Paper Example on Immigration of the Mexicans to the United States

Introduction

The immigration of the Mexicans to the United States has become a significant concern for political reasons. The main issue that bothers a lot both the American natives and as well as the government is the fact that the Mexicans have become the single largest group foreign-born residents in the United States. Some regions such as California and Texas seem to be under siege by the Mexican immigrants. In 2013 after the American government conducted a census in areas such as Texas they realized that 41.3 million individuals were of a foreign origin (Gan et al., 2018).

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Among the 11.6 million were from the Mexican immigrants. This indicates rapid growth in the number of Mexican immigrants in the United States, which has wholly underscored that of the Native Americans. As a result, there is a great fear by the American born populace that shortly they might turn out to be the minority in their own country when all the children of the immigrants acquire citizenship. The Native Americans also fear to lose their political influence of some parts of the country congested with the Mexican and Hispanic immigrants (Garza & Garza, 2017).

Arrival and Settlement Patterns

Mexicans form the majority of the immigrants to America. They arrived many decades ago, and in their settlement patterns, they depicted common characteristics for all immigrants to a foreign country in various periods. Most immigrants tend to occupy a particular geographical area (Gan et al., 2018). Mexicans preferred to live in the areas where others from their land had earlier settled. However, a minority of them scattered and distributed themselves across other regions and lived with the native-born Americans. The tendency of the Mexicans to concentrate in the areas where other Mexicans lived resulted in ethnic enclaves or ethnic concentration.

These enclaves facilitated the Mexicans to develop themselves in entrepreneurship while in the United States as well as help to maintain their ethnicity while in a foreign country, which could have proved difficult if they were scattered. More than half of the population of the Mexican immigrants preferred settling in California. They almost outdo the number of the Native Americans in that region. Their population has been increasing and some even acquiring citizenship. Approximate 21 percent of them also live in Texas. They have opened and managed major enterprises here providing job opportunities to their fellow immigrants as well as the locals(Gee, 2016).

Arizona and New Mexico are among that border Mexico, and they have also been receiving an influx of immigrants from Mexico. Immigrants first settle in these two states before they move inland in search of settlement and job opportunities. In the four States above the total population is approximated to be 83% Mexican immigrants while only 10 percent native-born. Americans and the other remaining portion is made up of immigrants from other parts of the world. Better living standards and job opportunities have been a significant factor that has led to the influx of immigrants from Mexico and other parts of the world to the United States(Gee, 2016).

The immigration of the Mexicans in the United States officially started around 1846, though there was a good number of Mexicans who had crossed to America before that time. The migration of Mexicans to the United States has continued for many decades without any significant interruptions despite during the screening process of the drug traffickers (Bruna & Chamberlin, 2015). Groups from Asia, Europe, and Africa arrived in the United States at various times and had not shown a notable frequency in the past decades since they usually come in small numbers. Many immigrants from diverse parts of the world arrived in the United States as they tried to escape, political strife in their country of origin (Borjian & Padilla, 2013). After conditions were favorable, their migration abruptly came to an end as it was the case of the Chinese from 1850 to 2015. This, therefore, gives the reason why Mexicans have been the single largest source of the immigrants and for an extended period to the United States.

The population of the immigrants from Mexico to the United States hit a turning point in 2010, after four decades of steady growth. However, American continued to see an influx of immigrants into the country from 2010 to 2017. The number of Mexican immigrants reduced significantly and then declined in 2014. There was a significant drop from 11.3 million to 300000 immigrants of Mexican origin between 2016 and 2017 (Cuero, 2017). For an extended period, migration to the United States by the Mexicans has been as a result of unauthorized workers with poor skills seeking better economic and employment opportunities in the United States.

In recent times, the migration of Mexicans to the United States has been due to factors such as improving the economy of Mexico, and due to the drop in the birth rate of the Mexicans. The current Mexican immigrants are very different from those of the past. The current immigrants are college graduates with better skills in English and well equipped to handle professional jobs. They stand a better chance of becoming successful in America than those who arrived several decades ago (Honigsfeld & Giouroukakis, 2014).

The United States has been the primary destination for most of the Mexican immigrants, though some have been able to migrate to Canada too. Nonetheless, the challenges that a majority of them face in America are similar to those in Canada such as; lack of health insurance, experience poverty, and low education levels. Family ties have much helped the Mexicans to be lowly obtain citizenship in the United States due to receiving of green cards.

