Illegal immigration in the United States: push-pull factors

Résumé du document

Mexico is a two-faced country: you can be influenced by cities like San Cristobal, Oaxaca, Mexico city and start to think that Mexico is a developed country but whereas on the countryside the states remain in what we would call "the third world".
Mexico shares its biggest border with the United States; for centuries, boundaries have been crossed and people have migrated back and forth.
Nowadays, illegal immigration is becoming a big problem in the US and crossing the border has become a risky but a rather common behaviour for Mexican people. The US has tried to respond to them by taking various measures which even includes the construction of a wall. But that is not stopping the illegal immigrants to flow in.

The point I'm going to develop is why Mexican people, even after knowing all the risks, keep trying to cross the border.

Extraits

[...] And since their country was “under developed”, some of them decided to leave it for their But what is development? Why do we impose our point of view upon other countries? Why is our lifestyle shown as lifestyle” we should all long for? How do we know that our development is the best one? A recent survey has shown that if one third of the world was as developed as our Western countries, we would have all died of an ecological disaster. The planet couldn't have tolerated all the pollution and the changes it would have brought. [...]

[...] So apart from the economic matter, what pushes Mexicans to cross the border? I think that Mexican people leave their country because we have given them the will to do so, through TV and advertising, they think it will bring them happiness in their lives if they live in the “developed countries”; and living in America with the “American dream” is always alive in them. It's not only about money; it involves the delusion that are created through TV that things are easy and hence they should all try to attain the way of living that are shown by the US or Western countries. [...]

[...] In La Ventanilla, the majority of the younger generation dream to go to the US; some do while others don't but they all talk about it. As we have achieved in convincing them with the reference of our countries that our lifestyle is the best one; now they believe it and that's why some of them decide to their luck” in the US. I think the people in La Ventanilla were happier 50 years ago. Now they all fantasize about a paradise that they can't reach, not because it is on the other side of the border but because it doesn't even exist. [...]

[...] Once she told me that in the US invisibility was her best weapon and paradoxically her greatest weakness. When I met her, she had been travelling around the world for 10 months and was now stuck in Mexico; therefore unable to go back to the country that she felt was her own. Hence, the only choice that was left for her was crossing illegally again. In the village I stayed in, ventanilla” everyone was fascinated by the US. All of them knew someone who had crossed the border. [...]

[...] Illegal immigration in the United States: push-pull factors Mexico is a two-faced country: you can be influenced by cities like San Cristobal, Oaxaca, Mexico city and start to think that Mexico is a developed country but whereas on the countryside the states remain in what we would call third world”. Mexico shares its biggest border with the United States; for centuries, boundaries have been crossed and people have migrated back and forth. Nowadays, illegal immigration is becoming a big problem in the US and crossing the border has become a risky but a rather common behaviour for Mexican people. [...]