Mexican Immigration Thesis

Thesis: “The process of illegal immigration is simple and worth it for Mexicans.“

“We were strangers once too“, that’s what Obama - today’s president of the U.S. - said. But what is it like to be an illegal Mexican immigrant in the U.S. today ? Nearly 11.6 million immigrants from Mexico reside in the United States, according to the 2013 ACS, accounting for 28 % of all U.S. immigrants (Source C). These are just the numbers of counted immigrants, so there are probably a lot more illegal Mexicans in the U.S.. Presumably, there are 11.000.000 illegal immigrants whereof 80% percent are Latinos with a great number of Mexicans. Most of them are living in California especially in Los Angeles County, like in the film “Bread & Roses“ where the main

Crossing the border is dangerous, especially near Tijuana-San Diego. Hundreds of men, women, and children have died in this area while trying to reach the United States.

Most immigrant deaths in the Tijuana-San Diego area are due to the climate. The refugees are exposed to severe weather. They have to track through the desert, where it is very hot during the day, but also very cold at night. Immigrants who are not prepared with adequate water, protection from the sun, and warm clothing mostly suffer dehydration, heat stroke, or hypothermia. Moreover, a lot of people die because they don’t have enough nourishment and water or they got shot from the U.S. border patrol or automatically triggering guns, which are frequently erected in the “no-man’s-land“. Because of that, some of the fleeing Mexicans hire so-called “coyotes“, who smuggle them to the U.S.. These coyotes demand high payment and they don’t shrink from violence if the refugees can’t pay. So some immigrants get kidnapped or even murdered by

With reference to the facts outlined above arises the questions why so many Mexicans try to come to the U.S.. There are abundant push factors for Mexicans, which persuade them to go to the USA.

There are incredibly high crime rates in Mexico, especially in the capital. Homicide and drug related crimes are among others one of the biggest problems of the country. In the last 5 years about 47,500 people have been killed in crimes relating to drugs. Many Mexicans move out of fear for their lives and hope that America is a safer place to live with lower crime rates.

Unemployment and poverty is a major problem in Mexico. A large portion of the Mexican population are farmers, living in rural areas where it’s difficult to actually farm because of the high temperatures and the dry land. 47% of the population is living under the poverty line, so they move to America, because they hope to have better future aspects there.

In addition, the climate and natural hazards in Mexico concern some people to move to America. The soil is arid and even in the more developed areas of the country, the people suffer with water shortages. Volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes & tsunamis and other natural disasters could also force people to migrate if their homes have been destroyed or they flee out of fear