The Cultural Impact Of NAFTA On Mexico

Living demands an identity. A sense of self, which defines who a person is and the means that they exist in the larger macrocosm of the world. The great diversity present on earth derives from the perception of the world that is unique to each individual based on their culture, experience, and impressions. Yet, when variation is compromised, the idea of the uniformity of a global identity spurs the threat of a world conforming to the same ideals that is not exposed to innovation and change. The encroachment of Western powers in the 20th century upon smaller nations demonstrates that globalization spurs arrogance as Western countries, chiefly the United States of America, exert their culture and way of life upon foreign societies. The potential of far reaching development and dominance of individual civilizations world-wide perpetuates instability to cultural sustainability as native lifestyles, traditions, and values cannot withstand external pressures and can deteriorate.

Since labor unions in Mexico were originally formed in the early 1900s, they have maintained a unique system of collaboration and collusion with the government of Mexico. Though many may refer to their system as one of “corruption,” it is a system that has become so deeply imbedded in the relationship between labor unions and the government, that it is now a well-understood unofficial network. Over the past 20 years in Mexico, a great deal of progress has been made toward the liberalization of the Mexican markets. Previously government-owned companies have been privatized, foreign investment has boomed, and a once one-party system has just recently

Individuals of the same ethnic background share the same culture a factor that explains that there, as many cultures as there are ethnic backgrounds across the world. Globalization has, however, led to interaction of people from varied cultural backgrounds. Because of the interaction, globalization has been accused of limiting cultural diversity. It is, however, not the case in reality. The purpose of this paper is to analyze some of the factors that justify that globalization has not limited cultural diversity as its critics say. Thus, globalization should not be viewed as a hindrance to cultural diversity because the best subject of moral concern should be the individual person and not the nation, community or the society.

In the early sixteenth century, Spain conquered Mexico and turned it into one of their most lucrative colonies. In the search for land, labor and natural resources, Spain found everything they were looking for in Mexico. During the colonial period, Mexico was simply another kingdom of the vast Spanish Empire. As Spain largely benefited, the indigenous civilizations of Mexico were ravaged and left to be entirely dependent on their foreign counterpart. It wasn’t until the independence movement in the early nineteenth century that Mexico seemed to have some hope of being released from the hands of imperialism. Unfortunately, following independence, Mexico suffered from a half a century of economic

In the Shadow of the Mexican Revolution by Hector Aquilar Camin and Lorenzo Meyer tells a chronological story of contemporary Mexico from the fall of Porfirio Diaz in 1910 to the July elections in 1989. The time period that Camin and Meyer portray in Mexico is one of corruption, civil war, and failure. While Mexico would undergo an era described as the “Mexican Miracle” where the Mexican country would begin to see a positive output in the country, it would be short-lived and Mexico would continue to fall behind as other countries progressed. While In the Shadow of the Mexican Revolution is comprised of facts throughout history, one cannot help but feel a sense of sympathy for Mexico. While their corruption, political, and economical,

“It is important to realize that NAFTA is not the opening up of Mexico,” said Jonathan Heath, a Mexico City economist. “The opening up of Mexico had occurred before NAFTA. NAFTA is the consolidation of that opening up and what it really represents is the locking in of trade liberalization for Mexico.”

Mexico has experienced many reforms economically, socially, and politically in recent history leading itself into becoming a more well developed country. Typically, when people think of Mexico they think of the corruption in the government, the violent drug cartels, the widespread poverty, and the long time one party dominance of the government. Although these are major problems, they are not problems that are impossible to fix, or are currently being fixed. They are not persistent all throughout Mexico either, there are places where poverty, violent drug cartels, and corruption is non existent. Mexico is often misunderstood and generalized for a few flaws and characteristics it possesses. By the previously accepted definition,

The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on December 8th, 1993, went into effect on January 1st, 1994. By December of 1994, Mexico underwent a deep economic crisis, which saw the devaluation of the Mexican peso, a deterioration of wages, rampant unemployment, as well as extensive personal and corporate bankruptcies that led to the poverty and malnutrition of many of its citizens. As we explore the economic effects that NAFTA has had on Mexico, we must consider what economic disparity has meant for the citizens of Mexico, and how it has impacted migration patterns from Mexico to the United States.

