Changes

Immigration has been a political, social, and economic hot button issue in almost every decade since the U.S. became it’s own country. Whether they are Italian, Irish, Asian, or Middle Eastern, immigrants have made the United States their home and have introduced new and influential cultures to the country. Unfortunately for migrants, there are usually enormous issues facing them from their initial decision to migrate to the U.S. and even years after they arrive. Within the past century, Mexican migrants have seen some of the worst treatment and political hostility when it comes to migrant worker and immigrant history. Although there is no comparison to other groups of individuals immigrating to the U.S., Mexican migrant workers have an interesting history because of the U.S. – Mexico border and the political and economic policies and programs that Mexico and the U.S. have created within the last century. One program in particular is the focus of this article, the Bracero Program. It’s significance to the current issues surrounding immigration are paramount and will continue to provide an example of the violent and discriminatory cycle that Mexican citizens go through as migrant laborers in the U.S.

==Problems In Mexico Pre-Bracero Program==

There are a slough of factors that lead to the creation of this program, but in order to fully understand it’s impact, it is important to layout the transnational creation of large migrant working population in Mexico. The factors that are most important begin with the Mexican Revolution and the leadership of Profirio Diaz who opened up Mexico’s economy to the U.S. and other countries who began building factories and railroads to the U.S. creating the passageways for future migrants to travel in to the U.S. The Mexican government and companies based in the U.S. would buy land and eventually most of the land owned by farmers and working poor would be swallowed up. Without this land Mexican citizens who used to farm had no other means to provide for their families. With new ‘’maquiladoras’’ or factories (mainly cotton factories) being built, many Mexicans would flood to those and begin to internally migrate towards the railroads and factories.<ref> Deborah Cohen, ‘’Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico’’, (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 35-37.</ref> In 1910, many of the workers employed by the cotton ‘’maquiladoras’’ and Communist Party members would join the ranks of Pancho Villa as the Mexican Revolution begins. These workers would continue to fight for workers rights and better wages within the ‘’maquiladoras’’ over the next three decades but without any real land ownership and the poor economic environment that lingered after Diaz’s reign, Mexican working and poor and the government it helped come to power, had no real choice but to head to the U.S. and it’s economic policies. <ref>Deborah Cohen, ‘’Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico’’, (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 37.</ref>

==The Creation of the Program==

The Bracero Program, officially named the Labor Importation Program, was created for economic reasons. In the 1930s, white Anglos farmers had decided to move in to the more urban and industrious cities in order to gain more wealth than what they had been earning working their crops. With this huge shift from rural to urban industries, the government had to make an important decision to bring in a labor force that would be able to sustain their large urban population and help pick the crops that would feed them.

==Conclusion==

The Bracero Program is still a relatively unknown historical event. Needless to say, the program had major affects on both the Mexican economy and the U.S. agricultural business and immigration policies. Mexico would never truly recuperate from all of the migrants that were lost and the implementation of NAFTA only exacerbated the economic issues that it faced. Small farmers in Mexico would continuously have to compete with U.S. imported produce that was ironically being picked by Mexican migrant workers. Additionally, the U.S. would continuously rely on Mexican and Latin American migrant workers while calling for more border reinforcement. NAFTA would continuously allow products to flow through the border but would police the bodies that would cross. Finally, NAFTA would cause enormous job losses for U.S. citizens to new ‘’maquiladras’’ that would continue to flourish with the aid of the new trade agreement. <ref> Bill Ong Hing, ‘’Ethical Borders: NAFTA, Globalization, and Mexican Migration’’, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010), 5.</ref> Essentially, the Bracero Program is important for U.S. and Mexican history because it is a part of a larger pattern that the U.S. constantly involves itself in and only when we acknowledge this pattern can we begin to change the way that migrant labor is handled in the future.