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Rethinking Mexican Immigration
2006 was a critical year for issues surrounding Mexican immigration to the United States. Congress and the greater public are engaged in hotly contested debates concerning immigration policy, border policing, and the political and cultural loyalties of new immigrants to the United States. On October 30, 2006, the Bill Lane Center hosted a public roundtable, RETHINKING MEXICAN IMMIGRATION, to consider these timely topics. Bringing together several experts on different aspects of Mexican immigration to the United States, the event illuminated the stakes and concerns involved for the citizens of both nations. ROUNDTABLE SPEAKERS Moderator: Discussants: Jorge Bustamante, Eugene P. and Helen Conley Professor of Sociology, Notre Dame University Susan Ferriss, Reporter, Sacramento Bee. Tamar Jacoby, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute Guillermina Jasso, Sociology, New York University and Co-Principal Investigator for the New Immigration Study
The roundtable discussion touched on several important immigration issues and culminated in an overview of what each panelist hoped Americans and Mexicans would “rethink” in the coming months and years of this debate. Jasso presented some key statistics that highlight the high degree of assimilation of Mexican immigrants and their children and remind the public to not discount the amount of legal immigration that occurs across the U.S.-Mexico border (as well as the fact that many legal immigrants were first illegal). Still, as the panelists noted, the high levels of illegal immigration across the border are clearly indicative of the inadequacy of U.S. immigration and visa policies with regard to low-skilled workers. Although Jacoby believes U.S. Congress is closer to an immigration reform than the current election season rhetoric might indicate, Bustamante cautioned that the U.S. attempts to solve a bilateral problem unilaterally will never truly address the full issues involved. The panelists proceeded to discuss how the issue is viewed from the Mexican side of the border. Bustamante stressed that despite the strong economic and family ties that span the border, many Mexicans tend to distance themselves from Mexicans living in the U.S., especially those of the middle and upper classes. According to Bustamante, until the Mexican public takes the issue of illegal immigration into the U.S. seriously and addresses some of the “push” factors prompting emigration, the problems between the two countries on this issue will likely persist. What needs rethinking? The discussants suggest the following: POLITICS: The current U.S. visa system is out of sync with the demand for low-skilled workers in this country, and there is a lack of legal ways to enter this country for those workers. PERSONAL CHOICES: Americans need to think more carefully about their own role in the perpetuation of illegal immigration and more fully recognize the economic and social contributions that the migrant workforce makes to their lifestyles and labor needs. EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY: The children of recent immigrants should have access to some educational assistance. If they were not born in the U.S. it is extremely difficult for them to attend college and thus contribute in more and beneficial ways to the U.S. economy. HUMAN RIGHTS: We must find a way to deal with immigration issues in a manner that does not dehumanize those who cross into this country illegally.
Invisible No More: Mexican Migrant Civic Participation in the United States (Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the University of California, Santa Cruz, August 2006) Immigration and the 2006 U.S. Elections “Border Battles”: Social Science Research Council essays on immigration David R. Ayon, “The Long Road to the Voto Postal: Mexican Policy and People of Mexican Origin in the U.S.,” Working Paper no. 6, Center for Latin American Studies, University of California at Berkeley, February 2006
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RETHINKING MEXICAN IMMIGRATION: A ROUNDTABLE
DISCUSSION HIGHLIGHTS 
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