The economy is a central point in the existence of mankind. Scholars have always argued that either politics or the social sphere of human life is the most important, but the events that take place in the world, especially nowadays, demonstrate that the economy dominates all other spheres and impacts them respectively to the conditions it exists itself. Migration, drawing from the above said, is also the process determined by and resulting in certain economic conditions and factors. Both immigration and emigration, which are coming into and leaving the country respectively, are conditioned by economic motivations which people in poor countries have to migrate to the richer states or from those areas where unemployment is high to the areas providing people with jobs (Oliver-Rotger, 181). Thus, it is clearly seen that migration as one of the most significant processes in human society, and the economy as the dominant factors of the development of humankind are interconnected, and the book by Luis Urrea, The Devil’s Highway: A True Story, proves this by highlighting the major economic issues connecting both migration and economy into a single phenomenon.
The economic issues present in the question of migration are rather specific and have respective contexts. First of all, the geopolitical situation in the world has changed greatly over the recent decades, leaving the ordinary people, especially from the newly emerged and developing countries, little chance to survive and be well off using the legal and morally conditioned ways. This poses a question for the scholars and politicians: “How do recent political and social events (related to global economic restructuring) in both countries influence the ways in which countries police and maintain social stability?” (Palafox, 56) Secondly, the domestic policies of the authorities in such countries as Guatemala, Argentina, and especially Mexico were rather hostile to their own citizens, making them look for some other ways to feed their families and ensure their own well-being, among which emigration became the most popular one. Consequently, emigration itself involves considerable costs and thus affects the economy also. People who cross borders illegally have to pay their coyotes for their services, about 13 000 pesos for joining a single person, having no guarantee that they will be finally delivered to their destinations in the USA. Thus, the close interrelation of economic and human factors can be traced in this issue, and Luis Urrea is a master of rendering this interrelation: “His nonfiction is so true, in the economic issues of the border as well as humanizing those economic issues.” (Cogan, 3).
All the issues that people have to face in regard to emigration are economically conditioned thus, and depend upon the economic state of the country from which emigration takes place. Mexico has its own history, which is closely connected to the history of the USA, and the economic problems of Mexico have always resulted in the processes of emigration of great masses of people to the USA. These economic factors affecting emigration are as follows: low wages, high rates of unemployment, inflation, and low standards of living in developing countries. Accompanied by political difficulties and problems in the system of social services, all these factors cause increases in emigration rates from time to time, and the book by Luis Urrea develops this topic using specific research-based evidence and artistic talent of the author.
The very book is the story about one of the most shocking cases of mass death of people in the desert near Arizona at the Mexican-American border. According to Cogan (2006), “This is the story of a group of men who have become known as the Yuma 14. They are the fourteen illegal immigrants who died attempting to cross the Arizona border in 2001” (Cogan, 1). The setting of the story starts in the city of Veracruz, where 26 people dissatisfied with the wages and standards of living of their families decide to immigrate to the USA and are handed under the guidance of the young inexperienced coyote who gets lost in the desert and leaves his people saving himself by escape.
As Oliver-Rotger (2006), notices “The border is a marketplace. The invisible hand of the powerful governs the crossings” (181). Thus, the situation with these 26 Mexicans looking for a better life and food for their wives and children becomes the matter for the decision of some high powers beyond the human control, making people consider “incident as the moving force of his story” (Cogan, 4). People lost in the hostile environment of the desert where “Just one drink, brothers. Water. Coldwater!” (Urrea, 5) meant more than anything else start dreaming about water and their safety at some civilized place that must be approaching: “They were beyond rational thought. Visions of home fluttered through their minds” (Urrea, 3) But as a result, only 12 of them are lucky to find relief in civilization remembering “the trail of baked human corpses that 14 of them eventually made on the desert floor” (Cheuse, 2).
