January 24, 2007
"Understanding America’s Immigration Crisis"
Douglas Massey
Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
Minutes of the 17th Meeting of the 65th Year
President Joe Giordmaine called the 17th meeting of the 65 year of the Old Guard of Princeton to order at 10:16 AM. One hundred three members were in attendance. John Marks led the invocation. Bob Miller read the minutes of the last meeting and Gordon Spencer introduced his guest, Jon Marsicano.
A minutes silence was held in memory of Dick Golden and James Hillier. President Giordmaine announced the availability of the group photo with names and that John Fleming would speak next week on “English language, yesterday and today”. Claire Jacobus introduced the speaker, Douglas Massey, Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School whose topic was “Understanding America’s immigration crisis.”
Throughout most of these preliminaries, Phil and the speaker were working urgently to link a computer to the projection system, with discouraging results. Exactly at the moment that Claire finished her introduction and the speaker reached the podium, “no input” magically was replaced with the first power point. One hopes that both men appreciated the unusually warm applause.
While Massey’s 19 graphics were essential to the presentation of a well organized and persuasive presentation, they posed problems as most were complex line graphics showing trends, usually populations against times ranging in 25 to 100 year blocks. The presentation had 3 phases, the history and status of Mexican immigration; a report on an ongoing project to define the size of the illegal immigration problem published, with Jorge Durand as the “Mexican Immigration Project”; and a recommended solution to the problem presented in a recently published book by the preceding authors and David Malone called “ Beyond Smoke and Mirrors”.
Mexican immigration began about 1907, when western businesses began to recruit Mexican labor to replace Japanese labor cut off by the US government. Government statistics for this 100 year period deal only with legal and contract worker immigration, deportations and apprehensions of illegal immigrants at the border, a number which fluctuates widely based on enforcement efforts. Although a major intervention in 1954-55 caught about 1MM, the current effort, begun in 1984, captures a fairly consistent 500,000 annually. The border patrol in the period since 1980 has, however, increased from 2,000 agents and a $200MM budget to 12,000 agents with a $1.48BB budget.
Massey called attention to the contradictions in US government policy. With Mexico and Canada sharing a common goal of free transfer of good and services under NAFTA and GATT agreements, semi and unskilled labor from Mexico is mostly excluded. He also stressed the fact that the draconian laws now being enforced on undocumented, but often not illegal immigrants fails to recognize the complex nature of the Mexican population.
Massey then discussed his now 20 year old (and actively ongoing) research project on defining immigration, legal and illegal, by in-depth interviews in over 114 communities in Mexico. He feels that this is the best and most comprehensive data on illegal immigration available today. He defines the crisis as follows. In earlier years, 85% of illegal’s returned home, usually after 2-4 years. Even in the early 1980s, this number was still 45%. Today the number is about 25%. Tougher enforcement means greater cost to get in and greater risk of getting caught if you leave and reenter. The second effect has been to change the routes of entry, once an easy trip across the Texas or California border, now occurs along the whole 2000 miles. Arizona, until now never an entry route, is inundated, and death rates for the crossing have tripled. A second consequence is the change in destinations. Where once California, Texas, and, surprising , Chicago, were the only significant destinations, to day, almost all of the 50 states are experiencing an unexpected influx of Mexican immigrants, and the discomfort with this phenomenon is widely reported. The consequence is an estimate that the population of illegal’s has doubled from 1993 to 2002, to about 12MM.
The proposed solution calls for an emulation of the EU solution to the problem of the integration of Spain and Portugal into the Union, with the potential of a migration movement not unlike what we are experiencing today. For about 10 years before full integration, the EU poured financial and technical resources into the vastly less developed countries so that the immigration explosion never occurred. Today Spain is a net importer of immigrants. He also stressed the need for some rationality in current laws which, for example, restrict the number of visas for Mexico, with a population of 104MM to that allowed to Nepal and Botswana. Finally, he stressed the moral dilemma which America must ultimately face. 3-4MM of the current illegals came here as children of illegals, and have grown up here yet are treated as harshly as if they had crossed the border of their own free will.
Last year's Princeton valedictorian was a three-year-old when his illegal mother brought him to the US. He has been deported and forbidden ever to return to the USA under current law. He is now a doctoral candidate at Oxford in the UK.
