translated from Spanish: “The Central American rejection is racism: researchers

among the published news these days about the Central American exodus Jesús Martínez ‘palillo’, appears the video of a volunteer in the stadium in Mayor of Iztacalco, in the city of Mexico. It is part of the Group of people who are there to support the migrant Caravan. Young says table that for now there are enough donations of clothes of women and children. He asks to take best clothes man, tennis, jackets, boxers and socks.
In the comments left in the video there are phrases like: “ah yes, nothing more need to want to Gucci, Dior, Dockers, Levis, all want these criminals” or “peek is how the people of Tepic, and Mexicans are concerned by these criminals that they entered in a violent and illegal way the country”.
Read: North Mexican support provide employment for migrants; reject them in the West and shoal: Mitofsky there are many messages on social networks with the same words: illegal, violent offenders. Many more sets out the fear that not only want to pass through Mexico to the United States, they want to stay and then cause overpopulation, unemployment, more crime. The contrast is in the response of support in poor communities where the caravan has passed. On networks has also been testimony that: the fewer resources to support migrants who appear to be a danger to others, in a better position,.
Max Jaramillo, Coordinator of studies of inequality of Oxfam Mexico, says that this part of the reaction, xenofoba-clasista – racist, is one more expression of the narrative meritocratic: refused to recognise the privileges of some sectors because of their origin. “Through these narratives to justify what they have and that don’t get major actions to try to change the inequality”.
This type of positioning, adds the researcher, who reproduce it usually is auto assigned to the middle class, although in reality they do not belong to this: sectors of high class and who in reality, by income, are located in the lower class. “In Mexico, according to data from INEGI, the middle class represents 40% of the country’s total population, but 70% is auto assigned in that group”. 30% imaginarily bad located are those who support stronger these individualistic narratives or meritocratic.
Read: More 2,600 migrant shelter that urged Mexico already they have temporary permission to work the caravan migrant, Consulta Mitofsky survey, also gives information on the profile of those who reject the exodus. The results show that 51% of the Mexicans agree with the proposal of the President-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on offer decent jobs and 42% rejects it. The sectors showing more support for the caravan are: men; the inhabitants of rural areas, and the lowest economic level. The sector with more rejection is made by the voters of the bread in presidential elections; they reside in the West or the shoal of the country, and those who make up the middle class.
The main argument of those who are against the Caravan is that their presence may cause insecurity; unemployment for Mexicans; overpopulation; greatest crisis, and by fear or fear. But all that is only a reaction xenophobic and racist, agrees Patricio Solís, Professor-researcher of the center of sociological studies of the College of Mexico (COLMEX). “They are fillers which are placed to prejudice to justify them.”
Solis said that in terms of quantity, a caravan of 7 thousand people is not any threat to a population of over 120 million. That number, and even one higher, would not affect the population density of the country. Central Americans would not alter the availability of jobs. Although the number of migrants was greater, and permanent, it would not impact on the occupation of the Mexican, by the type of jobs that often play. “By their levels of qualification – explains the researcher – and by his record of employment, these migrants are located in the lower part of the occupational stratification.”
Jaramillo, Oxfam researcher, said that migrants from Central American exodus will not remain with the use of a professional. “It is most common when they hire them on the southern border, with the permissions of border worker visitor cards, is that they use them in the field, in a little more precarious jobs that occupy people. It is the same logic when engaged Mexican migrants in the United States.”
Workers who are busy in Mexico and who are migrants, specifies maximum Jaramillo, 74%, three out of four have no employee benefits. “Of that magnitude is his bad situation, so they could not be competing with the use of all who are concerned in social networks.”
It is not that they are criminals, “they are not people who come to do bad things, they are people who are fleeing serious situations such as violence and poverty in their countries,” says Ana Saiz, Director of Sin Fronteras. “Irregular migration is not a crime, nor is it the need for international protection, this is a right, and not because they are criminals”, says Daniela Gutiérrez, Coordinator of the Area of seekers of asylum of the Mexican Commission for the defense and Promotion of human rights (CMDPDH).
Why then they cause so much fear?
Patricio Solis explains the migrant exodus is what actually threatens our nationalism, built on a process of miscegenation that is basically a process of whitening of the population. “It is an aspirational miscegenation that tends to happen to the whiteness, and migration that comes to us from the South in a way represents a setback in the bleach project of Mexican society.” That is that it would not be the same if these migrants were European, adds. The reactions would not be as strong. “Here all our ghosts are intertwined, it is a mixture of racism, xenophobia and classism, manifesting itself at this particular juncture.”
If the origin of migrants employed in Mexico, says Max Jaramillo, it turns out, according to INEGI, 17% is from Central America and 13% is from Europe. “The difference is small, but clearly that we are concerned about are Central Americans and Europeans do not, when they are the people who bring higher levels of education and may represent competition for the middle class”.
That is first treats the poor in Mexico and then think of Central Americans, “end – says Jaramillo – and clear that there is criticism on how it is made, but is already assisting the population in poverty in Mexico” It is not that they are not addressed. “The other is that migrants are not beneficiaries of large social programs”.
What you are offering with the program are in your House, for example, is health care and temporary employment. “To aspire is to something less popular, already insurance itself is very lacking.” It is not that they will take the place of a Mexican health care, and employment, noted, it would be temporary and precarious. The Government really is not offering them anything else and who knows if that go to meet.”

this publication was made possible through the support of Kellogg Foundation.

Original source in Spanish

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