Socioeconomic Experience

A majority of the Mexican immigrants have a lower education level. This is due to the less developed education system in Mexico as compared to that of the United States. Due to this fact, English was difficult for them despite it being the universal language (Souto-Manning, 2016). Some of the factors that led to the immigrants to live in the United States was in search for better jobs which were not available in their country. Due to their poor communication skills and poor educational background, it was difficult for them to get quality jobs as they had wished. This led to racial discrimination.

Nonetheless, the Mexican immigrants have a continuous history as labor immigrants who were destined to perform the jobs that are referred to being at the bottom of the economic hierarchy of the United States, especially in the US Southwest region. This does not indicate that they were excluded entirely from the social and economic integrations as the African Americans were. The social, economic challenges that the Mexican immigrants faced during their early days in the United States made them structure opportunities for themselves and compete favorably with the native-Americans.

The Mexican immigrants were not readily accepted and assimilated into American society. However, the first Mexican immigrants arrived after the arrival of the white settlers from England, and some scholars indicate that they should also receive fair treatment for their contribution towards the improvement of the economy of the United States. After the Mexicans Immigrants experienced many challenges in America, they saw the best way to adapt to the American society was by improving themselves. This was achieved by acquiring a better education, developing their communication skills and improving on entrepreneurship. , Due to this factor they are now fully integrated into American society, and very few wish to go back home.

Adaptation of Culture and Integration

Mexican immigrants in the first quarter century were assimilated at a notably faster rate in the United States than they did in the during the earlier times. The immigrants who entered during the previous immigration wave that took place in the early 20th century have a better earning power and English ability as compared to those who are entering the United States during the current times(Honigsfeld & Giouroukakis, 2014). This is attributed to the many years that they have lived in America learning the trade of how well to adapt to the culture of the natives and become integrated within their society. This is something that lacks with the modern day Mexican immigrants to the United States. For them to attain that level, they have to spend several years of dedication.

It has been noted that the more the Mexican immigrants lived in the United States, the more they acquired the characteristics of the Native Americans. The American economic expansion of the 1990s was a dominant driving force that led to the influx of immigrants from Mexico. This was due to the increased job opportunities in all sectors of production n US that attracted their Mexican neighbors which made it easier to assimilate and integrate the Mexicans into their economy. Favorable conditions offered by the government of the United States for the immigrants during the current times have also been another factor that has resulted in the cultural adaptation and integration of the Mexican immigrants (Gan et al., 2018).

However, this conditions not only a favor for the Mexican immigrants only, but also immigrants for all parts of the world, and as a result, there is stiff competition for jobs. American society has become more receptive than it was before and it has become easy for an immigrant from any part of the world to adapt quickly and grow integrated into their society.

English Proficiency

The foreign-born Mexicans have a higher command of English, and their writings skills cannot be matched with those of the earlier immigrants. This is because the foreign-born Mexicans have benefited from the American education systems which have been a significant advantage to them. Studies conducted in 2017 indicated that more than 67 percent of the Americans showed good proficiency in English as compared to 48 percent of the immigrants in the United States(Honigsfeld & Giouroukakis, 2014). These results are expected two improve in the future as more immigrants get assimilated into the American education system which will equip them with the necessary skills needed to be useful in American society.

Age, Education and Employment

Studies have shown that the Mexican immigrants have a slightly younger age as compared to the entire population of the foreign-born immigrants, but they are much older when compared to the people of the native-born Americans. The median age of the Mexicans that lived in the United States was found to be 43 years, all the other immigrants had 45 years, and the American born showed a median of 36 years (Gan et al., 2018). The Mexican immigrants compared to the other immigrants attain the working-age faster.

Studies also show that the Mexican immigrants of the age of 25 years and above have a lower accomplishment in education as compared to the overall foreign-born Mexicans and the Native Americans. The Mexican adults that lacked a high school diploma in 2017 were 55 percent, compared to 28 percent of the total immigrants and only 9 percent of the Native Americans did not have an award (Rowan, 2016). The Mexican immigrants that had a bachelor's degree were approximately 7 percent. Those statistics indicated that Mexican immigrants were a mix of learned and semi-learned individuals (Gee, 2016).

Income and Poverty

The native people in America have a higher salary compared to the Mexican immigrants. According to reports in 2017, the median income of the Mexican immigrant was $ 44,700 while that of the US-born was approximately $60,000 (Rowan, 2016).

Immigration Pathways and Naturalization

The overall immigrants are more likely to be naturali...