The question and answer period allowed only one question and the meeting ended at 11:30 AM.
Respectfully submitted,
John H Rassweiler
A minutes silence was held in memory of Dick Golden and James Hillier. President Giordmaine announced the availability of the group photo with names and that John Fleming would speak next week on “English language, yesterday and today”. Claire Jacobus introduced the speaker, Douglas Massey, Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School whose topic was “Understanding America’s immigration crisis.”
Throughout most of these preliminaries, Phil and the speaker were working urgently to link a computer to the projection system, with discouraging results. Exactly at the moment that Claire finished her introduction and the speaker reached the podium, “no input” magically was replaced with the first power point. One hopes that both men appreciated the unusually warm applause.
While Massey’s 19 graphics were essential to the presentation of a well organized and persuasive presentation, they posed problems as most were complex line graphics showing trends, usually populations against times ranging in 25 to 100 year blocks. The presentation had 3 phases, the history and status of Mexican immigration; a report on an ongoing project to define the size of the illegal immigration problem published, with Jorge Durand as the “Mexican Immigration Project”; and a recommended solution to the problem presented in a recently published book by the preceding authors and David Malone called “ Beyond Smoke and Mirrors”.
Mexican immigration began about 1907, when western businesses began to recruit Mexican labor to replace Japanese labor cut off by the US government. Government statistics for this 100 year period deal only with legal and contract worker immigration, deportations and apprehensions of illegal immigrants at the border, a number which fluctuates widely based on enforcement efforts. Although a major intervention in 1954-55 caught about 1MM, the current effort, begun in 1984, captures a fairly consistent 500,000 annually. The border patrol in the period since 1980 has, however, increased from 2,000 agents and a $200MM budget to 12,000 agents with a $1.48BB budget.
Massey called attention to the contradictions in US government policy. With Mexico and Canada sharing a common goal of free transfer of good and services under NAFTA and GATT agreements, semi and unskilled labor from Mexico is mostly excluded. He also stressed the fact that the draconian laws now being enforced on undocumented, but often not illegal immigrants fails to recognize the complex nature of the Mexican population.
Massey then discussed his now 20 year old (and actively ongoing) research project on defining immigration, legal and illegal, by in-depth interviews in over 114 communities in Mexico. He feels that this is the best and most comprehensive data on illegal immigration available today. He defines the crisis as follows. In earlier years, 85% of illegal’s returned home, usually after 2-4 years. Even in the early 1980s, this number was still 45%. Today the number is about 25%. Tougher enforcement means greater cost to get in and greater risk of getting caught if you leave and reenter. The second effect has been to change the routes of entry, once an easy trip across the Texas or California border, now occurs along the whole 2000 miles. Arizona, until now never an entry route, is inundated, and death rates for the crossing have tripled. A second consequence is the change in destinations. Where once California, Texas, and, surprising , Chicago, were the only significant destinations, to day, almost all of the 50 states are experiencing an unexpected influx of Mexican immigrants, and the discomfort with this phenomenon is widely reported. The consequence is an estimate that the population of illegal’s has doubled from 1993 to 2002, to about 12MM.
The proposed solution calls for an emulation of the EU solution to the problem of the integration of Spain and Portugal into the Union, with the potential of a migration movement not unlike what we are experiencing today. For about 10 years before full integration, the EU poured financial and technical resources into the vastly less developed countries so that the immigration explosion never occurred. Today Spain is a net importer of immigrants. He also stressed the need for some rationality in current laws which, for example, restrict the number of visas for Mexico, with a population of 104MM to that allowed to Nepal and Botswana. Finally, he stressed the moral dilemma which America must ultimately face. 3-4MM of the current illegals came here as children of illegals, and have grown up here yet are treated as harshly as if they had crossed the border of their own free will.
Last year's Princeton valedictorian was a three-year-old when his illegal mother brought him to the US. He has been deported and forbidden ever to return to the USA under current law. He is now a doctoral candidate at Oxford in the UK.
The question and answer period allowed only one question and the meeting ended at 11:30 AM.
Respectfully submitted,
John H Rassweiler