Linkages between US and Latin America

1
Linkages between US and Latin America

• Lecture 8, Part III
• Geog 313

2
Migration Network

• Kinship
• Friendship
• Paisanaje
• Voluntary Organization

3
Characteristics of Migration Networks

• Memory
• Acquired new meaning
• Develop over time
• Materialized and defined migration network

4
Kinship

• Important bases for migration social organization
  and family connections.
• Provides a safe environment for new and future
  immigrants.
• Family relationships relations- provide
  assistance, information, and services.
• Father-son, brothers, uncle-nephews, cousins,
  etc.
• Kinship connection are reinforced through
  frequent interaction on important occasions. Ex.
  Wedding, baptism, quinceaneras, death, and births.

5
Friendship

• Are networks created between individuals that
  grew up together, roughly the same age, and
  shared a formative experience (church or sports).
• In this network the assistances include finding
  housing, jobs, pooling resources, and borrowing
  or loaning money.
• This type of network grows as new friends from
  different communities are formed through work,
  housing, and leisure activities.
• Regional alliances within Mexico also favor the
  formation of friendships such from Jalisco or
  Zacatecas.

6
Paisanaje

• Origin from the same place is not a meaningful
  basis of social organization for people while
  they are in their home country.
• It becomes meaningful when they encounter each
  other outside their home country.
• The strength of the paisanaje tie depends on the
  strangeness of the environment and the nature of
  the prior relationship.
• An example of this network is manifested through
  fiestas that celebrate a patron saint form their
  home country. Ex. Dia de los muertos.

7
Voluntary Organizations

• This network provides mechanisms that facilitate
  the formation and maintenance of social ties.
• Voluntary associations created by migrants in the
  United States promote
• regular interpersonal contact
• greatly facilitating the process of adaptation
  and mutual assistance.
• Soccer is an example of this type of voluntary
  organization.
• Create a space.
• Focal point for social activities.
• Establish new friendships with people from other
  places in Mexico.
• Help immigrants to establish or sometimes
  reintegrate into a community.
• Social interaction

8
Development of Networks

• Migration networks are valuable adaptive
  resources in a strange environment.
• The interaction of people, goods, and information
  circulation helps create linkages between the
  Mexico and the U.S.
• Connectivity increases as the quantity and
  quality of networks increases.
• Social Capital is created by migrant
  experiences and knowledge. Ex. where to cross
  and how to obtain jobs.
• As networks grow and mature, peoples
  participation in voluntary organizations
  increases.

9
Formation of Daughter Communities

• Channelization of immigrants occur as social
  networks focus increasingly on specific
  communities.
• Migrants move to a particular place because that
  is where networks lead them and provide the
  greatest opportunity to success.
• Daughter Communities are permanent settlement
  communities in the United States with specific
  linkages to communities in Mexico.
• Allow circular migration
• Provide a permanent settlement.
• Provide extensive links between the parent and
  daughter communities.
• Changes the Paisanaje networks as immigrants
  began marrying American or second generations
  immigrants.

10
Remittances

• Recent studies have focused on the three measures
  of integration of labor markets in the global
  economy.
• The proportion of foreigners in the domestic
  workforce.
• The ratio of the domestic force in
  export-dependent industries and employed by
  domestic affiliates of foreign multi-national
  enterprises.
• Remittances that contribute to a home countrys
  GNP and provide it with valuable foreign
  exchange.
• In this case, they propose using the ratio of
  remittances to gross domestic product (GDP) as an
  indicator of integration.

11
Remittances

• Studies of three remittances have often focused
  on three issues
• The wealth- generating capacity of remittances
  through saving and investments.
• The factors influencing their flow.
• The effects of remittances in the recipient
  economies at the household level.
• What studies have concluded about remittances is
  that they have important effects on
• economic growth
• trade
• the distribution of wealth in the home recipient
  country
• different patterns of economic behavior

12
Remittances

• Latin Americas economy has become more
  integrated through trade and investments.
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• Southern Cone countries, (MERCOSUR).
• Latin American Free Trade Area (FTAA)
• Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)
• However, Remittances have emerged as the leading
  economic indicator with the most potential.

