The Pros And Cons Of Chicanos

As described in the text Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification, Chicanos faced several disadvantages such as their marginalization in society because of their skin color. Although they weren't enslaved like African Americans, Hispanics were differentiated on the wrong side of the color line and in effect did not receive the same rights as lighter-skinned Hispanics. As Douglas A. Massey states:
“Research has shown that black Hispanics face greater discrimination than white Hispanics in most U.S. markets. For example, darker-skinned Hispanics have been shown to earn lower wages, achieve less prestigious occupations, inhabit poorer residential environments, and generally experience more restricted life chances compared with their

lighter-skinned counterparts” (pg. 114).
Also, Mexican Americans who didn't identify themselves as neither black or white, but espoused some racially mixed identity, were treated more like “blacks.” In this case, Hispanics were integrated by a process known as segmented assimilation.

In addition, Anglo-Americans confused certain races because Mexicans constituted two-thirds of the Latino population. Given that, it was difficult for the average Anglo-American to differentiate between mestizos like Mexican, Guatemalan, Salvadorian, Peruvian, or Colombian origin and created the racialized category “other.” Thus, how Mexicans were viewed affected the status and well-being of all Hispanics. Another major disadvantage for Latino/Mexican Americans was the disenfranchisement from their property and liberties. After the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1948, it was till the nineteenth century when Mexican Americans had been transformed socially and economically into a subordinate stratum of people subject to widespread discrimination and systematic

exclusion.
Equally important, during 1900, the Mexican-origin population in the U.S.

numbered about 150,000 and only 237 of them were immigrants. Although, they were subordinated because of their small numbers and geographic isolation. To resume, for the fact that Japanese workers in the U.S. were to industrious, this angered white westerners because of their competition in services, buying farms, and starting their own businesses. As a result, Japanese were no longer laborers, gardeners, or manual service workers thus rising in the racial hierarchy. Consequently, state legislators in the west made harsh laws to prohibit citizenship for immigrants and banned property ownership owned by foreign citizens, restricted their civil liberties, segregated them spatially, rejected them in society, and excluded them from jobs they desired. Thus, the exploitation of Mexican Americans commenced as western employers recruited them for work. Firstly, they worked in railroads, then in mines and farm fields, and lastly in factories. For the fact that the U.S. had entered WW1 in 1917, there was a labor demand spike and a persistent shortage for workers because white workers were mobilized for military duty. Hence, the U.S. government launched an official labor recruitment program to assist growers in the southwest and factory owners in the Midwest. From the Gentlemen's Agreement in 1907 to the end of 1929, the Mexican-born population in the United States grew from 178,000 to 739,000 in just two

decades. Subsequently, in 1929 when the stock market has crashed, about half of all Mexican immigrants were deported back to Mexico. During the period of 1929 to 1937, 458,000 Mexicans were unfairly arrested and expelled from the U.S. with thousands more leaving “voluntarily” because the hostility and poor economic prospects they faced. By 1940, only 377,000 remained, but were segregated in barrios, schools, and received inferior services. Moreover, the exploitation of Mexican Americans continued as they entered the Second World War. With regards to renewed military conscription, war again created serious labor shortages in the southwest. For this reason, The Bracero Program was initially created for previous migrant workers who were considered “temporary” to come back and work for them. Though, recruitment numbers were rather small being 168,000 in total, most of them being children of previous Mexicans workers. As a consequence, the booming postwar economy perpetrated growers’ fears of a labor shortage so they began to recruit illegal immigrants directly. Sing that they would be hired automatically, Mexicans crossed the border in large numbers from 7,000 in 1942 to 544,000 in 1952. It was then that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) would arrest over 1 million Mexicans calling it “Operation Wetback.” Consequently, The Bracero Program would slowly end in 1965. However, a new immigration policy would launch imposing a limit of 120,000 visas per year and a limit of 20,000 per country for immigrants in the Western Hemisphere. But in 1980, this number was reduced to 270,000 visas worldwide which was fierce competition for Mexicans. Being that, this restricted the chances of legal entry and undocumented migration rose in numbers from 55,000 in 1965 to 1.6 million in 1985. Accordingly, the unofficial temporary worker program that prevailed during this period was regulated informally as a byproduct of border enforcement. As Douglas Massey asserts:
“Although the presence of undocumented Mexicans in the United States was technically illegal, until the mid-1980s the consequences of this illegality were relatively benign for migrants as well as the nation. The size and budget of the Border Patrol rose modestly each year to keep pace with a gradual increase in the underlying volume of undocumented migration, and the probability of apprehending and undocumented border crosser remained constant at 33 percent” (pg. 130). Ultimately, crossing the border became a “cat and mouse” game between migrant and Border Patrol agents.