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Figures vary, but, a recent survey indicates that about a third of Mexicans want to leave their country...
The text you referred to in the provided link stated, "A new Pew Research Center poll also found that about one-third of Mexicans would go to the United States if they could." Going to the United States does not necessarily equate to "leaving their country," as in emigrating. For example, I'd like to go to Paris (on a vacation). That does not mean I never want to return home! Interpretation is such a tricky thing.
But if you're in Colorado, aren't you yourself one who wanted to leave?
Well - one of the families in my neighborhood just headed back home to Mexico. They decided they'd rather be there - so not all Mexicans choose the USA over their own country. I've known others who went home and said that was where they preferred to live.
No. I moved here when I was 7 because my American stepdad wanted us to move here. We didn't want to leave.
I would've been better off had I stayed.
I was talking with a guy in Chihuahua once and he was telling me how he spent a summer in Wisconsin - he liked it but he said his heart would always remain in Mexico, so he decided he had to go back.
The problem is - Americans don't often meet those people who prefer and choose Mexico, they meet the ones who insist they must live in the USA so the general assumption is made that no one wants to live in Mexico.
Still -- I think a lot of studies show it. I was watching something broadcast from Juarez once (or maybe from Mexico City) - they were interviewing people on the sidewalk asking if they intended to leave Mexico and a large number said yes, they wanted to go to the USA and the reason was almost always about more money, more things. They asked this poor campesino looking guy who said "why would we want to leave Mexico", "Mexico es nuestra riqueza" and so you know that there are those who don't choose to leave their country.
Diego, if you had stayed, you might never have gained the appreciation you now have for your native culture. If and when you might ever return permanently to Mexico, you will be far better off for being bicultural. I think anyone can benefit by being a "world citizen" with a diversity of perspectives, and the wisdom and sensitivity that comes with that. To my way of thinking, you won the lottery by being given two cultures. Now you are the chooser.
This thread is getting very close to derailing, but I will respond to the question about the middle class. Mexico did have a middle class - a quite sizable one, up until about the 1980s. Neoliberalization and successive economic crises have ripped the guts out of that middle class. The poor stayed poor, the rich got richer, but the middle class truly got screwed. So while you say that the middle class is "growing," it is, but it's a far cry from what it once was. In some cities it's very difficult to make a living because the jobs pay so poorly. The government tried for years to attract those maquila jobs but the truth is that they paid very poorly, for extremely hard work that most burned out of after a few years. Unlike in the US, these factory jobs weren't creating a middle class; they were creating a lower class.
Regarding migrants, in most of the surveys I've read virtually all undocumented workers intend to make enough money to build a better home, and then move back once they're comfortable. In reality, people get caught up on the other side of the border - temporary connections become permanent, children are born, etc. It's not as easy as it appears to be.
Regarding migrants, in most of the surveys I've read virtually all undocumented workers intend to make enough money to build a better home, and then move back once they're comfortable. In reality, people get caught up on the other side of the border - temporary connections become permanent, children are born, etc. It's not as easy as it appears to be.
This is an accurate summary. Good insight.
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