13
Family Remittances

• Latin American migration to the U.S. in the 1970s
  and 1980s have created new linkages between
• Individual-individuals (family)
• Towns-towns (Hometown associations)
• Cities-cities
• Countries-countries (trade agreements)
• Regions-regions (CAFTA)
• Family remittances are currently one of the most
  important forms of linkage among emigrant Latinos
  and Latin America.

14
Family Remittances

• Researchers have focused on two aspects of the
  globalization of remittances
• Scope (Stretching)- are the agents in the
  circular migration such as market intermediaries,
  governments, hometown associations, international
  groups, and individuals.
• Intensity (Strengthen)- relates to the level of
  involvement of the previous agents in affecting
  the impact of remittances in the receiving
  country.
• In other words, the boundaries of spaces are
  stretched, and already existing networks are
  strengthened.

15
Family Remittances

• How important are remittances in Latin America?
• The volume of remittances began increasing in the
  1980s.
• Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and
  Nicaragua remittances have increased from nearly
  1 billion in 1980 to 3.7 billion in 1990 and
  over 10 billion dollars in 2000!!!!
• Just in Mexico alone, remittances increased from
  800 million in 1980, to 2.4 billion in 1990,
  and to 6.5 billion in 2000.
• In Mexico, remittances represents 10 of the
  total value of exports, nearly as much as tourism.

16
Family Remittances

• How important are remittances in Latin America?
• Remittances in Latin America during 2002
  increased by 17.6 reaching over 32 billion.
• Latin America is now the number one destination
  for remittances worldwide.
• Remittances to every L.A. country except Bolivia
  increased by 10 in 2002
• Colombia (28),
• Jamaica (27),
• Peru (24),
• Guatemala (23),
• Honduras (22),
• Cuba (22)
• Dominican Republic (16.9)
• EL Salvador (15.4)
• Nicaragua (15)
• Haiti (15)
• Ecuador (10)
• Brazil (10)

17
Family Remittances

• How important are remittances in Latin America?
• In Nicaragua remittances represent ¼ of the
  national income.
• In El Salvador remittances have exceeded the
  total value of exports.
• In Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, they
  represent half of the values of exports, and
  about 80 percent of the value of foreign direct
  investment.

18
Hometown Associations

• What is the function of HTA?
• Hometown Associations (HTA) or transnational
  migrant organizations (TMOS) are formed among
  remittance senders to coordinate their support
  not only of relatives but also of their towns.
• In addition, to retain a sense of community as
  they adjust to life in the United States.
• Immigrants have formed community groups to
  maintain relationships with the home country or
  with local communities.

19
Hometown Associations

• HTAs international activities can be described
  in five groups
• Charity Orientations range from charitable aid
  to investment.
• Include the donation of clothes
• Construction materials for various projects such
  as churches
• Small cash amounts to purchase goods for local
  activities.
• Infrastructure raise money for improvements for
  hometown
• Streets
• Parks
• Build sewage treatment
• Water filtration plants
• Buy or maintain cemetery plots
• Health care facilities

20
Hometown Associations

• HTAs international activities can be described
  in five groups
• 3. Human development these activities are
  orientated toward human development.
• Scholarships
• Library books
• Health supplies
• Medicine
• Sports facilities
• Nursery homes
• Daycares
• Schools
• Communal soup kitchens
• Investment capital investment for
  income-generation projects managed by local
  community members and often supervised by
  immigrants.
• Co-ops
• Credit Unions
• Other General fundraising
• Soccer Games

