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Borderlink Research Trip to Mexico report

First of all, I would like to thank Kristin Koptiuch and BorderLink's staff for making that research trip. I had never been in Mexico before, and, even if I did go myself, I would not have been able to get such a clear picture of what reality of life in this country is.

                   A WALL! About a week before the trip my friend told me there is a wall in a middle of Nogales that serves as a border. I could not believe it. I do not know why. But the wall exists, and it “rises twelve feet high and snakes almost four miles through the canyons of downtown Ambos Nogales” (Ufford-Chage, 70). For many Mexicans there is an American dream behind that wall. They probably wish they could jump over it, but they can not. Even, if they could, few of those five hundred of  U.S Border patrol agents would catch them. Some migrants, I think I can call them the lucky ones, eventually get through the border. Why did I call them lucky? The answer is simple: because of the way they do it. Those illegal immigrants get to USA after about a two-day trip through the desert with its extreme difficulties. They struggle with impossibly high temperature in daytime and cold nights, with lack of food and, especially, lack of drinking water. Wild animals and poisonous insects also add some risk to trips. Thousands of those illegal migrants do not make it and stay in the desert forever. And the worst thing to me is that many of them are kids and women But what makes citizens of Mexico leave their houses and families and set of on such dangerous trips? I shall try to answer this question from my knowledge and my seing of the problem.

                   A devaluation of the peso in late 1994 threw Mexico into its worst recession in over half a century. It caused incomes to decline significantly and brought more than half of the total population below the poverty line. Yes, economical conditions of the country play a huge role in people’s living, but another thing that must be considered is how strong is the desire to live better and what effort is made to live better.

                   Because I’m a migrant myself from the country that seems very close by economic conditions and people who create such conditions to Mexico, I see the problem from a different point of view than all those economists and politicians. To my mind the roots of all those economic condition's sit in people’s heads. What I’m trying to say is that people just do not want to work under any conditions and circumstances. Yes, not all of them, but the main part of population desires to make big money as quick as possible and without any hardships and, preferably, without education. This is not a sudden idea that came to my head after one or two episodes. I analyzed many discussions with my friends, who are immigrants themselves or whose parents are Mexican immigrants. I was really impressed by some of the adult Mexican men with whom I have worked, seeing how lazy they were. Recently, I changed my job and I work in the construction field. Often we pick up Mexican guys for help and they just do not want to work. They are constantly chatting among themselves and taking breaks permanently. I have observed this among Different people, different jobs, different places, but always the same work style. So, I got a strong opinion that a very good portion of Mexican hardships come from laziness. The trip to Nogales proved it in some ways. I was really impressed by how dirty areas around citizens’ houses were. To me it looked like small junk yards (by the way, I noticed at least two junk cars almost in every other backyard). Maybe, I’m too skeptical, but if you really want to come to the USA there is no problem at all. It is just the level of desire and personality.