Immigration: Causes
Immigration, Mexico to US (excerpted from the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras letter of 3/15/07
“As you know, the corn tortilla is the main item in the Mexican maquila worker’s diet, and the price of tortillas just increased to $1.50 US a kilogram. A family of four consumes three kilograms a day for $4.50. But a maquila worker in a US or Canadian-owned factory only makes $5. for an eight hour work day.
“The living conditions of the maquils workers in the Blanca Navidad shantytown in Nuevo Laredo are the same as those of the maquila workers living in the Strength and Unity shanty town of Matamoros, or in Maclovio Rojas in Tijuana. They have no running water, no sewage or electricity and all the houses are made from cardboard boxes or wooden pallets. Across the country and expecially on the northern border, poverty and hunger are the air that you breathe.
“The workers of Cardinal Brands, a paper company based in Valle Hermoso, whose headquarters is in Kansas, are working 14 hours a day, seven days a week with mandatory overtime. They are exposed to glues, solvents, dyes, and ammonia without an safety equipment. .....
“The lack of decent jobs, housing, and schooling for children are just a few of the challenges workers face every day along with the low wages and unsafe working conditions ….
“...A fair amnesty could help the 10 millions of undocumented people already in the US, but what will happen to the one hundred and twenty million in Mexico who are ready to cross because the choice is either to die of hunger or to risk crossing the border?”
— Peter Mott