21
Hometown Associations

• HTAs international characteristics can be
  described in five features
• Activities Orientations range from charitable
  aid to investment.
• Charity
• Infrastructure
• Human development
• Investment
• Other
• Structure and links
• Lack of strong organizational structure
• Lack of institutional counterpart in their home
  country.
• Membership is small
• Connection is through a local leader such as
  priest.
• Relationships
• Hierarchical hometown associations communicate
  their counterparts what to do.
• Joint Cooperation both parties in the home and
  host country organization communicate to define
  the agenda. Ex. Hurricane Mitch support in 1998

22
Hometown Associations

• HTAs international characteristics can be
  described in five features
• 4. Decision Making
• Financial resources
• Relationship with home organizations
• Members preferences
• Organizational structure
• Goal and project might change over time
• Membership available time
• Needs of the town in the home country
• 5. Financing
• Small economic base
• Most raise less than ten thousand dollars on
  overage each year
• Money raised is sent in cash or materials.

23
Remittances-Agents

• Who are the players in the Industry?
• Banks- In El Salvador, charge less than 10 for
  almost any amount to be sent but they do not
  have the same outreach capacity like Western
  Union.
• Courier agencies- Western Union or MoneyGram.
• In 1995, moreover 44 percent of money
  transactions through MoneyGram took place from
  the United States to Mexico.
• In El Salvador, Western Union carries out to a
  minimum of 70,000 transactions a month worth an
  average of 300.
• In the Dominican Republic, the minimum, thus
  likely controlling at least 20 percent of the
  flow of remittances.
• These companies charge significant fees, ranging
  from 8 to 14 of the value of the remittance.
• U.S. Postal Services- created its own delivery
  system offering a lower rate than Western Union
  or MoneyGram.
• Hand deliver
• Third party- encomenderos

24
Remittances-Agents
25
Remittances Agents-Host Country

• A money transfer business (one that can wire
  money to other countries) such as Seven-eleven.
• The transfer institution collects a fee.
• Transfer institutions make a profit on the
• fee
• commission
• foreign exchange differential.

26
Remittances-Host Country
27
Remittances Agents- Home Country

• Money transfer agencies establish agreements with
  agent-distributions in Latin America in order to
  ensure coverage and efficiency on the receiving
  end.
• Commercial banks are one, if not the only, key
  player in a given market because their financial
  operations cover large areas and meet regulatory
  requirements.
• In the case of Mexico, the largest distributing
  agents are large banks, such as Banamex,
  BBVA-Bancomer, HSBC, and BanNorte.
• In Central America, Airpak, works exclusively for
  Western Union.
• Grace Kennedy is Western Unions exclusive
  English Caribbean distribution

28
Remittances Agents- Home Country

• Recipient country distributors also play a key
  role in the remittances.
• Distributors have made agreements with more than
  one company.
• Agents must compete to attract companies to
  utilize their networks, in so they influence the
  price.
• If they increase the fees it would affect the
  sender.

29
Remittances Agents- Home Country

• Banks play a direct and indirect role in money
  transfers.
• Function as agents
• Serve as intermediaries
• Operate as depositories for the money transfer
  companies and distributors agents
• Banks also charge fees to keep money by the
  company or distributors agents.
• Can control prices, fees, and exchange rates.

30
Remittances-Government

• What is the role of government as a player in the
  remittances?
• As remittances become a more stable source of
  income for Latin America, its governments are
  finding ways to attract more of these funds.
• Governments are making policies to address the
  cost reduction in remittance transfers
• Create an attractive economic environment for
  various kinds of migrant funds.
• Central Banks in Guatemala and El Salvador have
  regulations that are liberal on import duties.
• Salvadorans are allowed to bring up to 1500
  worth of merchandise.
• Guatemalans are permitted to bring up to 2000
  into the country without duty.

31
Remittances-Government

• What is the role of government as a player in the
  remittances?
• Other countries have attempted to require that a
  certain percentage of the earnings of their
  workers abroad can be deposited into a national
  fund.
• Former U.S. Ambassador William Stixrud has
  suggested that Guatemalan emigrants put up the
  equivalent of 10 percent of the value of
  remittances for private investment.
• The Ambassador argues for the implementation of
  such a fund with the assistance of emigrants, the
  government, and international development
  organizations.

