Lexee: October 2008

How are Mexican Immigrants represented in the United States?

First off, when I googled “Mexican Immigrants” more negative responses showed up than positive. In general the media focused on illegal Mexican immigrants and the impact they are having on the American society. It was rare to find success stories or general optimism about this cultural group. Statistically, it is estimated that there are nearly 12 million illegal immigrants in the USA and 57% of them are from Mexico. No wonder that the legal Mexican immigrants get stereotyped like their illegal friends.

Overall, I found immigration was a big issue facing all citizens in America. Many call out for tighter border control. Here are the two 2008 presidential candidates’ views:

"As you know, I and many other colleagues twice attempted to pass comprehensive immigration legislation to fix our broken borders; ensure respect for the laws of this country; recognize the important economic contribution of immigrant laborers; apprehend those who came here illegally to commit crimes; and deal practically and humanely with those who came here, as my distant ancestors did, to build a better, safer life for their families, without excusing the fact they came here illegally or granting them privileges before those who have been waiting their turn outside the country. Many Americans did not believe us when we said we would secure our borders, and so we failed in our efforts. I don't want to fail again to achieve comprehensive immigration reform. We must prove we have the resources to secure our borders and use them, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States. When we have achieved our border security goal, we must enact and implement the other parts of practical, fair and necessary immigration policy. We have economic and humanitarian responsibilities as well, and they require no less dedication from us in meeting them."

- John McCain

“The time to fix our broken immigration system is now… We need stronger enforcement on the border and at the workplace… But for reform to work, we also must respond to what pulls people to America… Where we can reunite families, we should. Where we can bring in more foreign-born workers with the skills our economy needs, we should”

— Barack Obama, Statement on U.S. Senate Floor, May 23, 2007

I think it’s important to understand the impact of these illegal immigrants on our community to understand why the stereotypes are so negative. The bottom line for me is, I hope we find a better solution to immigration and SOON!

More often than not Mexican immigrants are stereotyped by politicians in the media. Below is a video clip of Bill O’Reilly speaking the following dialogue:

From the August 15 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: Let's go to [caller] in West L.A. What's going on, [caller]?

CALLER: Hey, Bill, how are ya?

O'REILLY: Good.

CALLER: You know, I just, real quick -- I'll try to make this quick. I'll tell you what the future is. Your previous guest mentioned, you were trying to get the heart of what the future holds?

O'REILLY: Right.

CALLER: There's 750,000 students at the Los Angeles Unified School District. 330,000 of them are what they call English-learners --

O'REILLY: Right.

CALLER: -- 150,000 they estimate to be illegal citizens.

O'REILLY: Um-hmm.

CALLER: Or more than that if they're considered children of illegals. We just passed, in the last five or six years, $19 billion in bond measures, billion with a B. And if you look at the front of the L.A. Times, you can read all the details, and I'm sure you've been following it. The mayor right now is, is slugging it out with the school district over the -- over the $19 billion in the control of the, the schools. Everybody's talking about accountability, but what -- what no one's really talking about as far as accountability is who's accountable for the money that's going in the bond measures to build the schools for the citizens and -- and for the non-citizen.

O'REILLY: Well, it's supposed to be the city council and the mayor. I mean, they're the ones that are -- should be overseeing the $19 billion. But I think you -- the point that I found most interesting about what you said, [caller], was the future of L.A. particularly, and probably America, lies in your school district. To see how well those kids are educated, what their attitudes are. Are they trying to learn English? Do they have any kind of traditional value system at all, vis-à-vis what America used to be? Or are they taking their Mexican values, because most of them are Mexicans, and, you know, basically setting up Acapulco North? I don't know. I don't know. I have friends in L.A. Almost all of them send their kids to private school. And almost all of them say the same thing: The public schools are chaos. I know the public school superintendent, Roy Romer, former governor of Colorado, former DNC [Democratic National Committee] chief. Way out of his league. Way out of his league in that school district. So it's an interesting thing. You go down to the school, you'll see the future.

You can watch the clip at: http://mediamatters.org/items/200608180004

Here Bill is questioning Mexicans values and attitudes in coming to the US. He infers that Mexican students wreak havoc and chaos on the American public school system, particularly in California. Thus here is the media criticizing Mexican value systems. In short, one way Mexican immigrants are perceived is as indifferent.

