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Photo caption: An exhibit photo ‘Seven String Barbed Wire Fence’ by Diana Molina.
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SAN ANTONIO • “Who is my neighbor?” was the question posed by the second annual symposium hosted by the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) Oct. 10-11.
The event opened with a live theatrical performance Friday evening of “The Line in the Sand: Stories from the U.S.-Mexico Border,” directed by Father Leo Perez, OMI, of Oblate School of Theology and was sponsored by Catholic Relief Services-Southwest Regional Office. The production shared the stories of various individuals through a collection of monologues and photos, providing a variety of points of view on this complex human issue.
Saturday featured six workshops offered by national speakers on a variety of topics. Offerings were themed, “A Story of Becoming a Good Samaritan,” “Welcoming Community Initiative Project,” “Guest Workers and the New Slavery,” “The Rights of Immigrant Children: Untold Stories,” and “Who is my Neighbor?” as well as “Seven String Barbed Wire Fence,” a multi-media exhibit that addresses the issue of Latino immigration to the United States.
The Community Center at MACC was standing room only for the presentation on “Guest Workers and the New Slavery” by Mexican sociologist Jorge A. Bustamante, Ph.D. He holds a doctorate from the University of Notre Dame, where he has held the Eugene Conley Professor of Sociology Endowed Chair since 1986. He was also president of El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana, Mexico, from 1982 to 1998.
Bustamante has done extensive research on Mexican immigration to the United States, border phenomena and U.S.-Mexico relations.
The professor began by saying he challenges myths on immigration with scientific information, which has made him an unpopular presenter at some venues.
Bustamante said the U.S. government holds the view that the immigration phenomenon is a domestic question, which does not involve outside agencies or other countries. “This is simply not a reality,” he said. “If a country views this as a domestic phenomenon, then it has no participation from Mexico, and therefore, no solution.”
Currently, political campaigns are also contributing to difficulties in the immigration phenomenon, Bustamante said. “The realities are not the way things are seen in general,” he explained. “The reality is not believed in the United States. Both presidential candidates just suggest unilateral measures, and there is no pressure to look at things from different perspectives.”
Bustamante offered some statistics on migration patterns around the globe. About 200 million people are now crossing international borders on a regular basis, with one-third of those border crossers doing so with no authorization, ignoring immigration laws and regulations.
“The United States has the sovereign right to decide who should enter and who should not, but it has to be based on reality,” he emphasized. “If it was not involved in politics, we would realize that it benefits both countries in different dimensions.”
Bustamante said there are about 12 million foreigners in the United States without documentation, with six million of those being from Mexico, and the rest from other countries around the world. To illustrate the impact of these undocumented workers, the Notre Dame professor cited an example from California. That state produces one third of the food consumed in the United States, but the crops are harvested there by a 95 percent Mexican migrant labor force.
“People do not believe this, but there are good research procedures to say this is the reality,” said Bustamante.
The former college president acknowledged that there are many myths in Mexico about life in the United States that reinforce illegal immigration, but he lamented that fact that it is still easier for Mexicans to progress economically in the United States than in Mexico.
“Mexico has an obligation to provide for what its population wants, but it has not done it,” Bustamante said. “The citizens have not pressured the government, and there is indifference about the plight of migrants in the United States.”
To follow up on that point, he mentioned the massive immigration reform marches that took place in a number of U.S. cities two years ago which attracted more than two million people. “There was zero reaction from the Mexican government,” he said. “There is no political cost for doing nothing.”
Lastly, Bustamante, who writes a weekly column on immigration for El Reforma, the largest newspaper in Mexico, gave a brief history on immigration patterns to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries, when people from Ireland, Germany, Italy, Russia, Poland, China, Japan and Mexico came across the oceans in ever increasing numbers.
“The paradox is that the workers were recruited to come to the United States, but were rejected from society,” he concluded. “The development of the United States is due to these practices.”
Following the workshops, attendees were asked to discuss actions and strategies developed around two questions: “What do you feel called to do or be?” and “What do you feel you can do to mobilize your faith community?”