Behind the Invisible Line
Mexican immigrants in search for a better life in San Diego
By Selena Ramirez
By Selena Ramirez
Everyone that lives in San Diego came from immigrants at one point or another. So, how can a person say that Mexican immigrants don’t have the right to come here and prosper? Immigration has always been a part of San Diego’s community. It is known that many Mexicans immigrate from Mexico to San Diego for a better living. It is also a popular belief that a lot that Mexican immigrants shouldn’t be coming to the United States because they are just here to take away jobs, have children, and take advantage of the educational and health systems. While this may be true for some, in reality its the opposite of that.
Mexican immigrants are here to make a better living, to make money for their families. And just like any other American family here they too have the right to be able to live in a safe place and be able to make money for their family’s needs. As one of my interviews, I sent out an online survey to High Tech High Media Arts students, first asking if their parents had immigrated to San Diego from Mexico. The following questions included: What is the highest level of education your mother completed? What is the highest level of education your father completed? What is your mother’s occupation? What is your father’s occupation? Out of 18 responses, 11 parents completed some or all of high school. Two completed an Associate’s Degree. Only one completed their Master’s Degree. Four did not respond to this question. I noticed the jobs held by those who immigrated to San Diego were mostly low paying, blue collar jobs that don’t earn as much respect or pay as other jobs. The job responses were mostly service-based and included jobs in restaurants, construction, automotive, and house cleaning. My mother is one of those people who migrated from Mexico to San Diego. I asked her a couple of questions about how was it moving from Mexico to San Diego, the culture shock, and if she liked living in America. My mom moved to San Diego when she was 15, so she has a lot of experience of how it used to be and gave me a lot of information of how she migrated and how it was for her. My mom immigrated from Mexico to San Diego because she was in a really poor state in Mexico; she wanted to come here get a job and make money to send to her parents so they could build a new house because the house they had was made out of cardboard cartons. When my mom arrived to San Diego, she started by cleaning people’s houses in really upper-class neighborhoods. These clients then began to refer my mom to their friends and they began asking her to clean their house as well. From there, my mom decided to take this as an opportunity to make business cards and make a little cleaning company and have it grow. Her small company was named Maggie’s House Cleaning Services. The business cards began spreading around stores and people would start calling and blowing up my moms phone with texts. This little company helped my mom a lot to send money to her parents. Many Mexicans, like my mom, work in the United States to help support their families south of the border. The money that these immigrants earn makes a huge impact on the Mexican economy. The National Population Council of Mexico estimates that one in 10 Mexican families is dependent upon remittances (money sent home from Mexican workers in the U.S.) as their primary source of income. Mexican immigrants in San Diego aren’t just here to take advantage of the system. They are hard working individuals, and often get judged without knowing their background story. Some people, like my mom, left everything she knew and risked everything, and that was not easy. They provide services that people want, like house cleaning or construction - services that are needed in San Diego and all across the United States - and are valuable additions to our country. |