Monday, July 11, 2011

Who's Going to Tell Them They'll Have to Cut Their Own Lawns?


It's a good thing that American Republicans, like Harper Conservatives, are so gifted at ignoring facts.  Without that special talent the Repugs would have a hell of a time dealing with their country's illegal immigration shrinking population.

You heard right.  The numbers of illegal Mexicans in the United States is declining.   More Mexicans in the U.S. are going home than new illegals arriving.   Apparently the American economy is just too shitty to draw Mexicans any longer.

Worldwide, Gallup finds that “people's desire to migrate permanently to another country is showing signs of cooling.”

Immigration from Mexico – which provided the largest number of immigrants to the U.S. during this latest wave – has all but dried up. Douglas S. Massey, co-director of the Mexican Migration Project at Princeton, told the New York Times that fewer Mexicans want to migrate northward today than at any time since at least the 1950s. “No one wants to hear it, but the flow has already stopped,” Massey told the Times, referring to illegal entries. “For the first time in 60 years, the net traffic has gone to zero and is probably a little bit negative.”

4 comments:

thwap said...

Which is a sign of trouble ahead for Mexico.

Those people weren't running to the USA because they had an overwhelming compulsion to clean gringo's toilets.

They were leaving because NAFTA destroyed their livelihoods. Those who didn't get to the USA are trying to eke out a deadly subsistence in the violent drug trade.

The upcoming Mexican elections should be interesting.

Carter Apps, dabbler of stuff said...

When the financial mess first started in the States I said the end game would include Mexicans going home and eventually Americans sneaking across the St. Lawrence to work under the table for me.

I'll get me a nice friendly Cletus to cut the grass and clean the pool, I'll save the toilet duty for some ex banker called Jeff.

The Mound of Sound said...

@ GAB - No, you've got it all wrong. The guy you want for the toilet work is a real professional, a guy by the name of Skilling.

@ Thwap - I haven't been following Mexican politics. Anything seismic on the horizon?

thwap said...

Well, this writer thinks that the left vote will be split and the old PRI will come back.

But, if crossing the US border was supposed to be a lifeline for millions of Mexicans (and millions more Mexicans who depend upon their remittances), the US economic downturn means the loss of a lifeline.

Whatever happens electorally, if 2 million people find themselves starving, things will get very, very bad.