Mexico Works to Bar Non-Natives From Jobs

[Ban Hammer 13,333]

MEXICO CITY - If Arnold Schwarzenegger had migrated to Mexico instead of the United States, he couldn't be a governor. If Argentina native Sergio Villanueva, firefighter hero of the Sept. 11 attacks, had moved to Tecate instead of New York, he wouldn't have been allowed on the force.

Even as Mexico presses the United States to grant unrestricted citizenship to millions of undocumented Mexican migrants, its officials at times calling U.S. policies "xenophobic," Mexico places daunting limitations on anyone born outside its territory.

In the United States, only two posts — the presidency and vice presidency — are reserved for the native born.

In Mexico, non-natives are banned from those and thousands of other jobs, even if they are legal, naturalized citizens.

Foreign-born Mexicans can't hold seats in either house of the congress. They're also banned from state legislatures, the Supreme Court and all governorships. Many states ban foreign-born Mexicans from spots on town councils. And Mexico's Constitution reserves almost all federal posts, and any position in the military and merchant marine, for "native-born Mexicans."

Recently the Mexican government has gone even further. Since at least 2003, it has encouraged cities to ban non-natives from such local jobs as firefighters, police and judges.

Mexico's Interior Department — which recommended the bans as part of "model" city statutes it distributed to local officials — could cite no basis for extending the bans to local posts.

After being contacted by The Associated Press about the issue, officials changed the wording in two statutes to delete the "native-born" requirements, although they said the modifications had nothing to do with AP's inquiries.

"These statutes have been under review for some time, and they have, or are about to be, changed," said an Interior Department official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name.

But because the "model" statues are fill-in-the-blanks guides for framing local legislation, many cities across Mexico have already enacted such bans. They have done so even though foreigners constitute a tiny percentage of the population and pose little threat to Mexico's job market.

The foreign-born make up just 0.5 percent of Mexico's 105 million people, compared with about 13 percent in the United States, which has a total population of 299 million. Mexico grants citizenship to about 3,000 people a year, compared to the U.S. average of almost a half million.

"There is a need for a little more openness, both at the policy level and in business affairs," said David Kim, president of the Mexico-Korea Association, which represents the estimated 20,000 South Koreans in Mexico, many of them naturalized citizens.

"The immigration laws are very difficult ... and they put obstacles in the way that make it more difficult to compete," Kim said, although most foreigners don't come to Mexico seeking government posts.

J. Michael Waller, of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, was more blunt. "If American policy-makers are looking for legal models on which to base new laws restricting immigration and expelling foreign lawbreakers, they have a handy guide: the Mexican constitution," he said in a recent article on immigration.

Some Mexicans agree their country needs to change.

"This country needs to be more open," said Francisco Hidalgo, a 50-year-old video producer. "In part to modernize itself, and in part because of the contribution these (foreign-born) people could make."

Others express a more common view, a distrust of foreigners that academics say is rooted in Mexico's history of foreign invasions and the loss of territory in the 1847-48 Mexican-American War.

Speaking of the hundreds of thousands of Central Americans who enter Mexico each year, chauffeur Arnulfo Hernandez, 57, said: "The ones who want to reach the United States, we should send them up there. But the ones who want to stay here, it's usually for bad reasons, because they want to steal or do drugs."

Some say progress is being made. Mexico's president no longer is required to be at least a second-generation native-born. That law was changed in 1999 to clear the way for candidates who have one foreign-born parent, like President Vicente Fox, whose mother is from Spain.

But the pace of change is slow. The state of Baja California still requires candidates for the state legislature to prove both their parents were native born.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

If I, as a white man, went to Mexico and started a landscape job, how many hours would I last before the police picked me up?

Illegal Mexicans in the USA are being treated MUCH better than USCs would be treated down there. FACT.

[AlmostMex 0]

I don't agree with your "fact", speaking as an American who has lived AND worked in Mexico for an extended period of time, albeit legally.

You would last a long time - there are lots of Americans working illegally in Mexico too and Mexican Immigration does not go around looking for them, even though they know they are there just like US Immigration knows about Mexicans. If you want to see areas where illegal workers are grouped, just take a look in all the English as a Second language schools. These schools are legally limited to giving visas to 15 or 20% (I can't remember which) of their workforce being foreign, yet in truth nearly 90% are foreign and working there illegally. AND the Americans get paid better than the Mexicans, even if the Mexicans have teaching degrees and the Americans have no degree or teaching experience.

Considering Mexico's unemployment and underemployment is astromonically higher than the US' rates, I wouldn't blame them if they did go around looking for illegal Americans. Jobs are a lot harder to come by down there.

[pedroh 21]

I don't agree with your "fact", speaking as an American who has lived AND worked in Mexico for an extended period of time, albeit legally.

You would last a long time - there are lots of Americans working illegally in Mexico too and Mexican Immigration does not go around looking for them, even though they know they are there just like US Immigration knows about Mexicans. If you want to see areas where illegal workers are grouped, just take a look in all the English as a Second language schools. These schools are legally limited to giving visas to 15 or 20% (I can't remember which) of their workforce being foreign, yet in truth nearly 90% are foreign and working there illegally. AND the Americans get paid better than the Mexicans, even if the Mexicans have teaching degrees and the Americans have no degree or teaching experience.

Considering Mexico's unemployment and underemployment is astromonically higher than the US' rates, I wouldn't blame them if they did go around looking for illegal Americans. Jobs are a lot harder to come by down there.

that's true.. My wife worked in the American School Foundation in Guadalajara.. as study teaching.. and told me that there were some American dudes that got more money than mexican teachers with masters.. it's true that the govt has strict rules for foreigners to be in the govt.. but it's true that any mexican company will hire any 'guero' just because they are foreign.. malinchismo is still living there..

[Kajikit 65]

I'd say that it's perfectly reasonable for Mexico to have rules like that... they're still struggling to become a first world country and given how many of their citizens live in grinding poverty, why shouldn't they try to do something to help them.