Geographical background in Mexico:

·         Land concentration by the rural elite, and land degradation caused by over-use by landless people on the most fragile of land, often forces people to abandon their rural lifestyles and farms.

·         Millions of people have become eco-migrants, searching for better land and lives elsewhere.

·         Mexico loses about 2,250 square kilometres of farmland to degradation each year, and about 900,000 people leave Mexico's parched and semi-arid lands annually, partly due to land degradation.

·         These are examples of ‘push’ factors within Mexico, the map below shows the level of deprivation within Mexico, which also acts as a ‘push’ factor:

There is much unemployment in Mexico, with 40% unemployed and 20% underemployed, and with the knowledge that there are many jobs in America from family and friends, this is a ‘pull’ factor.

Originally the Americans were pleased to have the Mexicans doing the dirty jobs with poor wages and unsociable hours, that they did not wish to have, the economy in places like Texas and California was experiencing rapid growth, and it was assumed the Mexicans would leave after a few years.

Mexican migrants benefited, as they were easily able to find jobs in the USA, which bought in a better income for his/her family and increased standard of living.

As long as the difference in wealth between two countries that are adjacent to each other is extremely large, poor people will migrate to the wealthier country. Gross Domestic Product per person in Mexico is only $5,500 a year, compared with $36,000 in the U.S.

Legal and illegal immigrants together send some $6 billion a year back to Mexico, therefore people back in Mexico are benefiting by having a larger income due to their family members emigrating.

However, in the late 1970’s things changed:

The world was hit by an economic recession, unemployment increased and caused the Americans to become bitter about the Mexicans taking up their jobs that the Americans now felt that they needed, they because resentful.

The number of immigrants from Mexico was tightened; this resulted in some immigrants to the USA from Mexico going in illegally. About 3 million Mexicans work illegally in the United States, though some say the number may be as high as 10 million.

In 1991 one million illegal immigrants from Mexico were caught and deported back home, but many more still managed to get into the USA.

Two examples of people crossing the United States-Mexico border:

 Some entered on visas but did not leave when they expired.

By the early 1990s there were 12 million Mexicans living in the USA, 10% of which were illegally there.

·            Health conditions are also affected in the border region. The rate of tuberculosis per 100,000 population on both sides of the border in 1995:

Effects in the USA:

• In 1994 the Californian people voted to take away most of the welfare services from illegal immigrants, as many were thought of as unskilled, poorly educated and with large families – they believed this would save their state some money.

• This also acted as a deterrent for further migration into the USA.

• Some Americans feel the Mexican culture has taken over in California, as Spanish is widely spoken and there are many Spanish restaurants, shops and bars etc.

• What originally was thought to benefit both Mexico and  the USA has now become a problem for the USA which is proving difficult to overcome.