Mexico: Welcome To The New South

Glenn Reynolds posts Annex Mexico? at GlennReynolds dot com.

So maybe we've been thinking about this the wrong way.  Instead of worrying about Mexicans invading America, maybe what we need is for the United States to annex Mexico.

Oh, we don't need to turn Mexico into a state, or several.  At least not right away.  But as part of any immigration deal, the United States needs to demand reform in Mexico.  Serious political reform, and serious economic reform.

And reciprocity.  If we're going to make it easy for Mexicans to come to the United States to live, work, hold property, and get public benefits without too much paperwork trouble, we need to make it easy for Americans to do the same in Mexico.  Right now, as several people have noticed, the environment there is considerably less friendly to foreigners than America's is.

This brings to mind a professional conversation I had with a colleague just last week. We both work in Technology. Right now, India more than any other nation proves the great tragedy that is currently Mexico.

I imagine most if not all blog readers have heard the term offshoring, particularly with regard to technology. Many corporations have embraced the notion of sending certain portions of their technology development offshore to India and various other nations, as well.

It is not a disaster for the American economy, as some might have you to believe. Tremendous amounts of high end and proprietary software development continue within our shores and likely always will.

But the fact remains that entire nations have begun to understand and embrace the concepts behind global commerce and are educating and preparing their populations accordingly. Mexico is not.

I understand, as should most, that it is not the Mexican people who are fault as regards America's current illegal immigration problems. The root cause is our proximity to what is increasingly becoming a tragically failed third world state.

The current Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita for Mexico is $9,600 and all but flat over the past five years. The US GDP per capita is $40,100 and has risen consistently over the years. Amazingly, more and more Americans are retiring to Mexico, despite severe restrictions on their civil or citizen rights.

Retiring Americans Go south, old man

YOU CAN'T really tell you're in Mexico. The menu is in English, so is the music, and seemingly every patron in the place is American—many of them extended families come together to celebrate Thanksgiving. San Miguel, a hillside town three hours north of Mexico City, has long played host to a community of expatriates from the United States, many of whom have chosen to retire there for all or part of the year. Although neither the Mexican government nor the American one keeps statistics on the town's foreign population, anecdotal evidence suggests that it is now growing at a faster pace than ever.

Freedom as a driver for immigration may look noble on a banner in a demonstration, but in and of itself is not the driver some would have us believe. What causes people to move back and forth between the US / Mexican border is favorable economics in both cases, and nothing more.

The existing Mexican economic structure favors the few already economically well off at the sacrifice of the masses.

Let me start by putting on the table a central thesis: I think, and my party thinks, that the economic strategy that has been in place for the last 18 years is not delivering for the majority of the people in Mexico. The structural adjustment policies and trade liberalization policies have sharpened inequality and income disparity in Mexico. These policies have benefited only a small circle of economic agents of corporations, mostly those already connected to the international economy, to the detriment of the majority of micro and small and medium businesses, workers and the average Mexican citizen. So when people say that the fundamentals are sound, that the economy is performing well, the relevant question up front is for whom? It reminds me of the saying by our Brazilian friends, when people describe the macroeconomic outlook in Brazil as working very well, they say the Brazilian economy is doing fine, it's just most Brazilians that are suffering.

Getting back to the technology industry discussion referenced above, had Mexico invested over the years in education and technology infrastructure, right now they could be experiencing a tremendous boom. The low wage workers we see marching in our streets today could be living comfortably while developing software for a world and especially a US market far more easily and conveniently than does, say India or China and a number of other countries increasingly coming on line in that respect.

Sadly, rather than invest in such endeavors, the Fox government that would lecture us on what it is our immigration policies should be, is ignoring incredible opportunities for his own nation and peoples at our expense, opting to export poverty to the US instead of addressing it prudently at home.

To a good extent, Mexico's powerful, including its politicians line their pockets and leave their own people to wander through the desert hoping to find a living wage in America. And to date, the same American politicians so baffled by today's immigrations issues have not done one serious thing to make the Mexican government shape up. Until that happens, only a wall is going to keep throngs of impoverished Mexicans seeking an escape.

Comments

[RKV]

"Go South, old man" Funny you should mention the South. Think AMERICAN SOUTH - as in pre-civil rights era South. Think poverty, corruption and rascism. That is what Mexico is. Do we really need to do this again?

[IMHERE]

To a good extent, Mexico's powerful, including its politicians line their pockets and leave their own people to wander through the desert hoping to find a living wage in America. And to date, the same American politicians so baffled by today's immigrations issues have not done one serious thing to make the Mexican government shape up. Until that happens, only a wall is going to keep throngs of impoverished Mexicans seeking an escape.

Monday, April 10, 2006 at 11:11 PM in Immigration | Permalink

Exactly, in the interest of civil rights, we should annex Mexico, get rid of Fox as he does not care about his own citizens and would rather have the US take care of them, providing jobs, education, housing and medical assistance. Kinda looks like he wants no part of his citizens, except the money they can send back. Soooo, how bout annexing Mexico, sounds good to me, why not get a benifit from all of this bs.

[Don]

Commonwealth status like Puerto Rico. They can keep their identity and a large degree of autonomy. Make it a provision at every 10 years there is a mandatory plebiscite for independence.