32
Remittances-Government

• What is the role of government as a player in the
  remittances?
• Sending-country governments can also stimulate
  remittances by helping emigrant groups to develop
  migrant associations.
• The Mexican govt has had formal outreach
  programs since 1990.
• The federal programs include the Paisano program
  and the Mexican Communities Living Abroad (PCMLA)
  program.
• The PCMLA operates through the network of 42
  consulates and 23 institutes or Mexican cultural
  centers in the U.S.
• President Fox in 2000, created a new
  executive-branch office to interact more
  vigorously with Mexicans in the U.S. and attract
  their resources.
• By late 1998, four hundred clubs were operating
  throughout the U.S., although most were in Los
  Angeles and Dallas.

33
Remittances-Government

• What are other programs established to trap the
  remittances?
• Remittance bonds
• Joint Ventures
• Matching funds
• Economic development funds
• What do you think the countries should do with
  the remittances?

34
Latino Presence in The United States

• Geog 313
• Lecture 7

35
Paradigms

• Barrioization (external processes) seeks to
  explain the formation of barrios as an experience
  of a less-advantaged Latino population staking
  out a territory which is then overwhelmed by
  urban diseconomies-poverty, crime, negative lands
  uses, etc.
• Barriology (internal processes) describes the
  process by which Latinos began to reassert
  control over their neighborhoods through
  acquisition of political power, mastery of the
  process of urban planning, and the use of art and
  muralism to create identity.
• Globalization Anthony Gidden defines it as
• the intensification (networks) of worldwide
  social relations which link distant localities
  (spaces) in such way that local happenings are
  shaped by events occurring many miles away and
  vice versa (circular migration) (199064).

36
Barrioization

• Barrioization (1900-1945) In Southern California
  and parts of the Southwest.
• What forces were at work?
• Increased migration
• Expansion of cities
• Increased segregation by Chicanos into less
  desirable parts of the city.
• Land values increased
• Enclaves of cheap rental housing formed around
  undesirable land in the city. Ex. Railroads,
  etc.
• Immigrants settling near ethnic neighborhoods or
  enclaves.
• Urban development (1950-1960)- land was seized to
  build factories, freeways, and bridges.

37
Barriology

• Barriology began with the creation of symbolic
  activities parades, holiday festivities, and
  cultural events as a response to mass
  deportations and the great depression of the
  1930s.
• Barriology represents a kind of collective
  decision to find ways to Mexicanize the bland
  spaces that had become home to the Chicano
  population.
• 1) In Los Angeles, activists fought to protect
  the Oregon and Elysian Parks.
• 2) In other cities in the Southwest Chicano
  Parks were created in Mexican-American
  communities.
• 3) Mexican American cultural centers were created
  in Balboa Park, San Diego.
• 4) Murals were painted that transformed ugly
  space into powerful expressions of
  Mexican-American identity.
• 5) Demonstrations were organized to protect a
  space near an under bridge that was going to be
  transformed into a police sub-station and a
  parking lot.
• Today, Mexican murals cover the pillars and each
  Spring, a special Chicano Day celebration takes
  place to honor the communitys struggle to create
  this importance place.

38
Globalization

• The borderlands, especially in the Southwest U.S.
  border region is a globalized region.
• The proximity to Mexico accelerates the
  socio-economic integration between the two
  countries.
• NAFTA created an institutional affirmation of the
  process of globalization.
• How?
• Maquiladoras with ties to U.S. capital and to
  Mexican labor.
• San Diego, California is an important example of
  a globalizing region.
• Some 3 million people reside in the San Diego
  region, and about 500,000 are Latino.
• Combined with 2 Mexicanos in Tijuana-Rosario-Ensen
  ada.
• The result is a geographical area with 2.5
  Latinos/Mexicans out a population of 5 million.

