Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Mexico Threatening to the U.S.


The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Mexico expanded 0.45 percent in the third quarter of 2012 over the previous quarter. GDP Growth Rate in Mexico is reported by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía. Historically, from 1993 until 2012, Mexico GDP Growth Rate averaged 0.7 Percent reaching an all time high of 2.9 Percent in March of 1996 and a record low of -6.6 Percent in March of 2009. Mexico has a free market economy which contains a mixture of modern and outmoded industry and agriculture, increasingly dominated by the private sector. The success of Mexico could be a threat to the U.S. economy needed of cheap labor. A bipartisan group is framing immigration reform. 



Recent administrations have expanded competition in seaports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity generation, natural gas distribution, and airports. As an export-oriented economy, more than 90% of Mexican trade is under free trade agreements (FTAs) with more than 40 countries. Mexico is the second largest national economy in Latin America.

Mexico recorded a trade surplus of 962 USD Million in December of 2012. Balance of Trade in Mexico is reported by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía. Historically, from 1980 until 2012, Mexico Balance of Trade averaged -334.48 USD Million reaching an all time high of 1576.81 USD Million in January of 1984 and a record low of -3292.31 USD Million in October of 2008. Mexico is the biggest exporter and importer in Latin America. 

Mexican trade is fully integrated with that of its North American partners: close to 86% of Mexican exports and 50% of its imports are traded with The United States and Canada. Mexico’s major exports are: manufactured goods, oil and oil products, silver, fruits, vegetables, coffee and cotton. Mexico imports mainly metalworking machines, steel mill products, agricultural machinery and electrical equipment. 

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh lashed out at Mexican immigrants Wednesday in a radio rant that portrayed them as lazy and government-dependent -- the latest in a series of anti-Mexican statements spouted off by far-right conservatives angered by the possibility of a deal to pass a bipartisan immigration reform.

People of Mexican origin account for nearly 65 percent of the Latino population, while Cubans account for just 3.7 percent, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

When making the comparison between Mexican immigrants and the Cuban exile generation that immigrated in the 1960s, the conservative radio host insisted that he was “not just asserting it,” and that “the scholarly research from academia is out there.”

Some conservatives are worried that Hispanics will be disproportionately dependent on government and therefore likely to vote for Democrats. But others argue that Hispanics are "natural conservatives" who can be drawn to a conservative economic agenda.

Assuming that immigrants' lack of interest in conservative policies is driven by low incomes and dependency on government benefits. In this vein, National Review frets about Hispanics:
"While many are in business for themselves, they express hostile attitudes toward free enterprise in polls. They are disproportionately low-income and disproportionately likely to receive some form of government support. More than half of Hispanic births are out of wedlock. Take away the Spanish surname and Latino voters look a great deal like many other Democratic constituencies. Low-income households headed by single mothers and dependent upon some form of welfare are not looking for an excuse to join forces with Paul Ryan and Pat Toomey."

Adam Serwer offers this theory for conservatives' failure to anticipate that minority groups could turn out to be diligent, wealthy and Democratic:
"Some conservatives have persuaded themselves that being a conservative is a prerequisite for human virtues like diligence. Since only conservatives know what hard work is, if you are not conservative you do not work hard."

What appallingly socialist answers did Hispanics prefer? Thirty-four percent chose "Government should play an active role in the economy to ensure it benefits people like me, but I am not sure that I can trust government to do this effectively." A further 37 percent went with "Government must play an active role in regulating the marketplace and ensuring that the economy benefits people like me." This kind of neo-Bolshevism was even more popular with blacks and Asians than with Hispanics.


Although Mexicans remain the largest group, U.S.-bound migrants today are increasingly likely to be young Central Americans fleeing violence as well as poverty, or migrants from remote localities such as India and Africa who pay top smuggling fees. They journey through a gantlet of predators.

Mexico's southern frontier has become a national security concern for U.S., Mexican and Central American leaders. Interviews with U.S. and Mexican government officials, human rights advocates and migrants by a ProPublica reporter visiting the border showed how these converging trends are raising alarms.

"It is becoming imperative and urgent to immediately initiate and develop in the next few years a serious and coordinated regional strategic plan in the areas of security, control and development to prevent this border from sliding out of control and generating an experience with enormous gravity for the region," said Gustavo Mohar, a veteran immigration and intelligence official who ended his tenure last week as Mexico's interior sub-secretary for migration issues.

"The same way that it took the United States 30 years to reach a point of physical control on its border, Mexico needs a medium-range strategy," Mohar said. "But we will control it better with a strategic vision that part of the problem is Central American poverty and the drug trade."


Last year, René Zenteno Quintero, Assistant Secretary of Mexico’s Population, Migration and Religious Affairs during a World Day Population press conference said that illegal migration into the U.S. has dropped. In 2005, about 500,000 Mexican nationals made their way into the U.S. illegally and within the last two years between 100,000 to 200,000 continued unauthorized crossings into the U.S., according to Zenteno Quintero. 

He cited statistics from both the U.S. Census and Mexico’s Population Census (MPC). Some of the few factors that kept nationals in Mexico, was a growing middle class, families doing better economically and educational opportunities, anti-immigrant laws and border security in the U.S. Arizona, Alabama, Texas, Georgia and South Carolina adopted state immigration enforcement laws.

Feuds between drug cartels to control border routes into the U.S., border violence, high costs to be smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico was another indicator for less unauthorized border crossings.



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