CIAO DATE: 08/07

Georgetown Journal of International Affairs

Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Volume 7, Number 2, Summer/Fall 2006

 

Missing in Action: Mass Male Migration and Mexican Communities
Charles Wright

 

Excerpt

Charles Wright is a student in the Master of Science in Foreign Service program at Georgetown University.

On the playground at Zaragoza Elementary School in Cholula, Mexico, the teacher stopped answering questions and started asking them. When I started teaching these students, all between the ages of nine and twelve, they bombarded me with como se dices and asked how to swear in English. But soon recess time became sharing time as they told me their family histories. “I have a brother in Florida,” one said, followed by another girl who echoed a similar story except, it was her father who was in the United States. Wanting to hear more, I asked her if she has gone to visit him. “Nope, but I hope to soon,” she replied. Finally, I asked her when she had seen last seen her dad, but she could not recall their last time together. This conversation piqued my interest, so I talked to more kids to see if it was an isolated incident. What I learned was incredible: most of the students had at least one male relative in the States.

That comment gave me pause, but I did not give it further thought until reading “Inside the Life of the Migrants Next Door,” an article in Time magazine. In the article, Mexicans in New York were questioning the worth of their journey to the United States. The article uncovered several social costs for these immigrants and challenges they faced on the road to a better life for themselves and their family. These challenges could be serious barriers to Mexico’s development. Hence the question: do the benefits of the mass male migration from communities in Mexico to the United States outweigh the social cost of their absence? One key factor in answering that question is determining what the impact of the migration of male family members is on the upbringing of the next generation.

Men, Migration, and Family

The United States is known as the land of opportunity. For many Mexicans, climbing the social ladder means crossing the northern border of Mexico in search of opportunities not available at home. Although the majority of opportunities consist of physically demanding work, financial allure erases reservations to leave home and family behind to undertake the risky journey north. For this reason tides of Mexican men have rolled into the United States in order to change their fate and that of their families. While away from home, the men send back their salaries through remittances to care for those left behind. Herein is the crux of the problem for Mexico’s most important societal unit: Does financial prosperity mean a better life for the family, or does the absence of fathers and other male figures have serious implications for familial development? Seemingly, the decreased presence of males in the community affects future generations of Mexican children by adversely impacting their familial social development and educational opportunities.

Having lived on both sides of the Rio Grande, I have observed Mexican culture from different perspectives. During these times my Mexican friends familiarized me with important cultural issues such as family structure. Although distinctions exist between the social classes, all the families share common characteristics in spite of these socioeconomic differences. The father is the primary breadwinner of the family, while the mother is responsible for the household and children. Additionally, the nuclear and extended family demonstrates a distinct emotional and geographic closeness. Because of this close familial relationship, families take great responsibility for the overall welfare of their members. Family closeness is facilitated not only by economic necessity, but by celebrations like Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and the quinceañera (a girl’s fifteenth birthday) that tighten family relationships. These times not only hold significance for the remembrance of family ancestry and the passage into womanhood, but also serve as an essential vehicle to keep the family nucleus tight. Even more, the importance of family-oriented activities for survival of its members increases as the economic well-being of the family decreases. Despite the immense value of the family in Mexican culture, its prominent role is being endangered by the widespread exodus of its male figureheads, and in particular, fathers.

Mexican Migration Trends

While migration of Mexicans to the United States is not a new trend, its makeup has changed. Until the 1940s, entire families would transfer their lives north. After the coming of World War II and the deployment of U.S. soldiers overseas, the need for physical labor intensified. In 1942 the U.S. government created the Bracero program to allow Mexican laborers to supplement the dwindling U.S. workforce. Because of the demanding nature of the work, the majority of Mexicans that committed were men. In the end, approximately a quarter of a million men came to America, starting a trend in which men travel to work on their own, leaving their families behind.1 Despite an increase in Mexican female migration to the United States to seek work or re-unite families, the current statistics still show that more males are working in the United States than females. According to the 2000 Census Profile for Mexicans in the United States, males outnumber their female counterparts by approximately one million, with males accounting for 67 percent of the Mexican civilian workforce in the United States.2

While the problem might not seem daunting in terms of numbers, the increasing absence of males can be harsh on smaller rural towns and villages, where opportunity is scarce and the desire to migrate is high. Once one migrant demonstrates prosperity due to his work in the United States, large numbers will follow in his footsteps, leaving behind scores of families.3 The exodus hurts communities at their vibrant heart by robbing the community of young men with initiative and leadership.4 This same group also functions as a large part of the engine that physically drives the survival and improvement of the community. Their importance is higher in rural areas where farming is the life force for both money and sustenance. Absentee men help contribute to the decline of the family unit and place increased stress on those left behind...

1 Garcia, Alma M. The Mexican Americans (Westport, Connecticut: The New Americans, 2002), 30-31.
2 U.S. Census Bureau 2002
3 Nathan Thornburg, “Inside the Life of the Migrants Next Door,” Time, vol. 167, no. 6. 6 February 2006.
4 Gustavo Verduzco and Kurt Unger. “Impacts of Migration in Mexico,” in Migration between Mexico and the United States (Austin, Texas:  Morgan Printing, 1998), 428-429.