| It was a beautiful autumn day at the Mexican Independence Day celebration held at Warner Park September 16. As the festivities progressed throughout the afternoon, Dr. Arnulfo Valdivia Machuca (top right) watched from the shelter tent near the stage. Machuca, the chief of International Affairs for the state of Mexico -- the state, not the country -- was in Madison to participate in the festivities, but also to keep in touch. "We have a very important community of people from the State of Mexico here in Madison," Machuca confided during an interview. "It's in our interests to keep the ties with our people here. I think in the end what happens is that governments come and go and what really remains is the people. And what remains is their families back in Mexico." Madison, in many ways, is emblematic of one of the dilemmas Mexico is facing. It's not just unskilled workers who have been leaving Mexico and heading for the U.S. "The brain drain is terrible," Machuca exclaimed. "What's happening is our best people are starting to leave or have been leaving during the last few years. It's becoming more intensive. As Mexicans, that's something we need to stop or at least balance." The state of Mexico, with a population of 14 million, surrounds Mexico City -- a federal district -- much like Maryland and Virginia surround Washington, D.C. Machuca's state is the flagship state of Mexico. It accounts for 12 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). While Mexico has experienced economic growth, conditions still exist that contribute to the migration to the U.S. "A huge problem that we have in the state is the distribution of wealth," Machuca said. "It's not that we don't generate wealth. It's that we don't distribute wealth properly. In a way, that is the problem with Mexico, the rest of the country. That's what we're trying to work on. If we don't work with our communities of migrant workers here in the U.S., if we don't work on job creation and infrastructure, call it health, call it education, call it roads, then the people from the poorest areas of our state will keep coming to the U.S." In essence, Machuca was in Madison to find out from people what their needs are, to figure out what governmental policies need to be put in place to stem the immigration flow. "We want to stop migration not through policing or walls," Machuca said. "I think the best way to stop migration is to give people an opportunity to live better." Machuca places migration into two categories: voluntary and forced. In Machuca's view, it is impossible for government to stop voluntary migration. "People have been migrating all over the world for centuries," Machuca observed. "Our economic ties with the United States are growing every day. In the end, there are a lot of Mexicans here who want to reunite with their families or people who just want to come. You can't stop that." Forced migration, on the other hand, is something that Machuca feels that government can have an impact on. "We have to stop forced migration, migration that is caused by poverty, by marginalization from economic development, migration that is simply painful to both countries because it has undesired effects in both countries," Machuca emphasized. "We lose a workforce that could help Mexico's development. And very often, the United States gets people who, at least at the start, cost it too much." Machuca feels that the governments of Mexico and the United States have been bickering and blaming each other too much. In his opinion, that will not lead to realistic solutions. But many of those policies are determined at levels above his own. So Machuca and the state of Mexico are doing their small part to stem the tide. They are planning small economic development projects. And any good plan requires a needs assessment, which brings us back around to the reason Machuca visited Madison. "I think we have to start working on projects that help them here and help their families back in the State of Mexico," Machuca said. "We cannot know what these projects are if we don't ask them." Machuca and the State of Mexico are already taking a small step to solve the U.S.-Mexico immigration problem. In some ways, it is already a giant step ahead of the two governments involved. |
| An interview with Dr. Arnulfo Valdivia Machuca Immigration from the other side of the border by Jonathan Gramling |
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