Analysis of So Mexicans are Taking Jobs from Americans by Jimmy Santiago Baca

During the last two centuries Mexican migration to the United States have changed the culture and economic values of this nation. Coming from a country where only the rich can strive and the poor struggles to survive. Mexican immigrants risk their lives to come to this country for an opportunity to a better life and to support their families back home. With their journey to this nation they bring their culture and language, involving the American culture in many ways. They come to also face many negative aspects as well. discrimination, labor exploitation and ultimately deportation. But this has not stopped them from coming to the United States in the last two centuries.

The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2)

The next six lines (or next sentence) deepens the class divide between the speaker and the ‘turistas.’ First, the speaker sees the women rub oil onto themselves, that is “sweeter than honey,” and the children being playful, sipping on drinks with “long straws, coconut white, mango yellow.” The scented oil and colorful drinks (‘material possessions’ in Marxist terms) demonstrate the privilege that the tourists have in comparison to what the speaker and her family have (or, more likely, do not have), for the latter would likely have regular plastic straws to basic drinks. Also, it is worth noting that the speaker does not even have a clear view of the tourists enjoying their vacation--she has to “peek” through the cactus fence, which is essentially a border between the two classes.

As the population of Latin America and the Caribbean raised in 1995 with a 190 percent increase (Gonzalez 199), the job markets in Mexico are becoming scarce and competitive. The living conditions of residents in provincial towns like in Cheran, “whose timber-based economy is in tatters” (Martinez 9) are greatly affected. Mexican immigrant workers are forced to cross the border and find a greener pasture in the United States, because “in 1994, Mexico was crippled by a profound-and-prolonged-economic crisis” (Martinez 8). With the huge influx of Mexican immigrant workers coming to the States in search for better jobs, the US citizens are concerned about the economic impact: jobs, government and public services. However, the Americans’ concern that the immigrants are draining the nation’s resources, is a sweeping statement, it is based on a myth. There are many recent studies that the immigrant’s population living in the United States helps the economy. Similarly, the Mexican government and immigrant families are grateful for their immigrant workers for lifting the ailing economy and the status of immigrant families. Immigrant workers, legal or illegal, are positively reshaping the economy of sending and receiving countries through these major myths.

The story of “Like Mexicans” has several moments of irony, such as when Soto states that he was certainly going to fall in love with a Mexican girl, but he ends up falling in love with a Japanese girl. He makes a statement of his irony by saying “but the woman I married was not Mexican but Japanese” (Soto 167). Another example of irony found in the passage is when Soto’s grandmother told him not to marry a person of different descent from them, but yet Soto’s best friend is of different descent (Soto 166). The final example of irony found in the passage is when Soto’s family turns worried about him marrying someone who is not Mexican because they don’t want Soto to marry someone who is richer than they are, but it turns out that the Japanese girl’s family is in the same economic stance. The author makes a statement of his ironic discovery by stating “these people are just like Mexicans, I thought. Poor people (Soto 168). The use of irony in the passage helped the author keep the audience captivated in the story creating a sense of excitement.

Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network, by Ruth Gomberg-Munoz, is a book that explains the difficulty of Mexican immigrant lifestyles, which has gained the attention across the country especially since Donald Trumps’ recent statements against these people, as illegal civilians come from Mexico to work in America. Gomberg-Munoz tries to give us an understanding of the life of these people. Gomberg-Munoz’s thesis is that immigrant workers work endlessly to improve their life by finding employment here in America. Gomberg-Munoz claims that due to these people being “undocumented” or “illegal” it created many struggles in their daily lives, which limits opportunities to achieve the “American Dream” that we previously discussed. During this review I will look through a number chapters, discussing some of Gomberg-Munoz’s points and getting further into them.

Coming from a life of poverty and despair would be enough cause for anyone to search for a better life; a life in which there is a belief that all of your biggest dreams can come true. This is the belief that many immigrants have about the United States. They naively believe for it to be the “land of opportunity”. Originally the United States was founded and settled by immigrants. Many immigrants, such as Mexicans, Eastern Europeans, Jews, and others from countries around the world came to America to escape war, poverty, famine, and/or religious prosecution. Some also chose to immigrate to take advantage of the opportunities and promises that America held. One such major group of people is Mexicans. Being a border line country neighbor to

The United States is set apart from other countries in that we have a unique economic, political, and spiritual system from the rest of the world. This also poses a unique problem to our society: Since we possess desirable aspects as a country, we have to deal with the issue of immigration. Legal immigration is a great benefit to our society, and if we can control and harness immigration, it will better our country for years to come. While illegal immigration is an enormous problem that needs to be solved, legal immigration is a great asset to our economy and American society as a whole.

In Jeanne Laskas’ article, “Hecho en America”, which translates to “Made in America”, Laskas recalls when she spent a season with the blueberry pickers and argues how they are responsible for providing the fruits Americans consume. According to her article, “Most of the people who pick our food come from Mexico. They blanket the entire country, and yet to most of us they 're strangers, so removed from our lives we hardly know they 're here, people hunched over baskets in the flat distance as we drive down vacation highways. ” She is basically saying that the fruit pickers are taken for granted. Then, she states her argument that in the media and during election times, illegal immigration is a big problem and something must be done. They are taking American jobs, jobs that no one in America wants to do anyway. All of these things are used to distract America from the back-breaking, hard work these people do.

This statement leads one to believe that the Lions have taken the expectations that Americans have set for them and made them a part of their social identity. While the Lions’ actions may make the hard-working Mexican stereotype seem innocent enough, it can lead to employers taking advantage of undocumented workers.

The poem is filled not with resentment but with optimism, the cheerfulness of that “great, silly grin" (21) that he believes will take him to a future where they will be as American as anyone else. But he also understands that people like him, mainly Mexicans who come to the United States to strive for something better in life.

The video starts with interviews of certain members of the Mexican population that are both in the government and not in the government. They discuss the many reasons why the people choose to go to the United states for work rather than stating within the country itself. One of the key things stated Is, “...the root cause of the problem should be addressed… the lack of opportunities in the country”.

best for him was very stereotypical. She once again reminds me of my mother in

The United States is called a melting pot because in this one country, cultures and people from all over the world have converged to unify under one flag. Author Samuel Huntington writes in his article "The Hispanic Challenge," that unlike other populations who have changed their identity when immigrating to the United States, many of the Mexican and other Latinos who have come to the country are not assimilating or modifying in order to fit in with the majority culture. Further, he believes that the refusal to do so is more than just a population which is determined to maintain a unique identity, but rather a danger to the foundation of community on which the nation is based.

A debate that always seems to raise its ugly head when the issue of "foreign labor" is discussed concerns the types of jobs that immigrants take and whether they are actually taking these jobs away from American workers. I look at it as jobs they are "left with", not ones they are taking. The debate always shows an American family that has been displaced or lost their livelihood because they can no longer compete with cheaper labor. In reality the jobs that the immigrants get are the most undesirable, strenuous and dangerous ones. The only American workers that they compete with are the unskilled ones. I intend to explore if immigrants "taking" American jobs, if they are only taking the jobs that