The brief synopsis of Mexico's recent history and emergence from
revolutionary leadership toward more stable governance was
interesting. It seems that part of the struggle for Mexico is the
same struggle that we have in the U.S., a struggle to find our own
national identity. The large geography and mixed history of both the
United States and Mexico would seem to help contribute to the
differing opinions about what our national identities should be. What
seems to make things even harder for Mexico is their three party
system of elections, with a winner take all system. The majority of
Mexican voters may be left with a candidate that they didn't vote for
and perhaps is the one they least wanted to win. In such a system,
revolt makes sense to me, which is to say the electoral system does
not make sense to me.
With a poverty rate of 31%, I can definitely see why citizens of
Mexico might turn to a more stable economic environment like the
U.S.. The rate or immigration from Mexico was surprising to me
though. I'd never heard or read before that there was the “equivalent
of 9 percent of the population of Mexico” living in the U.S. as
immigrants(79). Likewise, I found it surprising that the number of
undocumented immigrants from Mexico makes up 2% of our country's
population. I certainly know many undocumented immigrants here in New
Mexico, largely from the school I work at. I just never conceived
that 2 out of every 100 people in our borders are living with the
struggle of being undocumented. After reading this chapter, I'm left
genuinely surprised at the scale of our undocumented immigrant
population and wondering why we haven't accomplished more in the way
of meaningful immigration reform.
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