Mexican-American Settlement Essay

According to a census carried out by the United States in 2013, Mexicans are the single most substantial foreign-born residents in the United Staes (Gutierrez, n/p) accounting for 10 percent of the country’s entire population and has been increasing from 2000 to 2010. Mexican migration into the United States began officially in 1846 when war broke out between the U.S and Mexico over the annexation of Texas, however, Mexico was defeated, and a Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty was signed. This treaty gave the victors a large portion of land including the modern states of California and Texas, as well as Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada with a token of fifteen million dollars. In 1854, the United States bought the now southern Arizona and New Mexico from the Mexican government for ten million dollars a deal called the Gadsden Purchase, this gave the United States a railroad route that allowed its expansion, and as a result, tens of thousands of Mexicans had become residents of the United States.

The Geographic proximity between the United States and Mexico along with economic disparities has attracted Mexican immigrants. A border of over 1,945 miles divides the two countries, and it is poorly marked and poorly patrolled. The economic disparities that lure the Mexicans into American are called the push and pull factors. The push factors are the ones faced by the Mexicans in their country, and the pull is invariably the American economy, lack of economic opportunity, border industrialization, Globalization of Western image, Political and Public violence, US cold war interventions in Central America, the United States war on drugs. The pull factors are the United States economic development, social networks and chain migration, educational opportunities, citizenship by birth, these are reasons why Mexicans migrate to the United States. Another factor is proximity, the distance from Mexico to America is rather short, this allows natural movement to and from America, some Mexicans move to the United States to make enough money in order to live comfortably back in Mexico, and the porosity of the border allows easy movement across the two countries.

The migration of Mexicans into the United States was also due to the Mexican Revolution a civil war that broke out in Mexico between 1910 to 1920, exiled politicians and war refugees fled to the United States to escape the violence, coupled with a growth in the U.S economy, the number of Mexican immigrants rose from 200 thousand to 600 thousand. The Bracero program allowed Mexicans to take temporary agricultural work in the United States. It was an agreement signed in 1942 between the Mexican and the United States government, this program provided opportunities for the Mexicans, but it was a form of exploitation to them. However, it contributed to the Mexican-American immigration. During the time of the Mexican revolution in 1919, a large group of Mexicans was hired to work at a steel company in south Chicago. A requirement at that time was to become citizens. This migration to the south of Chicago where Mexicans were used as hard labor in the steel manufacturing industry was termed steel barrio, neighborhood for Mexican laborers (Bada 245). There were growing concerns about the number of immigrants coming into the United States, and in 1994, after an economic recession, the State of California proposed a ballot initiative that would prevent undocumented immigrants from using non-emergency health care, public education, and other social services. It was a way of trying the separate the Mexican-Americans economically and socially. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is an American immigration policy that allows children that were brought into the United States illegally a renewal period mainly two years to prevent them from deportation. There are certain people mainly youths who push for the success of the DACA program; they are called dreamers, these are people that were brought into the United States illegally as kids and are seeking legal status because they have lived in America their entire lives and even studied in the country. They help institute an act being pushed in Congress that grants this legal status. As talked about earlier, the border between Mexico and the U.S allows easy passage for Mexicans into the country, therefore, leading to a Minuteman project. The Minutemen are anti-immigration group aimed at stopping illegal immigrants from crossing the border.

Works Cited

Bada, Xóchitl. “Steel Barrio: The Great Mexican Migration to South Chicago, 1915–1940.” (2014): 245-247. Print.

Ramon, Guttierez. “Mexican Immigration to the United States” (2018). Accessed on 23 November 2018 from http://americanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-146. Web

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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