I have recently been re-entrenched in the discussions of the US/Mexico border, the series of walls that are being built and the subject of undocumented immigration. This issue of immigration, which is always framed in the public eye as a problem, has intrigued me for some time. It will be something that I need to keep, if not in the immediate foreground of my research, at least on a warmish back burner. Chiapas has one of the higher remittance recipient rates in Mexico and has both a large outmigration of its income earning population as well as influx of undocumented immigrants from neighboring Guatemala.
I pulled up the nytimes this morning as I settled down with a cup of coffee and read this article on the new efforts to address the high number of undocumented immigrants in the US. I have to say that I find it refreshing to see that resources are going to a campaign of dialogue rather than one of terror, but that it is a far cry from coalescing lasting change, (or perhaps after hearing that word slung around so much during the campaign I expect quite a bit of it, and for it to have depth). I think fining companies that willingly embrace undocumented immigration is definitely a way to send a message (although American Apparel seems a less worrisome target, as they pay their employees well and offer health benefits-which is usually not the case), but as Joe dryly pointed out, those fines could perhaps be put to better use by being funneled into helping workers obtain legal documents. As I tend to think with many things, undocumented immigration is largely a problem of access (in this case, to legal documentation and by access I mean material wealth).
In related news, I have long desired to watch the Linklater adaptation of Schlosser's book "Fast Food Nation," but because I am familiar with the extraordinarily depressing content I kept shuffling it down the netflix queue in favor of more lighthearted flicks. Well, I finally gave in this week and we watched it. I was curious where the focus would fall, it's an almost 400 page book that addresses many issues along the greater fast food chain. The film focused in nicely on feedlots, meatpacking and the trials of undocumented immigrants in meat packing plants. I strongly encourage you to pick up the film or book and see for yourself.
One further note on border crossing...the film shows a brief glimpse of what a desert crossing entails, for further reading, check out Luis Alberto Urrea's book "The Devil's Highway," it is beautifully written.
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