Population growth key to immigration crisis

[peejay 327]

Population growth key to immigration crisis

Mexican deportee’s U.S. sojourn illuminates roots of movement north

By Manuel Roig-Franzia

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Beanfields and a stooped back, calloused hands and an empty wallet were all Jose B. Flores could envision for himself in Salvatierra, a dusty smudge of a place in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato. Such was the lot of his father, a weary sort who collapsed each night of exhaustion and died young, and such was the lot of his father's father.

Flores escaped his certain fate 10 years ago, slipping -- at the reckless age of 15 -- across the U.S. border south of San Diego. It all seemed too easy until a traffic stop earlier this month in Wisconsin set off a chain of events that led to his deportation and landed him in a church-run help center in this windy desert city across the West Texas border from El Paso.

Flores's return to Mexico comes at a time when immigration is dominating public discourse in Washington, but it is his original flight a decade ago that helps explain how the current immigration crisis came to be. He left Mexico in the mid-1990s when the country's already troubled economy was being overwhelmed by young men who were reaching working age but had little or no hope of finding decent employment.

Conventional wisdom has long explained the flood of migrants with a simple formula: Mexicans and other Latin Americans come to the United States for better-paying jobs. But the calculus is more complex because of pressure caused by Mexico's population explosion, which turned Flores's generation into one of the most desperate for work in modern Mexican history. Mexico's failure to create enough jobs after the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement pushed countless young people to migrate to the United States, while a growing U.S. demand for labor pulled them north.

Flores, born in 1979, is a product of Mexico's 1970s baby boom, a time when Mexican President Luis Echevarría said, "Gobernar es poblar" -- to govern is to populate. Since 1970, Mexico's population has doubled. More important, the population of 15- to 34-year-olds -- the prime migrating years -- has swollen to 38 million, according to U.S. Census figures on foreign populations. That age group is projected to exceed 40 million in 2015. Mexican economists say this is almost certain to push more Mexicans across the border, further intensifying the United States' already heated immigration debates, unless Mexico's economy dramatically improves.

This article has a lot of interesting statistics and facts, however it shows only one facet of a many faceted problem. What does it mean for the USA? IMHO it looks pretty grim.

For the rest of this story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12346205/

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Fact of life... cultures that reproduce at higher rates spread more than the ones that don't. The epitaph of the white man will be written on the gravestone of a man who never conceived.

[peejay 327]

Fact of life... cultures that reproduce at higher rates spread more than the ones that don't. The epitaph of the white man will be written on the gravestone of a man who never conceived.

...or written on the gravestones of the ones that conceived too many. Unfortunately it happens daily all over the world. Sad and grim...but oh so true.

[Traviesa 0]

How many is too many and why do you get to decide, Peejay?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

How many is too many and why do you get to decide, Peejay?

Where has he claimed to be the one to decide how many is too many? The way I read it, all he's saying is that apparently there are more Mexicans than Mexico can handle. As there are more <insert native of your country of choice with exploding population here> than <insert corresponding country here> can handle. That would seem to be one of the major contributing factors of migration and it would seem to be more of a fact than an opinion, no?

Edited April 17, 2006 by ET-US2004

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

How many is too many and why do you get to decide, Peejay?

When will you figure it out.... It's called 'personal opinion'.

[Traviesa 0]

He stated...

...or written on the gravestones of the ones that conceived too many.

I'm wondering how he's come up with the definintion of "too many." By that statement, it seems he has an idea in his mind already of how many is too many. And you, ET US, the one who reads between all lines, should be able to see that unless it's just certain people's lines who you read between, ie, the ones who don't agree with you...

What I'm saying, is there are various cultural and religious reasons for having a lot of children. For example, one US family has I believe 17 children-they've had a TV program made about them. Since that TV program, they had several more kids. Are you faulting them too for having too many kids or are they excluded because they happen to live comfortably?

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

He stated...

...or written on the gravestones of the ones that conceived too many.

I'm wondering how he's come up with the definintion of "too many." By that statement, it seems he has an idea in his mind already of how many is too many. And you, ET US, the one who reads between all lines, should be able to see that unless it's just certain people's lines who you read between, ie, the ones who don't agree with you...

What I'm saying, is there are various cultural and religious reasons for having a lot of children. For example, one US family has I believe 17 children-they've had a TV program made about them. Since that TV program, they had several more kids. Are you faulting them too for having too many kids or are they excluded because they happen to live comfortably?

