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Open Letter to Valley Residents
Phoenix Residents,
Over the course of the
spring 2005 semester, I had the opportunity to take Migration and
Culture. Admittedly, the class is one of the requirements of my degree,
and that was my primary motivation for registering for it. I did not
imagine that I would be hearing anything I hadn’t already heard, as
migration is a pretty hot topic in the Valley of the Sun. There were
some items we discussed that I knew about, such as how different
immigrant groups will assimilate into a society differently, and that
the time period will factor into assimilation as well. However, I did
have some eye-opening experiences as well.
The thing that affected me
the most was our class trip to Nogales in Mexico. I myself had
previously only entered Canada for a day trip a year ago. I’d never been
outside of the U.S. otherwise. As we entered Nogales, I was initially
struck by the amount of pedestrian traffic and the fact that most of the
stores in the shopping area of the city looked a bit run down. I was
also quite shocked and a little frightened at the road conditions and
driving there. As we ventured further into Nogales and into the
residential colonias I was struck by the state of the homes. Most were
built ramshackle with various types of materials, and they were quite
small too. The roads only got worse into the colonias, and we also had
to be careful not to hit one of the many stray dogs that abounded within
the neighborhoods. Throughout all of this, I felt like an alien in a
strange land. I’ve been to South Phoenix, where the housing is certainly
not up to code and most of the pavement is shoddy, but this was
different. In South Phoenix there are still the sites and sounds of
modern city life and traffic lights. In the colonias, it was like going
back in time, except for the other rundown cars. This was a view of
poverty that I hadn’t seen.
This experience in Nogales
made me truly understand the drive to migrate to the U.S. Most of us in
the valley have read the stories and seen the news about the economy in
Mexico. But it’s difficult to equate millions of dollars and even
millions of people living in poverty; the numbers are so large, we can’t
really comprehend it. Seeing the living conditions, and discovering that
the average pay in a maquiladora is roughly $8.00 per day really drives
the bleakness of the situation home. I understand what would drive
someone to risk their life and try and slip through the desert just to
work a terrible minimum wage job in the U.S. Those that are lucky enough
to enter the U.S. through legal means don’t have an easy time of it
either. The wait seems eternal, the fees are astronomical when compared
to the income and you’re subject to the whims of whoever happens to be
interviewing you that day. It’s difficult to enter the U.S. from Mexico,
legally or illegally. Yet people do it every day. I’ve now seen why they
do and I think that’s what I’ll take away from this class: the memory of
Nogales and why people are trying to enter the U.S.
I would encourage anyone
reading this to take a visit to Mexico. But walk out beyond the shops
and sidewalk vendors. Try and see what the city is really built upon:
the colonias and the families laboring to survive there. I guarantee
this, once you see the reality that these people live in everyday,
you’ll view immigration in a new way.
Thanks,
Stephanie Cleland
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