Viewing/Blogging The Other Side of Immigration

The Other Side of Immigration Video Blog

Define the term agency and explain how individuals in the video entitled The Other Side of Immigration taking agency? 

What responsibility does the Mexican government have to support Mexican farmers? In what ways would Mexican government support of Mexican farmers change the immigration pattern?

What are the consequences for families in Mexico when millions of Mexicans migrate to the U.S.?

 The term Agency means when someone is taking power of their own volition. For example when someone is hungry and they take agency and get food. The individuals in the video entitle The Other Side of Immigration taking agency as the Mexican government not being able to provide for the people and therefore pushes out the Mexican workers to migrate to America and work for better pay. The Mexican migrants are pulled into a new country that gives them a better promise of a job, and this is known as the Push and Pull factors of Agency. The responsibility that the Mexican government has to support Mexican farmers is not really there for them because of the lack of capital.

Poster for The Other Side of Immigration

 Without capital the economy in Mexico is lacking and if they were to get support from the government their would definitely be less immigrants from Mexico. The Mexican government also does not inform it's people so it's very hard for the workers to support their own government. The consequences or sort of drawbacks for families in Mexico when millions of Mexicans migrate to the U.S. is that the kids are not able to see their fathers for many years and some don't even come back. The wives of the immigrants are also left to worry about how they get into the country with the fear of the desert travel and the wild animals that are out there. Some children of the workers that leave for the U.S. don't have a father figure to put them in their place and are left to abuse drugs and turn to gangs as a family. 

     

Reading Response/Blog Entry : FF, BB Chapter 2

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies by Seth Holmes

"How many migrant workers are in the United States? How many are immigrants? What percentage of agricultural workers are from Mexico? How many are unauthorized?"

In chapter 2 of Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies by Seth Holmes, there are about 175 million migrants in the world. There are about 95% of agricultural workers from Mexico and about 52% of them are unauthorized. The statistics were quite bizarre to me because although the book was released in 2013 there are about 327 million people in the U.S. right now and if the statistic were put into perspective that is a little more than half of the population of people who are migrants. I also learned that the Mexican government is not really providing for the farmers of Mexico which was some of the many main reasons as to why so many people migrated to the U.S. The "Save Our State" initiative in the chapter, which was a proposition that was passed in 1994 that basically denied public services such as health care and education to people that are "reasonably suspected to be undocumented," kind of annoyed me because some if not most of the migrants are harmless and are just looking for better opportunities not only for themselves but for their families back at home and if they were to get sick and die then the family would not only be left with no income but also the grieving of a lost loved one. 

Struggles of Migrant Workers from Mexico