? The amount of visas that exist for this labor classification is fundamentally at odds with the demands of the U.S. labor market. Furthermore, these same visas are routinely oversubscribed years in advance, making the quantities of visas available year to year additionally insufficient.
This paradoxical policy apparently stems from an unwillingness of government officials to accept the economic reality, particularly as it relates to international labor of globalization. The United States and its international partners long ago committed themselves to becoming part of a global commonwealth with a mission consisting of the integration of the markets for goods, capital, information, commodities and services; however, they have failed to acknowledge the inevitable truth that labor markets will unavoidably merge and become integrated naturally. It would be impossible to create a North American free market characterized by free movement of all factors of production except one.
Like it or not, America is bound to its southern neighbor by geography, history and particularly economics. Given its significant history and the blending of cultures and peoples in both directions, the nations are already substantially integrated. Mexican and American policy makers need to accept the reality of North American integration and bring labor into the broader structure of international economic agreements.
The approach moving forward requires decision-makers to place cross-border labor movement aboveboard and accept its normal position in this emerging economy. What’s recommended is regularizing and managing labor movement to promote economic development, minimize costs and disruptions in the United States and maximize benefits for all partners involved.
In the end, this labor population didn’t bring globalization into existence. It’s merely trying to adapt to the ebb and flow of what has become an international, global economy. This community has endured similar episodes in its long, often tumultuous history, where withstanding economic and political inequality has tempered the resiliency that’s needed right now, as we experience this inevitable current of globalization.
Marc Rodriguez is a partner with Corporate Political Strategies, LLC, a political and corporate consulting group. The company was responsible for Latino communications and outreach strategies during the presidential campaigns of 2000, 2004 and 2008.
