NIU Intro to Latina/o and Latin American Studies Fall 2013 Blog : The Effect of Mexican Labor In The United States

The Effect of Mexican Labor In The United States

Mexicans, among others are the main key for cheap labor for US companies that need people to word at meat packaging, agriculture, steel industries, etc. Many US multinational companies are the ones to blame for forcing individuals to leave their home towns because these multinationals destroyed their business in their home countries.

The beginning of Mexican immigration to the United Sates starts with the invasion of the US into Mexico. The US took over almost half of the Mexican territory. The first territory they took was Texas which most of its population were Anglo-Texans. Mexico at that time already had not slaves. The problem here was that Anglo-Texans didn’t want to obey the Mexican policy that prohibited slavery in any of its territory. In effect, the Anglo-Texans went to war with Mexico losing the first time but winning the second time aided by the United Sates. After that, Texas was no longer part of Mexico, in consequence became a US state. Many of Mexicans who lived in Texas now were part of the United States. These people did not volunteered to be part of the United State they were for to become part of by the system.

The next Mexican Immigrations to the united Sates took place when Mexico and US signed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo were Mexico lost Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, and Utah. Again Mexican that lived here became part of the US. Most of them were use for cheap labor by big companies. Small American farmers blamed Mexicans for the ill of the nation because they couldn’t compete with huge agro- companies that used cheap labor, in this case, Mexican labor.

NAFTA was the main cause that forced Mexicans out Veracruz. In this case, Smithfield a meat packaging company took over the pig meat market in Mexico forcing small butchers to go out business, and also forcing them to leave their home country. Many Mexicans migrate to the United States looking for job opportunities since they did not have any other option but to leave because of the corruption of their government and the low education they had. Many of them ended working at Smithfield’s Tar Heel packinghouse, the same company that kicked them out Mexico, where they would work for low wages and miserable working conditions with no benefits at all. Here we see that Mexicans also contributed to their own downfall.(Bacon)

Another factor the pushed Mexicans out their country was the corrupt government they had; politicians did not care about the lower classes so they did not do anything to prevent Mexicans for leaving Mexico. Also, companies like Smithfield had the Mexican government under their control because of the huge sum of money these companies contributed to the Mexican government.

After World War 2, the united sates needed cheap labor to keep making goods for their people. Mexican labor was the key, in order to keep the US economy in good shape. To accomplish this, the US created the Bracero Program in which a huge sum of Mexicans were contracted to work on the fields in the United States. The Bracero Program promised good working conditions, low pay, and none discrimination for people that were willing to work. (Alicea)

In conclusion, Mexicans in the United States are immigrants that were forced to leave Mexico either because of NAFTA or the corruption of the Mexican government. These people are used as a work force that contributes to the development of the country, and they’re not the ones to blame for their immigration status but the people who took their jobs away and whoever contributed to the stratification of Mexicans within the United States.