They Never Come Back

J. Schryer Frans

Description

For Mexicans on both sides of the border, the migrant experience has changed significantly over the past two decades. In They Never Come Back, Frans J. Schryer draws on the experiences of indigenous people from a region in the Mexican state of Guerrero to explore the impact of this transformation on the lives of migrants. When handicraft production was able to provide a viable alternative to agricultural labor, most migrants would travel to other parts of Mexico to sell their wares. Others opted to work for wages in the United States, returning to Mexico on a regular basis.This is no longer the case. At first almost everyone, including former craft vendors, headed north; however it also became more difficult to go back home and then reenter the United States. One migrant quoted by Schryer laments, "Before I was an artisan and free to travel all over Mexico to sell my crafts. Here we are all locked in a box and cannot get out." NAFTA, migrant labor legislation, and more stringent border controls have all affected migrants' home communities, their relations with employers, their livelihoods, and their identity and customs. Schryer traces the personal lives and careers of indigenous men and women on both sides of the border. He finds that the most pressing issue facing undocumented workers is not that they are unable to earn enough money but, rather, that they are living in a state of ongoing uncertainty and will never be able to achieve their full potential. Through these stories, Schryer offers a nuanced understanding of the predicaments undocumented workers face and the importance of the ongoing debate around immigration policy.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• USA
• México
• Industrial relations
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis
• Mexico
• Migration

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 31 octobre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801455124
• Langue: English

Extrait

TheyNeverComeBack

TheyNeverComeBack

AStoryofUndocumentedWorkers from Mexico

FransJ.Schryer

ILR Press animprintof CornellUniversityPress IthacaandLondon

Copyright © 2014 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2014 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2014 Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Schryer, Frans J., author.  They never come back : a story of undocumented workers from Mexico / Frans J. Schryer.  pages cm  Includes bibliographical references.  ISBN 9780801453144 (cloth : alk. paper)  ISBN 9780801479618 (pbk. : alk. paper)  1. Foreign workers, Mexican—United States—Social conditions. 2. Foreign workers, Mexican—United States—Economic conditions. 3. Illegal aliens—United States—Social conditions. 4. Illegal aliens— United States—Economic conditions. I. Title.  HD8081.M6S36 2014  331.6'2720973—dc23 2014012346

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 Paperback printing 10 9 8 7

6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1

Preface

Introduction

Contents

 1. What Happened to the Mexican Miracle?

2. “Struggling to Get Ahead”

 3. “No One Lives There”

4. “I Feel Sorry for Them”

5. “It Used to Be Easy to Cross the Border”

6. “In the United States All You Do Is Work”

7. “For Me It Is about the Same”

8. “Mexicans Are Good Workers”

9. “We Can Never Hang Out with Our Friends”

10.“TheyOnlySendYouBackifYouAreBad”

vii

1 11 26 41 50 59 70 82 89 103 111

v i C o n t e n t s

11.“WeMustCarryOnOurAncestors’Traditions”

12.“IDon’tHaveMuchinCommonwithMyCousin”

13.TheSystemIsBroken

SuggestedReadingsandReferences

Acknowledgments

119 127 135

153 159

Preface

InFebruary2006Iwastravelinginacrowdedvansnakingitsway along a dusty, potholed dirt road in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. The van serves as a small bus that takes people back and forth between the city of Iguala and one of the smaller towns whose inhabitants do their shop ping and run errands there. I sat between two men and a woman sharing a narrow bench. Everyone spoke Nahuatl, the language used in that part of Guerrero. I struck up a conversation with the young man sitting on my left and found out that his parents had taken him and several of their other children with them to Houston, Texas, several years earlier. He switched to Spanish, then English, telling me he had recently come back from northern Mexico to make sure that his mother made it safely back across the border after a short visit to their hometown. The son planned to stay a bit longer before returning to the United States. This young man also told me the person who had most helped him learn English was a retired teacher in Houston, and he asked me for my email address to give to her. It turns out that the teacher, who writes juvenile fiction, was interested in the native people of Mexico, a topic on which I have considerable expertise.

v i i i P r e f a c e

I corresponded with her and a year later stayed at her house during my first trip to the United States to start doing research on undocumented workers. My experience in that van is typical of the work done by anthro pologists whose investigations sometimes lead us in unexpected directions. Intoday’sincreasinglyinterconnectedworld,itdoesnotmakemuchsenseto study migration by looking only at people in their place of origin, or conversely, their place of destination. By simultaneously doing fieldwork in the United States and in Mexico, I discovered that I could sometimes find out more about a town in Mexico from an interview with someone living in an apartment in a large urban center in the United States; likewise, I learned as much about the immigration experience from interviewing former migrants now living in Mexico as I did from talking to migrants in their homes and places of work north of the border. Talking to people on both sides of the U.S.Mexico border enabled me to identify the hopes and dreams, as well as the disappointments and anxieties, of both undocumented workers and those they left behind. Inwritingaboutundocumentedworkers,Iwanttogivereadersagood sense of what life is like for those who make it across the border. My goal is to provide American citizens, including those of Mexican descent, with a better understanding of undocumented migrants and the contribution undocumented workers make to the American economy. My hope is to illuminate not only the situation of undocumented migrants but also the urgent need to change the current system of immigration that is just not working. The focal point of this book is the sending communities. The existing literature usually provides more information on Mexican immi grants working and living in the United States than on the hometowns of those immigrants. My study will do the opposite. Previous research in Mexico and my knowledge of Nahuatl enables me to provide new insights into the impact of migration on sending communities and the emergence of new attitudes among those left behind. At the same time I provide ample coverage of the experiences and feelings of undocumented workers. Untilnow,Ihavewrittenbooksandjournalarticlesforspecialistsin the field, presenting complex ideas using abstract, technical language. In contrast, this book is an example of public anthropology, which presents research results to a broader audience with the intention of contributing to public discussions on policy. I believe that the research of scholars and the implications of that research can be—and should be—explained in a way that is both thoughtprovoking and understandable to those without advanced academic degrees.

Introduction

MillionsofundocumentedMexicanslivingintheUnitedStatesfeel boxed in. They might want to attend weddings in their hometowns or spend time with dying grandparents; but they need to keep their jobs and face in creasing risks if they leave and then reenter. Consequently, few go back and forth anymore. These workers face additional challenges since it is now al most impossible for them to obtain a work permit or even identity docu ments. Consequently, to obtain work they have to acquire false documents or use the names of friends or relatives with valid Social Security numbers or work permits. Many cannot get or renew a driver’s license yet they need to drive as part of their job or to find work. So they drive without a license. They do not like living this lie, but what other choices do they have? Theinfluxofundocumentedworkersisaconsequenceoftheeconomic integration of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The same McDon ald’s restaurants and other fastfood chains are found in each county. The major car makers have assembly plants all over the continent. Several large Mexican firms now do as much business in some parts of the United States