Mixed feelings in Mexico on the Border Wall?

Ginger Thompson’s article in today’s NYTimes is titled “Some in Mexico See Border Wall as an Opportunity.”  The title of the article, attached here, seems a bit of a stretch — no one quoted in the article seems to support a wall, per se, except insofar as it keeps people from dying in the desert and works to mitigate US opposition to legalization programs.

But the article discusses another important issue in the immigration reform discussion — namely, what steps the Mexican governing elite can and should start taking to deal with the issue of Mexican migration to the US.

“For too long, Mexico has boasted about immigrants leaving, calling them national heroes, instead of describing them as actors in a national tragedy,” said Jorge Santibáñez, president of the College of the Northern Border. “And it has boasted about the growth in remittances” — the money immigrants send home — “as an indicator of success, when it is really an indicator of failure.”

The role that Mexico can play in addressing issues of cross-border migration is not at the center of the domestic immigration discussion, but it is an important part of that discussion.  And it is clear that some people are thinking about that issue, even if it’s not a hot topic in the halls of congress or on the 24 hour television news cycle.  One example:

In a column in the Mexican newspaper Reforma, Jorge G. Castañeda, a former foreign minister, suggested a “series of incentives,” rather than law enforcement strategies to keep Mexicans from migrating. They included welfare benefits to mothers whose husbands remained in Mexico, scholarships for high school students with both parents at home, and the loss of land rights for people who were absent from their property for extended periods of time.”

Clearly, US law alone is not going to solve the problem of unauthorized migration into the US.   Mexican governing elite needs to think creatively about how to create opportunities for their citizens at home.  Equally importantly, the US government needs to think more proactively about trade policies that create, rather than undermine, economic opportunities in Mexico.

-jmc