Why Mexican Immigrants Come to the U.S.

You see them crammed into trucks and vans, going to work in fields and on construction sites, maybe landscaping your yard, doing back-breaking work in extreme weather, and it makes you wonder why Mexican immigrants come to the U.S. Couldn’t they live a more comfortable life in their own country where they speak the language and know the culture? Yes and no. It would certainly be easier in some ways for them to stay in Mexico, but for those who have chosen to move to the United States, the risk and discomfort are worth the benefits to their families.

Imagine you are a 25-year-old man living with your parents and five siblings in a tiny house with a dirt floor. You have only a 6th grade education because that’s all the government requires, and after that, your only option is private school, which your family could not afford. You have a pretty decent job in a factory, earning 8 pesos an hour, and this helps your family get by, but it doesn’t help them get ahead.

You learn from a friend that in the United States, you can make 10 U.S. dollars an hour doing a very similar job, so you do the math. One dollar is twelve pesos. Ten dollars is 120 pesos. One hundred-twenty pesos an hour! If you can get to the U.S. and get that job, you can live off of a small amount of what you earn and send the rest home to your family. And what you send home is a lot more than what you were earning before.

Or imagine you are a mother of three. You only have a 2nd grade education because you have twelve brothers and sisters, and your mother needed you to help her at home from the time you were a child. You recognize that the cycle is going to continue with your own children, and you want a better future for them. You know that in the United States, education is free through high school, and that if you can get there, your kids can grow up to really make something of themselves. You haven’t dared to dream that they might go to college, but they could at least have a good chance at graduating from high school – something no one in your family has ever done.

These are true-to-life stories of Mexican immigrants. If you ever wonder why Mexican immigrants come to the U.S., just put yourself in their shoes. There are better job opportunities for them here and better educational opportunities for their children. Plus, if they can come here and learn English, that gives them an edge that most Americans don’t have in the job market – bilingualism.

Why Mexican Immigrants Get Jobs in the U.S.

None of this would work, of course, if these immigrants couldn’t get jobs in America. But that is a simple matter of supply and demand. Because the money is already good for them, they are willing to work for less, and paying employees less helps profits. Also, many Mexican immigrants come to the U.S. illegally, so they don’t file taxes, which means that employers can pay them under the table and not have to take the time or pay the cost of processing all that paperwork.

It might not be a good system, and you might not agree with how they get here, but at least now you can start to understand why Mexican immigrants come to the U.S.