Well, not really, but nowadays, yeah.
Around nine percent of all Mexicans currently alive reside in the United States.
In broad terms, my country would have a population of around 140 million people if it wasn’t for the mass migration we saw for decades on end.
But it’s hard to actually tell how many of us are here, until everyone you meet speaks spanish, and is from a town you know, and have horribly complicated stories of why there are here now.
One of NAFTA’s goal was to stop the ridiculous amount of immigration into the United States; after the Mexican Miracle the economy was just a dog for everyone which encouraged some to move out.
But the goal, as far as Salina’s promise was concerned, was never met.
It makes me sad, and it makes me angry.
Because our migration deficit, so to speak, is 12 to 1. No matter how magical the US is, or how many millions of us have ties to the US, it just doesn’t make natural sense for twelve million of us to live in the US.
The reasons behind the amount of Mexicans in the US is obviously economic in most cases. One immigrant with who I spoke with told me that he’s gonna cash in his Social Security benefits back home when he retires... not here.
“Home”... it’s a strong word.
But what makes me angry isn’t that they left, or that they’ll return when they retire, or the ridiculous nonsense that is said about them on the media everyday.
What angers me is that we failed them... a country should provide for it’s people, and to think that one in every eleven Mexicans can’t call their home country home is insane.
The 2020s, 2030s, and further on will be decades characterized by mass-human migrations. Be it due to localized military conflicts, economic problems, or due to climate change: people will move... just like Mexicans did for decades.
It brings me to wonder what will be done about it, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I doubt a Honduran mother of two who had a whole community and social circle in her home country is exactly excited about moving to Boulder,CA and attending her children’s PTA meetings.
Or a young muslim guy having to move to Cologne in Germany, where much of his education is useless as far as getting him a job is concerned.
Again, I’m not saying they shouldn’t be able to, I’m just saying that in many cases these refugees don’t actually want to move unless it’s aboslutely necesary.
What I’m saying is that the world needs to prepare for the mass movement, and how the needs and desires of those displaced can be provided without upsetting the local population will be a key part of it.
That part doesn’t anger me, but it does certainly worry me.