UncleBuck
Well-Known Member
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=20009
There is, however, one way in which NAFTA has stressed the American workforce: by increasing the flood of illegal immigrants willing to work for less money. In 1993, the treaty's proponents claimed that NAFTA would actually help keep Mexicans in their native country by increasing economic opportunities there, but, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, annual illegal immigration from Mexico jumped 54 percent in the few years after the treaty was ratified, from 260,000 in 1994 to 400,000 a year from 1995 to 2000. And it has continued growing after that.
But, just as important, by phasing out government protections for the country's 3.2 million small farmers, NAFTA drove many of them northward. According to Laura Carlsen of the Center for International Policy, as cheap American foodstuffs flooded Mexico's markets and as U.S. agribusiness moved in, 1.1 million small farmers--and 1.4 million other Mexicans dependent upon the farm sector--were driven out of work between 1993 and 2005. Wages dropped so precipitously that today the income of a farm laborer is one-third that of what it was before NAFTA. As jobs disappeared and wages sank, many of these rural Mexicans emigrated, swelling the ranks of the 12 million illegal immigrants living incognito and competing for low-wage jobs in the United States.
There is, however, one way in which NAFTA has stressed the American workforce: by increasing the flood of illegal immigrants willing to work for less money. In 1993, the treaty's proponents claimed that NAFTA would actually help keep Mexicans in their native country by increasing economic opportunities there, but, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, annual illegal immigration from Mexico jumped 54 percent in the few years after the treaty was ratified, from 260,000 in 1994 to 400,000 a year from 1995 to 2000. And it has continued growing after that.
But, just as important, by phasing out government protections for the country's 3.2 million small farmers, NAFTA drove many of them northward. According to Laura Carlsen of the Center for International Policy, as cheap American foodstuffs flooded Mexico's markets and as U.S. agribusiness moved in, 1.1 million small farmers--and 1.4 million other Mexicans dependent upon the farm sector--were driven out of work between 1993 and 2005. Wages dropped so precipitously that today the income of a farm laborer is one-third that of what it was before NAFTA. As jobs disappeared and wages sank, many of these rural Mexicans emigrated, swelling the ranks of the 12 million illegal immigrants living incognito and competing for low-wage jobs in the United States.
