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Why Do People Cross the Border?

Immigration, US Foreign Policy and Globalization

People come to the U.S. to seek better lives for themselves and their families. It is a very difficult decision to wrap up their lives in their homeland and to move to another country of different culture, system, and language. Many people do cross the border, with or without proper documents. It is easier if relatives or companies already in the U.S. can sponsor them. Many others have no choice but to cross the border without documents (“illegally”). The long and intimidating immigration procedures often cause many families of even legal permanent residents or citizens to choose to cross the border without documents. For example, immigrants from the Philippines must wait decades to bring their families with proper documents.

The lives of immigrants are very difficult, especially as many work for two or three low-paid jobs. Immigrants get far fewer and less benefits, including very basic needs such as health care, than they pay for in taxes. However, people still cross the border. Securing the border won't stop them. Why?

For over two decades, poor people everywhere have been growing poorer

Today the economic gap between poor and rich countries is over two times greater than in 1960. Also the gap between poor and rich people in most countries (including the United States) has increased. People in “developing countries” are forced out of their own countries, seeking a way to feed, clothe, and house their families by going to areas with employment opportunities. Unfortunately, the U.S. economic and military interventions overseas that aid and abet its global corporations, have contributed to keeping and enlarging these gaps through elitist policies. The current U.S. economic foreign policy based on globalization is an important contributor to the inequities of the current global economy.

What is globalization?

Globalization advocates removal of all obstacles to the accumulation of profit as the best way to economic growth that will “benefit” everyone. Currently, globalization is led by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and implemented by various free trade agreements such as NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) ensures that capital (cash) is the basis of the global economy, and its aim is to have no borders to cash flow. Such an aim favors nations that are already rich, but many governments in developing countries also support it because it also benefits big corporations in those countries (many times owned by foreign capital) which are more influential on the governments and policies than are poor farmers and workers who live there.

History

By the 1940's, the poorest two-thirds of the world were laid waste by colonialism, while the U.S. emerged as the economic superpower that aimed to control the world. The main objective of U.S. foreign policy has been to preserve this position. As early as 1948, the State Department’s George Kennan stated: “We have about 50 percent of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3 percent of its population….Our real task …is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity….” In a 2000 report, the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), a think tank with strong ties to the Bush Administration, wrote that “America should seek to preserve and extend its position of global leadership by maintaining the preeminence of U.S. military forces." In the 1970's, foreign companies and nations began investing heavily in the developing nations, searching for cheap materials and a pool of poor, unprotected workers. Profits and resources were exported from Latin America without regard to developing the region. In defense, Latin American countries nationalized key industries and utilities. But corruption among government bureaucracies and outdated, unsuitable equipment impede growth.

The World Bank and the IMF

International financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF went into action. Controlled primarily by developed countries, they make huge loans to poor countries. However, instead of demanding reform and modernization of national industry, they dictate privatization, which they maintain will combat corruption and inefficiency while creating new jobs. Foreign corporations rush in, receive tax-free status, no-union guarantees, and freedom from environmental or economic restrictions. Despite years of increasing poverty in the global South, the World Bank and the IMF continue these strategies.

The Case of Mexico

In 1994, NAFTA started with a rosy picture to increase jobs and exports in Mexico. Although the number of jobs and export indeed increased, it did not benefit the people in Mexico but only the global corporations. Crushing increases in poverty and income inequality have occurred. For example,

  • It was not a fair trade: NAFTA demanded an end to Mexican farm subsidies while allowing generous U.S. factory farm subsidies.
  • U.S. corn and grain has flooded the Mexican market, bankrupting nearly one million Mexican farmers.
  • When corn farmers in Chiapas rebel and demand reforms, the U.S. increases aid to Mexico’s army, which engages in suppression.
  • About 85% of the rural labor force goes from poor to destitute. Masses migrate to the cities to search for work.
  • Thousands of U.S. corporations outsource jobs to desperate, poorly paid and mistreated Mexican workers in the “maquiladoras” along the border.
  • This year the Mexican presidential candidate who promised to suspend the implementation of NAFTA claims to have won the presidency but says his victory was stolen in election fraud by business interests.

    • What is happening in the US?

    U.S. workers cannot compete with the sweatshop workers in the third world. Factory jobs are exported overseas but neither U.S. workers nor overseas workers benefit. Globalization globalizes low-income job markets in the world and also within the U.S. Low-income workers, such as African American workers and immigrant workers, have to compete with each other. Undocumented immigrant workers (so-called “illegal immigrants”) are being exploited in the sweatshops within the U.S. More and more businesses are becoming dependent on the exploited labor of undocumented workers, which has already created a huge unhealthy underground economy in the U.S.

    What can we do?

    Indeed, the current immigration debate, U.S. aggression overseas, and the export of jobs are all related. The U.S. government with its support of globalization and free trade is responsible for the immigration influx. We must:

  • Fight globalization: join the efforts to fight against the WTO and the Free Trade Agreements.
  • Stop U.S. aggression abroad: it is our responsibility to stop our government's aggressive foreign policy which devastates people's lives and nations’ economies around the world.
  • Protect the rights of immigrants: we need to acknowledge the cause of the immigration. We should not criminalize immigrants, but support the right for family reunion and an easier legal path to citizenship.

    • Prepared by the Coalition for World Peace, an Affiliate of United for Peace and Justice

    Young Koreans United of USA