Mexican Immigrants Crossing the Rio Grande

Photograph

By: Danny Lehman

Date: 1983

Source: © Danny Lehman/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.

About the Photographer: Corbis is a digital imaging/stock photography company, with headquarters in Seattle and offices worldwide.

INTRODUCTION

Illegal Mexican labor migration to the United States has a long history. Since the late nineteenth century, many Mexican citizens have crossed the border into the United States in search of employment. For many decades, it was relatively easy to cross the border, and migrants have been attracted by a ready supply of jobs, particularly in the agricultural sector, which has a continuous demand for a low-cost, flexible labor force.

Actual levels and patterns of labor migration from Mexico to the United States have changed over time, partly in response to economic and political conditions in Mexico, but also in response to various U.S. immigration policy initiatives.

Between the early 1940s and mid 1960s, migration from Mexico to the United States was generally short-term and circular in nature, and much of it occurred legally under the Bracero program, a scheme intended to provide labor for seasonal agriculture in the southern states. However, numbers of unauthorized migrants were also rising steadily at this time, putting increasing pressure on the U.S. government to address the issue. In response, the Immigration and Nationality Act (1952) came into law, which introduced penalties for harboring undocumented migrants, but this legislation exempted agricultural employers in order to meet the needs for migrant labor, and did little to curb the flow of undocumented labor migrants.

With the end of the Bracero program in the mid 1960s, the number of undocumented workers from Mexico continued to rise steadily, but throughout the 1970s, most of the migration was still short term in nature, and the majority of migrants were males from rural areas in Mexico. By the 1980s, however, the patterns were changing. An economic crisis in Mexico in 1982 led to more Mexican citizens migrating in search of work, and it became increasingly common for women and family groups, and for urban as well as rural Mexicans, to enter the United States as undocumented workers. There was also a significant increase in the reported numbers of undocumented workers who stayed permanently in the United States, rather than returning to Mexico.

At the time this photograph of women and child emigrants crossing the Rio Grande River was taken in 1983, both politicians and the public in the United States were becoming increasingly concerned about the rapidly increasing levels of undocumented migration from Mexico. As a result, the United States increased measures to secure the borders. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 included a large increase in the number of border patrol agents, and the use of advanced technology to patrol and secure the border. These measures have made border crossings more difficult and hazardous than in the past, but they have failed to deter migrants from attempting to cross the border. As a result, there have been more accidental deaths among Mexicans attempting to enter the United States, an increased use by migrants of coyotes, people-smugglers, to facilitate their entry, and a consequent development of people smuggling as a major form of organized crime in Mexico.

PRIMARY SOURCE

MEXICAN EMIGRANTS CROSSING THE RIO GRANDE

See primary source image.

SIGNIFICANCE

Despite a policy emphasis in the United States on strengthening U.S.-Mexico border controls, undocumented migration from Mexico has continued to increase. Furthermore, more Mexican migrants are believed to be settling permanently in the United States, although some research has indicated that the majority of migrants do eventually return to Mexico voluntarily. There has also been a reported increase since the 1980s in the proportion of Mexican labor migrants who are women, many of whom are following the traditional male migration pattern of working in the United States for temporary periods before returning home.

Mexican labor migration to the United States can be argued to have benefited both countries. For Mexico, it has eased unemployment and contributed to the economy in the form of remittances. The United States has in turn benefited from a low-cost, flexible labor force, which has met the needs in particular of seasonal agriculture and industry in the southern states.

However, there is a conflict between the needs of employers for a migrant labor force and the public pressure on the U.S. government to tackle undocumented migration and secure the borders in the interests of national security. There are also contradictions in U.S. policy between the need to protect the borders against undocumented migrants and infiltration by terrorists, on the one hand, and the need to open the borders to the legal passage of goods under the provisions of the NAFTA free trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Monto, Alexander. The Roots of Mexican Labor Migration. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1994.

Periodicals

Canales, Alejandro I. "Mexican Labour Migration to the United States in the Age of Globalisation." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 29, 2003.

Cornelius, Wayne A. "Controlling 'unwanted' immigration: lessons from the United States, 1993–2004." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 31, 2005.

Espenshade, Thomas, J. "Unauthorized Immigration to the United States." Annual Review of Sociology. 21, 1995.

Griswold, Daniel T. "Confronting the Problem of Illegal Mexican Migration to the U.S." USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education). 131, March 2003.