If the advocates for illegal immigrant rights are so concerned about the welfare of the obreros who were able to make it north, what about those still stuck back home? The logic is that the concern should apply to both. If the advocates support the concept that the US should have no borders, then logically Mexico shouldn’t either. Once you denounce sovereignty as a concept, it applies both ways. Every illegal crossing the border is another vote for annexation.

Time to start now talking with the citizens of Mexico. Do they want a stable growing economy? Do they want a stable currency that doesn’t face devaluation with every change of El Presidente? Do they want free flow of labor and capital? Do they want job opportunities for themselves and their children? Would they like to adopt a system with far less tolerance of governmental corruption? Or is their own chauvinism and xenophobia more valuable?

I was stationed in Korea in the 80s, a country whose GDP was flatlined by the Korean War half a century ago, about the size of Kansas, with no natural resources, and a far smaller population. Checking the almanac, while Mexico is ranked 11th in GDP, Korea is ranked 13th. The wall is not the shame. The shame is the ultimately vile and corrupt Mexican governmental culture that has looted the country and its people. The ability to dump millions of their unemployed upon their neighbor allows that ruling social strata to avoid revolution and reform. It is not in any way in the interest of that group to stop the flow of their human refuge. No immigration ‘reform’ in Washington will alter that.

[James Stephenson]

The people who come over the border would probably not be unemployed in Mexico. Half of work is just showing up, especially in unskilled labor.

In fact, some of those people if they stayed in Mexico would end up being the ones who start small businesses. After all, it takes guts and commitment to cross that border and look for a job.

[TLB]

I don't know why anyone would propose annexing Mexico, and I find these various calls interesting in light of the related views of the CFR. They want to make it easier for seniors to retire to Mexico:
http://lonewacko.com/blog/archives/003937.html

They want to integrate the U.S., Mexico, and Canada into one big happy country:
http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/july05/05-07-13.html

The Cato Institute has proposed something similar, and John Cornyn has legislation that would lead to an integrated banking system. Should the call to annex Mexico be considered propaganda?

Note that various House members have complained about Mexico overstepping their bounds, but they're usually shouted down by Bush supporters:
http://lonewacko.com/blog/archives/000223.html

Note also that our ambassador to that country is a friend of Bush and is married to their ricest woman, even though he occasionally talks tougher than Bush. And, here's an interesting article on Bush's ties with Mexico:
http://www.elandar.com/bush/amigos.html

[tk]

AS I have said for years I welcome the mexican. But we should annex one square mile for each person crossing the border. There has to be reciprocity.

[Gordon]

Well said (and researched), Danny. It is not the Mexicans who have created the problem. It is their government stalled by their own corruption. Under U.S. territory, the average Mexican could open his business much easier. Opening the area to foreign investment and development would create jobs.

Then something very strange would happen. Massive Southward migration.

[Phoenix]

Wow. Nice job, Dan. You sure don't write if you are not willing to offer a solution. Kudos to you.

Can you imagine Mexico getting the business we send to India??? We'd have to build the infrastructure, but still, the possibilities are enormous.

I read something about people retiring in Mexico and loving it.

[Ken]

I think a big part of the problem with illegal immigration is that China is beating Mexico's brains out in manufacturing. Mexico has real advantages in terms of proximity to the US and great infrastructure from the border north but even Mexico cannot compete with the ridiculously low wages in China, the massive government subsidies to industry, and in some cases, the slave labor China has dedicated to bring cheap goods to the US.

We have leverage over China now, in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008. We should do even more than we are to strengthen ties with Taiwan, and press the WTO to hold China to the 2007 deadlines to reform their banking to make it more transparent. Both these steps will stress the fragile Chinese government at a time when they do not have the latitude to resist. And when a Communist gets stressed without a lot of recourse, walls fall down.

[tim joe]

U r a stupid motherfuker because the only time we could annex mexico is if they choose to that the only way u cock head

[alex lorenzo]

I have to tell u joe. U are correct about what u said. This guy that suppose to know what he is writing does not know what he is doing. A country cannot be annex by another country. The only way is like what joe said. Only if the nation choose to be part of another nation like,what texas did they choose to brek apart from mexico to become part of the us. They should put a dick up glenn reynolds annex

[corrie]

fuck all the anchor babies and the adults attached to them!....mexicans should be shot crossing the border....thats my opinion.....stay in mexico!!!

[The Mexican]

Hi guys im mexican i crossed the border one day for a better life....i love my country and i love my people its true that is not our fault is the people who is driving our socity my socity do not govern it self............im as a mexica want to rise a revolution not with guns but with sence, my people do not know the diffrence between first world and the shit we are living there...the most need to weak up and realise that it is a better way of living....im not saying that the American way is the best, but its a very good exemple im now legally living in europe learning a lot, im going to the university for second time after i was in mexico and preparing my self for doing something that will help to change the country....but im not a rich man or politician or decendent of a rich familly or anything like this....im just a dreamer and really with tears in my eyes, i see the shit my people its sunk into and is not thanks to any other country but to the bastards that dont deserve to even be named as Mexicans in the goverment.......im very young and planing very carefully the day when i will come out to help stand up my people....i will need collaboration of all of you guys if any of you is interested in help for a good cause please let me know .....all sugestion are wellcome Thank you