Another example is found with Rush Limbaugh. See below for a dialogue from his radio show:

From the March 27 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: One of the puzzling things about this to me, since President Bush has been in office, is his -- you know, he had a very close relationship with [Mexican President] Vicente Fox, and I don't --

CALLER: Right.

LIMBAUGH: I don't -- I -- I think the opposite of what you suggest is actually what's been happening. But look at it from Vicente Fox's point of view. I mean if -- if you had a -- a -- a renegade, potential criminal element that was poor and unwilling to work, and you had a chance to get rid of 500,000 every year, would you do it?

CALLER: Right.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah.

You can watch the clip at: http://mediamatters.org/items/200603280009

Here Rush stereotypes Mexican immigrants as potential criminals and unwilling to work. Now my point in this blog is not to determine who is right or who is wrong, but in general I have found that Mexican immigrants are stereotyped as lazy, unethical, and that they cause more problems than solutions.

However negative the media may seem, there are some media articles that realize the value of immigrants. Below is a success story found on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5368068

In summary, Charney said, "Immigrants are the engine of our economy, whether we want to admit it or not," he says. "They're here, legal or illegal -- [a] fundamental part of the economy is these workers." He thinks it is embarrassing that America is blaming immigrants for all our problems; and it’s time for men who have no exposure with these workers to make immigration decisions.

Chris Matthews also defended immigrants on his television series.

From the January 26 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: When I think of people who have come to this country from other countries where they speak Spanish -- Puerto Rico is not another country, but it's the commonwealth -- hardest-working people, they are extremely entrepreneurial. If it's just owning a flower shop, it's owning a small business, a bodega, right? Puerto Ricans come to this country to start business. Cubans certainly come here to start businesses. The hardest-working people in the United States are people who just got here from Mexico, the first day they get here. Everybody knows -- they don't want a big social democracy. They want free enterprise and entrepreneurialism, don't they?

VILLARAIGOSA: I think what they want --

MATTHEWS: They sound like they're natural Republicans to me.

VILLARAIGOSA: I think what they want is the American dream, and they're willing to work for it.

Chris defends the work ethic of immigrants in general. He states that Mexican immigrants come to America ready to work hard and live the American dream.

CONLUSIONS

A) The media conveys both positive and negative messages about Mexican immigrants (although more negative messages are found). They convey these messages through persuasive words and personal stories. Often times they have an agenda they want to get across when talking about this cultural group.

B) The negative stereotypes of Mexican immigrants will impact their experience in America. Especially children could be impacted in the classroom by their peers and teachers treating them differently. For example their peers could tease them because they are different, or maybe white children from the dominant US culture aren’t allowed to be their friend because their parents told them not to be friends with Mexicans. Also, teachers could assume these children were in deficit or lacked something because they are a Mexican immigrant. Teachers could also be unwilling to go to the lengths to help a Mexican immigrant learn that he/she would of a student of the dominant culture.

C) Overall, Mexicans immigrants are represented in a negative light, but it is important for teachers to not let these stereotypes color how they see the world. It is important to recognize the value each child has and that they deserve equal rights to learning no matter where they came from. Also it is important to not judge individuals based on stereotypes. For example, just because your mom and dad are drug addicts doesn’t mean you will be one. I don’t think we have the right to limit people just because we see certain trends in their background. In summary, it is naive to think that ALL Mexican immigrants are lazy, unethical, and potential criminals that are unwilling to work. Of course there are some that are that way, but we can say the same thing about some Americans!

Teachers need to examine how they perceive cultural groups to ensure the best education for EVERY student in their classroom. Hopefully as teachers examine their perceptions they will come to grasp what really matters is that each child is loved unconditionally and treated fairly.

Bibliography of Artifacts:

1. Statistics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_the_United_States

2. John McCain quote: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/68db8157-d301-4e22-baf7-a70dd8416efa.htm

3. Barack Obama quote: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/immigration/

4. Bill O’Reilly: http://mediamatters.org/items/200608180004

5. Rush Limbaugh: http://mediamatters.org/items/200603280009

6. Chris Matthews: http://mediamatters.org/items/200601270005?f=s_search

7. NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5368068