The first waves of Mexican immigration to the United States took place in the late 19th century when the fast development of agriculture, industry and communications in the USA demanded huge amounts of the cheap labor force while Mexican workers looked for higher wages and better career opportunities abroad. Devils Highway was one of the ways for immigrants to get into the USA, although it was rather dangerous: “The first white man known to die in the desert heat here did it on January 18, 1541” (Urrea, 5) In 1850s – 1880s, the construction of railroads and industrial facilities in the USA, especially in Arizona and Texas, was carried out by Mexican workers. Thus, by the 1890s, the number of Mexicans living and working in the United States, as Urrea’s characters planned to, grew by more than 60% as these people looked for means to feed their families, being dissatisfied with the low wages they earned in Mexico.
Another wave of economically conditioned immigration took place in the early 20th century when Mexican Revolution and World War I increased the needs of both sides: “The last time Mexico experienced a revolution, 10 percent of its population wound up in the United States” (Cooper, 123). After the revolution of 1910, Mexico was unable to develop industry and supply its citizens with jobs. The USA, at the same time, experienced the need for workers as its citizens were mainly serving in the Armed Forces during the war.
Thus, Mexican workers found a favorable environment for work and development. In 1920 legal workers from Mexico signed contracts and could work in the US until the first Bracero program and Border Patrol were created to control the traffic of aliens to the USA, and in 1924 the notion “illegal alien” appeared. The 1940s – 1960s saw another rise and final decline of the Bracero program that resulted in huge amounts of illegal aliens from Mexico and demanded the implementation of boundary control, strict measures, and finally, the use of arms against aliens at the border. The murder of “18-year-old Esequiel Hernandez, Jr., in Redford, Texas” (Palafox, 56) was one of the outcomes of such policies, but having risen public protests ended with the acquittal of the Border Patrol officer claiming that his actions were self-defense. Urrea, in his book, develops this topic by describing the death of 14 people in the desert near Arizona in 2001 (Urrea, 8).
It goes without saying that the issues discussed above are of great importance for today’s people, and especially for the youth and students. This importance can be explained by the fact that issues of immigration become more and more burning with every year, and the number of immigrants in the developed countries like the USA grows day by day. The economic issues that are brought about by the increase of immigrants’ number in the USA are different, but they should be known by people of today. It is evident that the cheap labor force presented by immigrants creates unemployment among the citizens of the USA. Moreover, certain opinions connect the rise in crime rates to the rise in immigration flows. However, the contribution of immigrants to the US economy is undoubted as they bring over $6 billion each year to the budget of Arizona or other border states (Cheuse, 11). As students studying communication should be aware of features typical of other nations, the study of the economic issues of immigration is also important because it helps students get rid of the stereotypes against immigrants and widen their world outlook on the whole.
To conclude, the economic issues connected with immigration are rather important for the modern society of the USA. The book by Luis Urrea considers them in the form of research carried out with the help of literary devices that made it into the masterpiece of literature. They include unemployment, low wage rates, poor quality of social services, etc. Numerous means to control traffic of aliens to the USA were created, including signing treaties between countries, establishing border control forces and giving them powers to use weapons. All these means have not yet proved to be effective as immigration grows and economic issues it brings do the same. However, the usefulness of immigration for industrial development, adding money to the state budget and creating a multicultural society is also evident. Thus, Urrea’s book showed the economic issues of immigration and tries to explain them.
References
Cheuse, A. (2004, April). Walking into a desert, never coming out. The lethal heat along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Cogan, A. (2006). The Devil’s Night: A True Story. Cogan Reviews.
Cooper, M. (2006). Exodus: The Ominous Push and Pull of the U.S.-Mexico Border. The Atlantic Monthly, 297, 123+.
Oliver-Rotger, M. A. (2006). Ethnographies of Transnational Migration in Ruben Martinez’s Crossing Over. MELUS, 31(2), 181+.
Palafox, J. (2000). Opening Up Borderland Studies: A Review of U.S.-Mexico Border Militarization Discourse. Social Justice, 27(3), 56.
Urrea, L. (2005). The Devil’s Highway: A True Story. Back Bay Books.