Mexicans Fear That Work Will Head South

BBC On-Lne | Tuesday, 2 July 2002 | David Loyn

[yankeedame]

Tuesday, 2 July, 2002, 14:35 GMT 15:35 UK P>Mexicans fear that work will head south

By David Loyn, in Mexico

The Rio Grande which separates Texas from Mexico is capitalism's front line.

On the north side is enormous wealth, and on the south a country where $100 a week is a good wage.

Why does the Mexican economy have to go down just because America is fighting a war?

Ramon Aguilar, unemployed Mexican It is not hard to see what attracted US industry across the border after the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) in the mid-1990s.

As well as low wages, there were substantial tax breaks and almost no trade union membership.

Gone for ever?

US industry set up hundreds of assembly plants close to the border.

But as the US economy contracted after the shock of 11 September, Mexico suddenly became far less attractive.

Security checks meant that it took longer to bring goods across the border, and more than 300,000 people lost their jobs as factories closed.

The fear now is that as the US economy stabilises, jobs will not return to Mexico as the restless energy of capital will search for places with lower wages.

Terror link

The Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez has spread right up to the border so that in places only a wire fence separates it from El Paso, Texas.

That wire fence is like a Berlin wall, guarded by cameras and constant patrols.

Ramon Aguilar lost his job when he was injured at work, and he has not been able to find another one.

He lives with his wife and son in a house in a dusty suburb of the city.

From the top of the hill near his house he can see over the fence into the US.

He sees his unemployment as directly related to the US war on terror.

"Why does the Mexican economy have to go down just because America is fighting a war?" he says.

Implications for crime

The factory estates are quiet, as "for sale" signs go up on nearly-new assembly plants which no one wants any more.

Luis Miguel Esparza, a lawyer who works closely with the industry told me it is hard to sack people.

"It's hard to look at their faces," he says.

"It's hard to tell them 'it's over', giving them their severance pay cheque and all of that."

But as a resident of the city he is worried about the social effects of the sudden shakeout of jobs, particularly on the crime rate.

"You can only imagine the impact that has in a community in which security is a problem with the crime rates."

Expansion plans

The Mexican government is convinced that the free trade policy is the right one, although, in contrast to other free trade zones such as the European Union, there has not been a major transfer of assistance from the richer areas to the poorer ones.

Despite the setbacks, the Mexican government has no doubts about the policy, and is pressing ahead with the Plan Puebla Panama, which will open up its neighbours in Latin America to the free trade zone.

Wages there would further undercut those in areas such as Ciudad Juarez.

[VA Advogado]

Thats too bad. Mexico will be become a superpower eventually. We should do what we can to help that happen.

[polemikos]

Why does the Mexican economy have to go down just because America is fighting a war?
Um,...because Mexico doesn't have an economy?

[robertpaulsen]

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

[BlueLancer]

A superpower? Man, what have YOU been smoking?

Manana (in the 25th Century), maybe ... but then again probably not.

[tom paine 2]

One of the other things that has affected maquilladora factories is the constant turnover, as people migrate up to the border work at the factory for a year to build up a stake. Then they haul ass to America as illegals. The maquilladora program has been instrumental in encouraging illegal immigration. I know of some operations that have 100% turnover in the workforce every year. That is another reason that these operations are closing down.

[BenLurkin]

>Mexico has a wealth of natrual resources and an abundance of labor. What it lacks (and probably never will have) is a culture conducive to free enterprise.
>We have our hands full keeping Mexico from dragging the U.S. down to its level. Investments south of the border should only be made with the goal of strengthening the U. S. economy.

[bert]

Please note that the first mention of how to bloodlessly solve the Mexican illegal immigration problem was posted on Free Republic...

A good old fashioned recession will snuff out the marginal jobs and send the illegals packing. They can't sustain the effort with no job.

[Ben Ficklin]

Surely you have documentation to support your assertions?

[guitfiddlist]

What goes a-down, keeps a-going down. Lower Central American countries will now undercut their northern neighbor. Kind of a beautiful symmetry to it.

[Mamzelle]

Gee, I guess it's too much to hope for that Mexico might help us fighting in Afghanistan?

[Tacis]

I'm sure Presedente Fox and his crooked Mexican political allies will demand that President Bush make some financial accomodation to all those Mexicans who stayed on that side (or, at least, said they did) and did not break US law to compensate them for work or work opportunity lost. Of course, the Mexican crooks will get a cut. The drug lords will get cheaper mules, however, so even if the share that goes to the politicians stays the same, profits still go up. Mexican corruption will always prevent Mexico from improving its palce in the world. The Mexicans who will not take bribes from Americans or Europeans are not being "honest," simply arrogant. They will, of course, take bribes from the proper Mexicans.

[tcostell]

The Mexican government is convinced that the free trade policy is the right one, although, in contrast to other free trade zones such as the European Union, there has not been a major transfer of assistance from the richer areas to the poorer ones.

What Exactly do they call 300,000 jobs? What could be more assistance than that?!

Marxism may be dead in the Economics department, but it clearly lives on in the school of journalism.

[tom paine 2]

Prestolite in the state of Sonora is one of the plants that is closing because of this problem. The people I know there have told me about others. Paragon Electric is another that closed their Mexican operation.

[Dakmar]

Call the police, my neighbor has run out chickens for me to steal.

[willyone]

Mexico will never be a superpower. Even if they take over the entire US. In ten years time they will have turned their new holdings into a sewer like Mexico. Their system is too corrupt and their people are to uneducated to ever climb out of the pig pen they have made. Go to formerly nice areas of LA and weep at what has been done.

[willyone]

Last year at a crafts show at the Del Mar Fairgrounds I had a conversation with a exhibitor. He had spent a bunch of money to have things made in Mexico for his business. Nice price quoted. When delivery time came his goods could not be found. Amazingly payment of a fee to the proper person and his products re appeared. He will use Chinese suppliers next time.

[glockmeister40]

"Why does the Mexican economy have to go down just because America is fighting a war?" he says.

WTF do we have to put up with ten million illegal aliens from mexico?

[VA Advogado]

Mexico will never be a superpower.

Funny then how the flat earth anti free traders seem to fear them.