Mexico to
campaign for rights of migrant workers
By Sara Silver in
Mexico City
FT.Com
November 6 2002
Disappointed
by the lack of progress towards a
migration accord, Mexico is preparing to
launch its own campaign to convince US
legislators and the public of the
benefits of legalizing millions of
Mexican workers.
Mexico's government
is watching the results of tomorrow's
election closely and will probably begin
its efforts in January in key states with
large Latino populations: California, Texas,
Florida, Illinois and New York. There are
35m Latinos in the US, some two-thirds of
whom are of Mexican descent. It is hoping
to repeat its success in swaying public
opinion in favor of the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which took
effect in 1994 and has led to an
explosion of trade between the countries.
“It's about
working with state delegates and
congressional delegations to rekindle the
debate about a full-fledged migration
accord," said one foreign ministry
official.
While NAFTA allowed
for the free flow of goods, services and
most capital, the movement of labor
remained restricted. That left unresolved
the legal status of an estimated 3.5m
Mexican workers, whose labor is crucial
to sectors throughout the US economy.
A migration accord
seemed within reach last year, when
President George W. Bush said the US had
"no more important
relationship" than its friendship
with Mexico. That spring Jorge Castaneda,
Mexico's foreign minister, declared that Mexico
would accept nothing less than the
"whole enchilada", meaning that
the accord would be signed only once all
the provisions had been negotiated.
But since the
September 11 attacks the White House's
attention has been occupied by the war on
terror, leaving the discussions on
migration limited to
"technical" or low-level
exchanges.
The Mexican
government has been following an
"onion" approach to resolving
the problem. At the core, it is
persuading local and state authorities in
the US to accept ID cards given out by Mexico's
47 consulates in the US. Those cards help
Mexicans to gain access to services and,
under a future migration accord, could
help them claim legal rights.
The outer layer of
the onion consists of the plan to reach
US legislators.
With rising
unemployment and heightened sensitivity
about the role of foreign citizens in
terror attacks, it is unclear how much
support there would be from the US public
for such an agreement.
George Grayson, an
expert on US-Mexico relations at the College
of William and Mary, said: "There is
a chasm between the power brokers who
want to expand their base and the
grassroots - be they white, black or
Hispanic - who fear for their jobs."
There are also divisions among the
interests who would potentially support a
migration accord. Employers, represented
by the American Chamber of Commerce,
would like to see an expansion of the
temporary or guest-worker program. The
AFL-CIO labor federation wants Mexicans
living in the US to become full citizens
with the right to join unions.
Luis de la Calle,
who helped Mexico negotiate the NAFTA,
believes that demographics will lead
Americans to support the accord.
"During NAFTA the Baby Boomers were
in charge and now they're looking at
their retirement plans; that is where the
need for new workers will come up."
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