Too many = population rises to the point where it forces 20% of your countries population to cross your neighbor's borders illegally looking for work. any questions?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

He stated...

...or written on the gravestones of the ones that conceived too many.

I'm wondering how he's come up with the definintion of "too many." By that statement, it seems he has an idea in his mind already of how many is too many. And you, ET US, the one who reads between all lines, should be able to see that unless it's just certain people's lines who you read between, ie, the ones who don't agree with you...

What I'm saying, is there are various cultural and religious reasons for having a lot of children. For example, one US family has I believe 17 children-they've had a TV program made about them. Since that TV program, they had several more kids. Are you faulting them too for having too many kids or are they excluded because they happen to live comfortably?

It would really help your ability to carry on a debate if you could learn to look at the bigger picture every now and then and don't pull each and every statement down to an individual or even personal level. A family ("a" as in one) with 17+ kids does not account for an exploding population in this here country. A population that doubled within a generation does.

[desert_fox 32]

Its part of the culture of too many countries of having as many children that is possible, without giving any regard on how to support such families. I guess its considered manly.

This of course is my opinion.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Too many = population rises to the point where it forces 20% of your countries population to cross your neighbor's borders illegally looking for work. any questions?

How do we know that the rise in population is why they're crossing over? What if Mexico had a population density similar to that of the United States but was much poorer than it is today? There would still be illegal immigration.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Too many = population rises to the point where it forces 20% of your countries population to cross your neighbor's borders illegally looking for work. any questions?

How do we know that the rise in population is why they're crossing over? What if Mexico had a population density similar to that of the United States but was much poorer than it is today? There would still be illegal immigration.

Just my uneducated guess

[Traviesa 0]

He stated...

...or written on the gravestones of the ones that conceived too many.

I'm wondering how he's come up with the definintion of "too many." By that statement, it seems he has an idea in his mind already of how many is too many. And you, ET US, the one who reads between all lines, should be able to see that unless it's just certain people's lines who you read between, ie, the ones who don't agree with you...

What I'm saying, is there are various cultural and religious reasons for having a lot of children. For example, one US family has I believe 17 children-they've had a TV program made about them. Since that TV program, they had several more kids. Are you faulting them too for having too many kids or are they excluded because they happen to live comfortably?

Too many = population rises to the point where it forces 20% of your countries population to cross your neighbor's borders illegally looking for work. any questions?

I don't think it forces anything. If the same population of people were in a country of similar size out in the middle of the Pacific-they would be staying there out in the middle of the Pacific. Or would there be people swimming off the island?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

He stated...

...or written on the gravestones of the ones that conceived too many.

I'm wondering how he's come up with the definintion of "too many." By that statement, it seems he has an idea in his mind already of how many is too many. And you, ET US, the one who reads between all lines, should be able to see that unless it's just certain people's lines who you read between, ie, the ones who don't agree with you...

What I'm saying, is there are various cultural and religious reasons for having a lot of children. For example, one US family has I believe 17 children-they've had a TV program made about them. Since that TV program, they had several more kids. Are you faulting them too for having too many kids or are they excluded because they happen to live comfortably?

Too many = population rises to the point where it forces 20% of your countries population to cross your neighbor's borders illegally looking for work. any questions?

I don't think it forces anything. If the same population of people were in a country of similar size out in the middle of the Pacific-they would be staying there out in the middle of the Pacific. Or would there be people swimming off the island?

They would be taking American Airlines.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

He stated...

...or written on the gravestones of the ones that conceived too many.

I'm wondering how he's come up with the definintion of "too many." By that statement, it seems he has an idea in his mind already of how many is too many. And you, ET US, the one who reads between all lines, should be able to see that unless it's just certain people's lines who you read between, ie, the ones who don't agree with you...

What I'm saying, is there are various cultural and religious reasons for having a lot of children. For example, one US family has I believe 17 children-they've had a TV program made about them. Since that TV program, they had several more kids. Are you faulting them too for having too many kids or are they excluded because they happen to live comfortably?

Too many = population rises to the point where it forces 20% of your countries population to cross your neighbor's borders illegally looking for work. any questions?

I don't think it forces anything. If the same population of people were in a country of similar size out in the middle of the Pacific-they would be staying there out in the middle of the Pacific. Or would there be people swimming off the island?

wow