Globalization and Demographic Revolution

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HILD 7C Week 9:
Globalization and Demographic Revolution
Mexican women working in a maquiladora.
This week’s lecture has 3 objectives: 1 Consider the skyrocketing numbers of
Mexican and Latinx immigrants to the U.S. since the 1960s); 2) Analyze the
economic and political conditions driving this demographic revolution; 3) Examine
its impact on U.S. society and the lives of Chicanx and Latinx folk.
*Because debates raised in this lecture may elicit different opinions, it is our collective
responsibility to actively listen, read, and be respectful of others at all times
Immigration Overdrive:
In 2019, more than 45 million immigrants lived in the U.S., accounting for 13.7%
of the nation’s population. Compare this to 1960, when the nation was home to 9.7
million immigrants that made up 5.4% of the population. Estimates are that there will
be more than 100 million immigrants in the U.S. by 2065 and they will be nearly 20% of
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the population. As the charts below indicate, much of this change was driven by
immigration from Latin America and Mexico, in particular. In 2019, Mexicans were 24%
of all immigrants in the U.S. (down from 30% in 2000!).
Top Ten Largest U.S. Immigrant Groups, 1960 and 2013
Source: MPI, “Largest U.S. Immigrant Groups over Time, 1960-Present,” available online.
In 2015, there were more than 55 million Latinxs in the U.S. (U.S. born and immigrant
together), making up 17.3% of the entire U.S. population. In the same year there was
also an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and one in 10 people
born in Mexico lived in the United States. This week’s lecture module examines how this
demographic revolution happened and its impact on American society and Chicanx
history. For more on these extraordinary changes, take a look at the article below!
RECOMMENDED: Overview of Immigration to the US since 1965, CLICK HERE
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Neoliberalism and Immigration in the 1960s and 70s:
Global economic conditions and policy known as neoliberalism has dramatically
shaped immigration since the 1960s. Neoliberalism stressed open markets and free
trade across borders, deregulation of government oversight, and austerity measures
that privatized industry and social services. The results in many parts of the world,
including Mexico and much of the Global South, was increased inequality and
migration as ordinary people sought better economic opportunity. To learn more
about neoliberalism and its far-reaching impact on immigration to the United States,
take a look at the short 5-minute video below!
CLICK TO WATCH: Neoliberalism and Migration since the 1970s
If you still want to hear more about neoliberalism, click on the next link!
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RECOMMENDED: A brief explanation of Neoliberalism , CLICK HERE TO WATCH
When the Bracero Program ended in 1964, Mexico started a new program
called the Border Industrialization Program (BIP). It created a free-trade industrial
corridor for foreign investors near the border where U.S., Japanese, and other
transnational firms were able to secure assembly plants with cheap labor. These
factories were known as maquiladoras and produced everything from garment to
electronics. Border cities like Tijuana and Juarez became magnets for millions of job
seekers from the rest of Mexico, including many single young women in their 20s.
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Map of maquiladora production in 2003. Note the clusters along the border and in northern Mexico.
In 1950 Tijuana and Juarez had a combined population of less than 200,000. In 2020,
Tijuana was home to 2 million people and Juarez 1.5 million. Not only did migrants
spill over into the U.S., but maquiladoras failed to boost the Mexican economy
because profits went to foreign investors. This fueled more immigration to the U.S.

Maquiladoras just south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
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To learn more about maquiladoras, watch the short 3-minute video below!
CLICK TO WATCH: Maquiladora video
The 1965 Nationality Act abolished the national origins and racial quota
systems established in 1921, ushering in a new era of mass, legal immigration from
Mexico, Latin America. Asia, and elsewhere. It allocated a specific number of visas to
eastern and western hemisphere nations, but created preferential groups-including
relatives of U.S. citizens and some professions- not subject to limits. Take a look at
the chart below to see its impact on the number of foreign-born in the U.S. after 1965.
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President Lyndon B. Johnson signs 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act at base of
Statue of Liberty in New York City.
The 1980s and 1990s:
One place to consider the impact of neoliberalism and the rise in immigration
from Mexico is along the U.S.-Mexico border during the 1980s and 1990s. Remember
that the border was established by military force during the Mexican American War
in 1846-1848. More than a century later it is still controlled by military force.
The U.S.-Mexico border above. Common slogan about border history on the right.
