Sunday, April 28, 2013

Spanish As A Second Language In Mexico

When a prodigal daughter or son returns home, there isn't a celebration. Reverse migrants are not welcome. Transnationals don't belong anywhere. The liminal experience of the Mexican borderlands:

Lamberto Hernández School principal Hugo Efrén Molina says his hope is to turn the school into a magnet for those students arriving from the US. In addition to offering professional development to teachers, plans are underway to extend school hours and build a cafeteria, which students who attended US campuses sorely miss. The school only has a snack bar. ...

... Now, new migration patterns are returning Mexican nationals to their homeland years after they settled in the US, married there, and had children. Back in their native country, many of these families are unappreciated, Molina says.

On the wall behind the principal, a hand-written sign describing Mexico's migrants reads: "They are the same as us, and they have the same rights."

I've seen the same pattern in the United States. Return migrants are unappreciated. Some experience antipathy. Xenophobia is the rule, not an exception.

I think the biggest urban issue of our time is the tension between the mobile and the stuck. The stuck tend to be isolated. Globalization works against them. The mobile are surfing macroeconomic waves. Move, or die.

1 comment:

Done By Forty said...

I feel a bit of the same when I return home to Pittsburgh or San Diego; from friends though, not family. I chalk it up to simply not being in touch as much as we should, growing apart, etc. But maybe there is a real divide between those who stayed and those who moved, and that's what we're both trying to bridge.