Previously it was noted Mexico’s trade as a percent of GDP was a good indicator of how well the economy has been doing since NAFTA took effect. Mexico’s trade as a percent of GDP is 65 percent, and taking into consideration that the United States’ is 32 percent, it can be concluded that Mexico is very open when it comes to trade (O’Neil, 55). Economic growth should not just stop at comparing GDP levels, however. According to James McBride, “NAFTA gave a major boost to Mexican farm exports to the United States, which have tripled since NAFTA’s implementation” (4). Since tariffs were removed on farm exports, it’s no surprise that Mexico is exporting more which equates to earning more, and since tariffs are gone they are not being penalized for doing

Twenty years have passed since the implantation of the North American Free Trade agreement. While it has changed Mexico in some fundamental ways, the treaty never met many of its extensive promises to close Mexico 's wage gap with the United States, boost job growth, fight poverty, and protect the environment. The hope was that freer trade would bring stronger and steadier economic growth to Mexico, providing new jobs and opportunities for its growing workforce and discouraging illegal migration from Mexico. With modernizing the Mexican economy so that it would export goods, not people. Mexico’s people feel as though NAFTA’s pledge has created a loss of national independence and a narrow income gap.

In the beginning, Mexico had hoped to gain from the agreement by a growth in the national output, falling unemployment rates, and increasing trade with the U.S. The NAFTA has, perhaps, benefited Mexico the most out of all the other two countries. This can perhaps be best reflected in the rapid growth of the Mexican maquiladora industry. “A maquiladora is a labor-intensive organization that imports inputs, often from the United States, and then processes and exports them. Because maquiladoras often link the border economies of U.S. and Mexican cities, these plants have been some of the major beneficiaries of NAFTA. In 1993, Maquiladoras numbered only 2,143. Just six years later, the number of maquiladoras had increased 73% to 3,703” (Fugate 2005). This shows that NAFTA has positively affected the Mexican economy, more than it has any other country.

Mexico’s economy is placed at position number eleven when it comes to purchasing power and at position thirteen in nominal terms (IMF, 2017). Its economy has over the past 22 years become oriented towards manufacturing since the NAFTA become effective. The country’s per capita income is approximately one third that of the united states, with the distribution of income remaining largely unequal. The country is the third largest source of imports and largest export market in the US. In 2014 alone, two-way exchange of products totaled to $590 billion (World Bank, 2017). The country has free trade arrangements with forty-six countries. In the near term, the Mexican economy remains susceptible to external pressures such

We cannot talk about the significance of Mexico to the U.S. if we fail to talk about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This agreement essentially enables Canada, the U.S., and Mexico to import and export goods among each other without any taxes. The current U.S. administration is threatening to leave the agreement because they believe it has costed many manufacturing jobs. However, multiple studies have shown that the agreement had little to no effect on the loss of jobs. “A 2014 report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics said that at most 5 percent of dislocated US workers could be traced to imports from Mexico. It said over four million Americans lose their jobs each year by plant shutdowns and mass

Some of the main features of cultural globalization that will be discussed in this paper include, homogenization which, in the context of cultural globalization, is the spread of Western consumer culture that could eventually lead to the end of cultural diversity, hybridization which is the blending of elements of many different cultures and conflict intensification which relates to the “Clash of Civilizations” theory, that cultural globalization could result in an escalation of tensions between various culturally different regions of the world, that could lead to violence.

As many nations have been relatively unaffected by the rise of cultural homogenisation, this does not fully reflect the entire nature of globalisation (Machida 2012). Some nations have reduced the hegemonic effects of cultural homogenisation by adapting foreign cultural influences into their own culture, thus creating a hybridisation of culture. This is a process known as glocalisation. Traditional cultural values are not weakened by the dominating culture. Instead, their cultural identity is constantly negotiated within the influx foreign influence. Ultimately, cultures incorporate foreign values into their own culture in order to maintain their cultural identity (Ritzer & Ryan 2002). The concept of glocalisation provides a means for globalisation to be understood as it challenges the idea that globalisation assimilates cultures or distances nations. Instead, through the perspective of glocalisation, it is easy to see that globalisation is a process that hybridises cultures and highlights the existence of cultural heterogeneity. As globalisation leads to the dominance of a particular cultural group (Machida 2012), the hegemonic nature of foreign cultural influences direct local cultures to construct a hybrid identity as a compromise (Mythen 2012). This is further embodied within the notion that nations export consumer goods without any inherent cultural values (Ritzer & Ryan 2002). This enables cultures to consume foreign products by utilising them in