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By the 1970s, the border was viewed as a vulnerable zone where security was
needed to repel undocumented immigration, win the war on drugs entering the U.S.,
and strengthen counter-terrorism. In 1986, for instance, President Ronald Reagan
remarked in a conversation about U.S. foreign policy dealing with Nicaraguan rebels
that terrorists were only two days away from Texas. The use of military rhetoric,
technology, and equipment led to increased violence, human rights violations, and
targeting of civilian populations by military taking on police functions and vice versa.
As the figure below suggests, militarization also created a border-industrial complex
from which big businesses continue to profit.
Above from Todd Miller, More Than a Wall: Corporate Profiteering and the Militarization of US Borders.
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Below, protests against militarization of the border have been common since the 1980s.
REFLECTION OPPORTUNITY #1: Do you believe a borderless world is possible? Why
or why not?
While militarization of the border was big business, it did not stem the tide of
immigration. In 1990, the U.S. was home to 4.4 million Mexican immigrants and 15
million Mexican descent folks. By 2010, these numbers had grown to 11.7 million
Mexican immigrants and 35 million people of Mexican descent.
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The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 was meant to address
the evolving immigration crisis in three main parts, including:
• Employer sanctions: made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit
undocumented immigrant workers or continue to employ them.
• Border security: increased border patrol staffing by 50%.
• Pathway to citizenship: gave undocumented immigrants eligibility for
legalization if they arrived in U.S. prior to January 1, 1982 or could prove
they worked 60 days in agriculture in 1985-1986. They had to pay a fine and
back taxes, have no criminal record, and show knowledge of English.
1988 poster by Chicano artist Mark Vallen.
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Three million immigrants were granted amnesty under IRCA. It also further militarized
the border and generated intense public debate over undocumented immigration.
Debate was heightened by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
in 1994. It aimed to generate trade between the US, Mexico, and Canada through
more deregulation and less taxes for big business. It also failed to address worker
rights or environmental protections and resulted in more exploitative maquiladoras
and militarized initiatives like Operation Blockade in El Paso (1993), Operation
Gatekeeper in San Diego (1994), Operation Safeguard in Arizona (1994), and
Operation Rio Grande in East Texas (1997). Many argued it also created more poverty,
less social services, and increased surveillance in immigrant communities and loss of
jobs in the U.S.
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NAFTA political cartoon.
Eight years after IRCA, California was ground zero for immigrant rights in the
wake of its statewide Proposition 187. Passed during the November 1994 election,
Prop 187 denied undocumented immigrants access to health care and education and
required police, health care professionals and teachers to report the immigration
status of all individuals, including children. Although Proposition 187 was eventually
found unconstitutional, the fury on both sides of its debate did not soon end.
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Proposition 187 drew massive protests across California.
Artist Lalo Alcaraz’s 1994 satirical political cartoon on Prop 187.
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Prop 187 was opportunistically embraced by California Governor Pete Wilson to
galvanize his reelection campaign and anti-immigrant platform. Click on the link
below to watch his pro-Prop 187 campaign ads.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH: Pete Wilson re-election ads
For a very different spin on Prop 187, click on the link below to watch a 2-minute
monologue from comedian Carlos Mencias (*warning for explicit language*).
CLICK HERE TO WATCH: Comedian Carlos Mencias on Proposition 187
REFLECTION OPPORTUNITY #2: If you were alive in 1994 would you have supported
Proposition 187? Why or why not?
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Let’s close this week’s lecture module with the sobering reminder that the
1990s were not only marked by rhetoric and fear of the “Latinoization” or “browning”
of the United States. Immigrants were also subject to violence. In Juarez, Mexico,
just across the border from El Paso, hundreds of young Mexican women were
kidnapped and killed along the border in the mid 1990s. Many were maquiladora
workers. To learn more about this tragic femicide, click on the link below.
RECOMMENDED: Disappearing Daughters, A project by The Seattle Times, CLICK HERE
Images from Juarez/El Paso.
Crossing the border also routinely led to death. During the 1990s, hundreds of
immigrants died every year from drowning in the Rio Grande, exposure or
dehydration in the desert, or by being run over by cars. One sociologist remarked,
that immigrant deaths “leave a legacy of unmarked graves all along the border.” For
more on these sad tales of border crossing, read the New York Times article below.
CLICK TO READ: “Silent Death at the Border,” New York Times, 1997