39
Globalization

• Joint-venture capital is now moving free back and
  forth across the border.
• Assembly plants exist on both sides of the
  border.
• Cultural events are a weekly occurrence as part
  of the cross-border tourism industry.
• Identity has been affected by the increased
  interaction.
• Traditionally Mexicans immigrants to the United
  States were looked upon by Mexican citizens as
  pochos.
• Pochos, are people who abandoned the homeland and
  lost their cultural identity with Mexico while
  falling into a stage of marginality in the host
  nation.
• Pochos, in Mexico were forgotten citizens and in
  the United States were not even citizens.
• However, by 1980 Mexico discovered the political
  and economic value of maintaining relations with
  its more than ten million brothers in the U.S.

40
Characteristics of a Latino Barrio

• Barriers
• Recaptured Space
• Global Tourism
• Consumerism
• Post-NAFTA Housing
• Invented Connections

41
Characteristics of a Latino Barrio

• 1. Globalization imposes new hierarchies on the
  cities such as barriers
• The city will grow in function of corporate
  machines like skyscrapers, freeways, and
  mega-shopping malls.
• Exogenous actors will have big impacts in the
  Barrio
• global investors
• national government
• corporations
• large-scale commercial developers

42
Characteristics of a Latino Barrio

• What are the barriers in San Diego?
• In the case of San Diego the barriers that have
  been constructed have been freeways.
• They are fundamental to the mobile lifestyle of
  the region but hamper the barrios.
• For example, I-5 and I-805 freeways and on/off
  ramps cut across the heart of the Barrio Logan.
• Mega-shopping malls- help destroy the sense of
  place in a neighborhood or community.
• Facilities super-imposed by the federal
  government on the Ysidro community such as fences
  and walls along the international community.
• The San Diego-Tijuana wall is 47 miles long and
  built from metal recycled in the Persian Gulf
  war.
• A second wall has been constructed which contains
  18 foot concrete pilling topped with metal mesh
  screens and an experimental cantilevered wire
  mesh-style fence.
• The fence/walls runs into the Pacific Ocean.
• The zone is buttressed by six miles of stadium
  lights, twelve hundred seismic sensors and
  numerous infrared sensors used to detect movement
• Detention center immigration detention facility
  sited in the heart of San Ysidro.

43

• The overall effect of the landscape is to render
  the San Ysidro border space into a war zone.
• www.latinamericanstudies.org/tijuana-border-1.htm
• Journey to the USA
• http//www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/d
  eadlycrossing/2013872
• Conflict
• http//www.voanews.com/english/2005-06-21-voa62.cf
  m
• Gangs vs. Minuteman
• http//washtimes.com/national/20050328-125306-7868
  r.htm

44
Characteristics of a Latino Barrio

• 2. Recaptured Space
• Both Barrio Logan and San Ysidro began to fight
  back as early as the 1970s.
• In the late 1970s when a police station was going
  to be build under the bridge in the barrio.
• Residents erupted in mass protest and occupied
  the land under the bridge.
• Began spontaneously building a community park.
• The city of San Diego agreed to give the land to
  the community, thus Chicano Park was born.

45
Characteristics of a Latino Barrio

• Recaptured Space
• Also, the resistance was a global phenomenon
• Chicano artist and architects began to cross the
  border and participate in the rebuilding of the
  barrio during the 1970-1980s
• with the statewide coalition of Chicano and
  Mexican artists
• Combined the community and redesigned the space
  under the bridge by painting giant murals on the
  pillars of the Coronado Bridge.
• The Chicano Park became a kind of international
  landmark for the use of murals as a form of
• community process
• Cultural identity
• Murals on the pillars of the bridge made visual
  reference to the Mexican history, Latin American,
  and American history.

