Coming to America

Coming to America
Imagine this, living in a very small town; with only one store where you can make and receive phone calls, there are no public phones, no residential phone lines, no electricity and no running water. The roads are not paved until you get to the main road where people travel the most. The next town is about thirty minutes away, and there is only one bus that comes to this small town once a week, so people can go shopping and do other things. In this small town there are hardly any vehicles, people either walk, bike, or ride donkeys. There are hardly any jobs and so the only thing you can do is to leave for another place and look for a job to support your family. If someone told you that there was a place where people had many opportunities to find work and make better money, would you go? For many people in Mexico, this is a question that gets asked occasionally. America has always been known as the land of promise and a place where prosperity flourishes. Unfortunately, America is one of the only places where such opportunity exists, making it a very attractive place to live. There are three major reasons why illegal immigrants are leaving Mexico for the United States. First is the lack of job opportunities in Mexico. Second is the lack of adequate standard living conditions. Third is the low level of education that is provided in Mexico.

A country with slightly more than 750,000 square miles in area, Mexico has a vast array of mineral resources, limited agricultural land, and a rapidly growing population. These factors are the basis for many of the country 's present problems as well as opportunities for future development. The nation is struggling to modernize its economy. With more than 80 million people, Mexico 's overall population density exceeds 110 per square mile. More than half of its inhabitants live in the country 's central core, while the arid north and the tropical south are sparsely settled. The lack of jobs in Mexico is one of the major reasons why so many immigrants are entering the United States illegally. Many Mexicans feel as though they have no choice but to come into the United States in order to find work. A normal wage for a farmer in Mexico is around 100 pesos a day which is only $10.00 in the United States. Ten dollars a day is not enough money to get by in Mexico and nowhere near enough to support a family. The average person in Mexico needs at least 150 pesos per day to live on their own and someone raising a family needs much more than this. This is a very similar amount of money to the amount that Francisco Jimenez’s family was receiving in the book Breaking Through. In Breaking Through, Francisco and his family fought through the hardships of Mexico and illegally came into America to escape poverty. Although they ran into some trouble after being deported back to Mexico, they fought through, and eventually moved back into America to live a much happier life. There might be some costs to coming to America illegally but for many people that live in Mexico there are many more positives than negatives. For many Mexicans, the opportunity for better jobs and wages is more than enough to want to move, but also is the opportunity to live more comfortably. A lot of homes in Mexico, don’t have running water, electricity, or any sort of plumbing system. Many of the people that live in poverty, live in wooden or cement shacks with dirt floors. Water is delivered by worn-out water trucks and stored at the homes in discarded 55 gallon drums. There is no sewer system, very few working water systems and scattered un-reliable electricity. Food and gasoline is cheaper in Mexico than in the US making it easier to feed a family, but the selection of food is scarcely limited compared. Many homes in Mexico are built out of concrete blocks made up of concrete walls and metal doors. Many people cook off of cheap propane 4 burner stoves and most homes work off a water tank that don 't have water to run the shower or bathroom. Water service in Mexico is intermittent at best. Water can always be found in the city but the government only sends it up to residential areas once a week for a few hours. People sometimes have to go over 3 weeks without water. When it comes ones water tank it automatically refills. Most people flush their toilet with a bucket of water from their water tank. There are no water heaters in most people homes making cold shower ones only option. In Mexico you will find the smell of smoke in the air from trash burning, decaying roofs made of varying material, kids without shoes covered in dirt, and stray dogs sleeping under trees. The standard of living is far below the so called “American Dream”, making it understandable to as why so many people feel the need to immigrate into America. Although the opportunity for a better job and better living conditions are already good enough reasons to come to America, the opportunity for a higher level of education is another big reason to immigrate into America. In Mexico, basic education is normally divided into three

steps: primary school, junior high school, and high school. Mexico has a modernized school system but the poor quality of that education has thwarted efforts to modernize the economy, trapping the country in a cycle of poverty and low skilled labor. That pattern has fueled the wave of illegal immigration to the United States. More than half of Mexico 's 15-year-old students don 't have basic math and science skills, according to the Paris-based Program for International Student Assessment, which tests education systems throughout the world. Many primary and secondary school students’ fail to complete their education programs. This is due to the students primitive studying conditions and instructional quality provided, as measured by students low test scores. Four in ten high school students drop out in Mexico and many students that don’t drop out usually end up not going into a higher level of education. As shown in the book Breaking Through, Francisco Jimenez had almost no education when he lived in Mexico, but when he came to America he worked hard and was able to earn a Scholarship for college. Mexico is a place of hardworking people that don’t get half of what they deserve. People that live in Mexico deal with horrible living conditions and extremely low wages. It is hard to earn a high level of education, almost impossible, and the education that is provided isn’t even up to par. Mexico is a place of absolute hardship compared to America. There are three major reasons why illegal immigrants are leaving Mexico for the United States and that is the lack of job opportunities, the lack of adequate standard living conditions and the low level of education that is provided. America has the solution to all of three of those issues, making America a desirable place to immigrate into. Even if it is illegal, it’s better to take a risk at having something great then living in a hut with dirt floor for the rest of ones life.

Works Cited
Jimenez. Francisco. Breaking Through. Boston: Houghton Mifflin CO., 2001. Print.
Faux, Jeff. “Dealing With Mexico.” Economic Policy Institute (2006). 15 April 2006. Academic Search Premiere. EBSCOHOST. Web. 2Oct. 2008.
"Mexico Society - Flags, Maps, Economy, Society, Climate, Natural Resources, Current Issues, International Agreements, Population, Social Statistics, Political System." Photius Coutsoukis; Photius; Photios; Fotis Koutsoukis. The Library of Congress, 10 Nov. 2004. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. <http://www.photius.com/countries/mexico/society/index.html>.

Cited: Jimenez. Francisco. Breaking Through. Boston: Houghton Mifflin CO., 2001. Print. Faux, Jeff. “Dealing With Mexico.” Economic Policy Institute (2006). 15 April 2006. Academic Search Premiere. EBSCOHOST. Web. 2Oct. 2008. "Mexico Society - Flags, Maps, Economy, Society, Climate, Natural Resources, Current Issues, International Agreements, Population, Social Statistics, Political System." Photius Coutsoukis; Photius; Photios; Fotis Koutsoukis. The Library of Congress, 10 Nov. 2004. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. &lt;http://www.photius.com/countries/mexico/society/index.html&gt;.