Mexican Workers In The Workplace Essay

In the book Bread and Rose: Miles, Migrants, and the struggle For The American Dream by Bruce Watson talks about the strike that took place in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912 that totally changed labor history for American workers. At the begging of the 20th century Lawrence, Massachusetts was the textile center of America with 12 mills employing more than 32,000 migrant workers. Three of those mills were owned by J.P. Morgan, controlled by the American woolen Company. Most of the textile workers were newly arrived immigrants that came from diverse backgrounds. More than 20 different nationalities were represented, speaking more than 20 different languages.

The United States' hypocritical response was to then round up these workers and transport them across the border to Mexico (all while condoning the use of Mexican labor), largely decreasing the number of visas given from unlimited to only twenty thousand from 1965-1976

In 1820 the countries boarder extended a lot. They bought a lot of land, but America had a hard time in buying Texas. They couldn't buy it without becomming Catholic, learn the Spanish language and become a Mexican citizen. This is one of the reasons for this to be controversial. As a response on this, more than three hundred American families with slaves came to the country.

The Americans felt oppressed by the Mexican government, and since they outnumbered the Mexican residents, they declared independence from

There are several ways that social workers, settlement houses, or activism organizations help Mexican immigrants and Mexicans- Americans in Chicago. Chicago's economy was based on the railroad, steel, sugar beet, and meatpacking industries. Workers were needed to replace employees on strike or men fighting overseas during World War I. Business leaders sent representatives to the Southwest to hire Mexican immigrants and transport them north. These recruiters, paid for the new workers' railroad fees and meals on the trip to Chicago but their first paychecks would be docked a percentage until the money was compensated. Social workers continued to help Mexicans by not only giving them jobs but from keeping them for being deported back.

Mexican-Americans were hated by the White Americans. Over the years of racial tension between the White and Mexican Americans the tension

Mexicans were first allowed in the United States in 1880, when they were used as workers to build the railroad between Mexico and the US (“Mexican Immigrant Labor History” paragraph 4). This was the start to hundreds of years of false hope and abuse toward Mexican workers from the United States government. The US government treated Mexican workers harshly and unfairly. The US only decided to allow Mexican workers to come into the country during the Bracero Programs. These programs were temporary agreements to allow Mexican laborers into the states to work until they were no longer needed.

During these times of greed and self-serving from union leaders, many of the union workers themselves just wanted fair wages, fair hours, and the ability to have health insurance for their families, however for the union leaders this wasn't enough so they pushed for more and more until business found alternative ways to achieve the same goals. This left union workers standing in a strike line that they did not always believe in fighting for a cause that no longer resembled their original complaint and finally looking for another job as the union leaders talked them right out of a job. The workers that managed to get back to work seemed to live in a constant state of fear that the work they were doing would one day be able to be manufactured overseas for minimal money. This could leave them without a way to earn a decent wage, afford every day necessitates for their family and ultimately lose all that they had worked for and sacrificed for through the

Like African Americans, Mexican American children were not allowed to attend white schools, so they created segregated schools to keep the races separated. Also, when it came to jobs both African and Mexican Americans were restricted to low-paying and unstable jobs, because they were both viewed as being inferior and inadequate. Another thing that both groups were restricted from was voting rights. Although, both groups were granted to right to vote whites did whatever they could to restrict them being able to. They added a literacy test, an education requirement and a poll tax to the voting requirements.

The Roaring Twenties are recognized for the increase in opportunities for different ethnic groups throughout California. Mexican immigrants are a particular ethnic group who have historically been marginalized by legislation and political rhetoric. Mexicans immigrants migrated to California with the intent of gaining economic opportunities. While the United States allowed for more economic opportunities to be attained, the treatment of Mexicans during the 1920s unveil inequity in labor policies and structures. The experiences of Mexican immigrants during the 1920s illustrate an increase in economic opportunity and the simultaneous susceptibility to exploitative systems of labor and discriminatory ideologies.

INTRODUCTION Throughout the 1840s and 1850s a major war happened called the Mexican American War which drastically changed the U.S. and Mexico and lead to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to be signed and which established the Rio Grande and not the Nueces River as the U.S Border. This also lead to the U.S. annexation of Texas and lead to the Mexico agreeing to sell California and the rest of the territory for 15 million. So you 're probably wondering why the war was fought but you 'll find that out later.

It all started in the early 1900s when close to 1 million Mexicans migrated to the USA to

This started the many conflicts between Mexico and the U.S because now for the first time the U.S and Mexico shared borders. Mexico needed to protect its borders from the U.S and they had a plan. First Mexico needed to populate the area, then Mexico allowed some Americans to settle Texas, but the

By introducing these new traditions on to the people of Mexico they slowly gained popularity and brought different people together. For example Spaniards created a different society to protect indigenous people, they slowly started to

Citizens that were born in the United States became angry with the new settlers stealing their employments and bringing down wages so groups were formed that were against the immigrants. When they emerged they battled against nonnative-born workers in each possible way. They drafted laws to make migrants lives troublesome through poor living conditions, exclusion acts, and high taxes. They also made the Chinese Exclusion Act which banned all Chinese nationals from coming to America because of their overpopulation of the California area. More and more workers were starting to understand that regardless of their many contrasts between them they had a considerable amount of similarities, and they should join to battle for their rights