The International Forum for U.S. Studies “‘ America’ in the World”: Discourses of "Americanization" and "Anti-Americanism" SYMPOSIUM II The University of Iowa APRIL 21-23, 2006 Mexican immigrants’ Americanism and anti-americanism in L.A. Guillermo Ibarra Escobar (UAS)
“We must Americanize them (the newcomers to our shores) in every way, in speech, in political ideas and principles,... We welcome the German or the Irishman who becomes an American... We do not wish German- Americans and Irish- Americans who figure as such in our social and political life; we want only Americans, and, provided they are such, we do not care whether they are of native or of Irish or of German ancestry. We have no room in any healthy American community for a German-American vote or an Irish-American vote, and it is contemptible demagogy to put planks into any party platform with the purpose of catching such a vote. We have no room for any people who do not act and vote simply as Americans, and as nothing else”... Theodore Roosevelt (1894). True Americanism.
Are illegal immigrants antiamericans? What does americanism mean in the globalizaded world of XXI century? Citizenship and Nation State. Citizenship and the Global City.
Immigrantion debate, legislation, protesting, grassroots. A new era in modern American history, similar to the 1960’s. Making citizenship in urban life. The professions and the new citizenship.
Cartographical identities in the Global City. Militant particularism in the Global City and the new citizenship. Citizens, “the good ones”. The others, the strangers. Immigrants and citizenship.
Mexicans in US and Los Ángeles, 2005 Mexican population in US, 25 millions. Mexican foreign born in US, 11 millions. Mexican immigrants unauthorized in US, 6 millions. Mexican foreign born in Greater Los Ángeles (LA, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange), 3 millions. Mexican inmigrants unauthorized in Greater L.A, 35%, 1.05 million.
The Sinaloans case Sinaloa in 2005, 3.5% of the Mexican foreign born, 108,000. Sinaloas immigrants unauthorized, 38%, 41,000. Random survey 2004.
Greater Los Angeles
Mexicans foreign born by census track
Surveying in Sinaloans household, 2004
Year of arrival (%)
Pattern of arrival to US
Educational attainment
Civil status
Migratory status Percentage
Age of the (Sinaloans) US borned
Educational attainment of the (Sinaloans) US borned
Occupation
Labor Status
Weekly income in US dollars
Monthly Housing Rent
Weekly income by migration status
Bank of preference
Decision for migrating to United States
Will your economic future improve?
When do you think your economic situation will improve?
Difficulty for finding a job
Labor conditions in Los Angeles
Perception about the current personal income
Living conditions in Los Angeles
Have you suffer from discrimination?
Social life in Los Angeles
Regard of the US Laws
Are you affiliated to a political party?
Health services in the US compared to Mexico’s
Are you enjoying the American ways?
Would you like to return to Mexico for living?
Would you like to return to Mexico for working?
How well do you speak English?
Do you speaking English at home?
Usage of English at work