Other Immigrants: The Global Origins of the American People

4. El Norte: Mexicans, 1940–Present

El Norte Mexicans, 1940–Present Of the latest newcomers from Asia, the Caribbean, and Central and South America, Latinos constitute about half. And, among the countries sending Spanish-speaking immigrants to the United States, none have been so important as Mexico. Mexicans account for approximately 60 percent of the nation’s Hispanics, and amount to about 40 percent of all immigrants arriving in California since the 1970s.1 In 1999, sociologist Robert Smith remarked, “It’s increasingly getting harder to get away from Mexico, even while living in the United States. . . . Short- and long-term Mexican migration represents the greatest economic, political and cultural impact of any other immigrant group in the United States.” Given the backlog of Mexicans waiting to migrate to the United States, they will continue to influence American life for some time to come.2 (See Table 1.) Rather than waiting for visas or immigration permits, many choose to illegally cross the Rio Grande in order to work and live in the United States. Mexicans make up the largest nationality group (a majority) of the illegal immigrant population in the United States. In 1996, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) estimated that there were 5 million undocumented persons living in the United States, of whom Mexicans numbered 2.7 million (55 percent).3 The 2000 census revealed that these figures were out of date. Using the new data, demographers suggested that the undocumented population reached 8.7 million in 2000, with Mexicans constituting the majority.4 Frank Bean and other scholars have suggested somewhat different numbers.5 Most authorities believe that Mexico accounts for approximately half the total.6 So great has been this migration that Mexico has now passed Germany as the nation sending the largest number of persons to America since the country’s founding. The 2000 census counted 8.8 million persons born in Mexico and living in the United States; in 2002 the Center for Immigration Studies placed 4 101 the figure at 9,659,000.7 Official immigration totals from 1820 to 2000 indicated that persons from Mexico numbered 6,138,964. The census included some of the undocumented population but still represents an undercount . Jeffrey Passel of the Urban Institute has stated that half of the Mexicans counted were actually undocumented.8 Moreover, these figures of more than 9 million Mexicans living in the United States do not take into consideration many of those who arrived at the turn of the twentieth century or those who have died or returned home.9 After the deportations of the 1930s, the Mexican government and many Mexicans were not eager for more migration to America. But World War II marked the beginning of a trend that continued for the rest of the century; indeed, the numbers increased each decade. When the United States went to war against Japan, Germany, and Italy in 1941, it eventually mobilized 15 million men and women in the armed forces. Several million Americans migrated to the cities, especially those of the West Coast, to labor in the nation’s rapidly growing war industries. The lean days of the Great Depression had finally come to an end. During this war Mexicans and Mexican Americans were among the millions heading to centers of the war economy. “The best jobs were in the cities. Consequently , during the war years there was a massive influx of the Mexican population into urban centers,” wrote historian Manuel G. Gonzales.10 These centers brought Mexican Americans into contact with other ethnic groups and heightened their awareness of their second-class position in the United States. Moreover, young Mexican Americans flocked to the 102 | El Norte table 1 Immigration from Mexico and Three Other Leading Emigrant Nations (1998–2001) 1998 1999 2000 2001 Country of Birth No. % No. % No. % No. % Mexico 206,426 19.4 173,919 20.5 147,573 22.8 131,575 20.1 India 70,290 6.6 42,046 4.9 30,237 4.7 36,482 5.6 China, People’s Republic 56,426 5.3 45,652 5.4 32,204 5.0 36,884 5.6 Philippines 53,154 5.0 42,474 5.0 32,026 4.8 34,466 5.3 source: Immigration and Naturalization Service, Annual Report, 2001. military or were drafted.11 Many of them told their extended families in Mexico that opportunities again existed in the United States...