46
Characteristics of a Latino Barrio

• Recaptured Space
• Redevelopment plan seeks to erase the negative
  imagery imposed by the federal government and
  recapture the space for local residents.
• International border zones like San Ysidro can no
  longer be thought of merely as buffer spaces or
  defensive edges.
• Nations need to understand the buffer zones can
  house people, industry, trade infrastructure, and
  other economic activities.
• 34 million vehicles and over 7 million
  pedestrians cross the gate each year.
• But the port of entry and surrounding zone on
  both sides of the border are fragmented by a
  variety of land use and design problems.
• Traffic congestions
• Poor circulations routes
• Disorganized land uses
• Conflicts between local interests
• Crime
• Public safety
• Unresolved land development plans

47
Characteristics of a Latino Barrio

• 3. Global Tourism
• An experiment to create a Mexican Disneyland just
  across the border in Tijuana failed.
• Barrio Logan have never been major destinations
  in the San Diego region.
• It could never rival the big-ticket tourism
  destinations like Seaworld, San Diego Zoo, and
  Old Town.
• What to promote in Barrio Logan?
• City of San Diego is promoting Latin Cultural
  heritages sites as part of the tourism in the San
  Diego region.
• Promote the murals, Chicano Parks, and other
  Latino businesses.
• San Ysidro has never been a tourism destination,
  but rather a gateway into Mexico.
• A local group wants to build a Museum of
  Immigration.

48
Characteristics of a Latino Barrio

• 4. Global Consumerism
• The culture of shopping malls and a fast-food
  consumerist culture is part of the globalization
  of the border.
• Barrio Logan neighborhood historically has been
  deprived of any significant commercials sites,
  like..
• Latino developers recognize this gap and have
  located a new commercial space to be named the
  Mercado Shopping Center.
• One of the challenges for the project is in
  Barrio Logan
• How to create a neighborhood design and
  architecture,
• Respect the Mexican/Latino qualities of the
  barrio (murals, parks, gardens),
• Make it pedestrian friendly
• Securing loans

49
Characteristics of a Latino Barrio

• 4. Global Consumerism
• In San Ysidro, the community faces a massive
  shift toward the construction of retail malls and
  shopping centers
• to capture the large market of Mexicans consumers
  and visitors passing through the region.
• The first new shopping mall, Las Americas, built
  literally adjacent to the international boundary
  line on the edge of San Ysidro.
• Las Americas is a three-phase, mixed-use,
  retail-office complex located ¼ mile west of the
  San Ysidro-Tijuana border crossing.
• Phase I is 375,000 sq ft. of open-air retail and
  restaurant space.
• Phase II will add another 270,000 sq ft. of
  retail and restaurant space
• Phase III is expected to add a pedestrian bridge
  to Tijuana,
• new-port-of-entry facility
• A transit center
• Hotel
• Conference building
• Office space

50
Characteristics of a Latino Barrio

• 4. Global Consumerism
• What are some problems with this development?
• The project is entirely based to automobiles
• There is no sense of public space.
• Private security teams patrol the shopping mall.
• The project is called a mixed use. There is no
  residential space on the site.

51
Characteristics of a Latino Barrio

• 5. Post-NAFTA housing
• Because of the escalating housing prices, Latino
  Barrios have been forced to seek innovative
  approaches to affordable housing.
• Various local and state groups designed
  affordable housing units in a high-density, but
  well crafted, residential complex called Mercado
  Apartments.
• Mercado Apartments were designed with elements
  that would maintain the identity of Barrio Logan
  such as
• First, Bright colors of the façade of the
  buildings to conform with the Mexican tradition
  of bright colors in urban setting.
• Second, The architectural style of the complex
  was deliberately chosen to be similar to the
  simple pueblo-adobe style.
• Third, the building was intentionally not set
  back from the street, and it incorporates patios
  and balconies facing the street.

52
Characteristics of a Latino Barrio

• 6) Invented Connections
• San Diego-Tijuana Trolley
• New Ballpark
• The San Ysidro Trolley
• Las Americas Mall pedestrian bridge