Mexican Migration

Recently I read an article about a terrible situation in Mexico. In “An Anthropologist Unravels the Mysteries of Mexican Migration” (National Geographic, 06.12.2015), Simon Worrall talks about a Jason De Leon’s book “The land of Open Graves : Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail” where an anthropologist describes the desperate journeys of Mexican migrants. The explorer wants to honour the immigrants and their families. One of the aims is also to destroy a negative stereotype of the border crossers. They risk scorching temperatures (dehydration, exposure), venomous animals, bandits robbing and military surveillance to get in U.S. and change their life. 

They must crossing the Sonoran Desert – the place difficult to survive. What’s more the Border Patrol uses a military-grade technology to supervise the landscapes. 

The U.S. policy of Prevention Through Deterrence called a “killing machine” condemns very strongly the immigrants. The logic of this policy is to make impossible to cross in urban centers where it is easy to mingle with the crowd. Because of this the desert is an instrument of deterrence. The author adds that the migrant deaths are intended consequences of the U.S. policy. Moreover the Americans’ views about border crossers are very negative. They think that you mast have U.S. citizenship to be one of them. Even politicians have the same, hostile, point of view. 

But what is interesting – it is American economic and drugs policies which help create the crisis and keep Mexico underdeveloped. The anthropologist talks too about a comparison the Arizona desert with the Mediterranean. There are also a lot of deaths, however the big difference is noticeable. In Europe the migrant tragedy is more visible. But the U.S. media preserves American idealism. The Mexican die in middle of nowhere. They are just the anonymous corpses and their death becomes the “new normal”.