Social Challenges Of The Mexican Culture
Today, currently we live in a society were hatred seems to be in the spotlight within our diverse communities. As we all know immigration has been a compelling argument for the past couple of years and has been causing major setbacks for the United States. Since President Trump has been running the White House, he had promised to provide protection for the people. Trump wants to build a wall around the boarded of Mexico to keep illegal immigrants from entering as well as deporting all illegal immigrants who are in the U.S undocumented.
By doing so Trump has led the American people to discriminate against those whose ethnicity is Mexican. Not only are they facing discrimination but their whole lives they have had to battle many challenges. Another social problem they face is obtaining a job that pays a decent amount of money. Mexicans will work a minimum wage job and or any job they are offered because of their lack of education which is another social problem they have. Without having education, they are not able to land a job that would pay them respectively. They were forced to leave school to get a job to be able to provide for their families. Still to this day they are facing these challenges and even more so in the United Statas. With everything happening today they are being compelled to go back to their old lives and causing more and more families to stay under the poverty level.
Right now, for illegal Mexican immigrants there is about eleven million. With our growing social problems, in 2017 the CBS (Censuses and Boarder Protection) has stated that 26 percent have lowered the number of immigrants because of the policies President Trump has created. The number also kept decreasing because those who were in the U.S illegally undocumented were captive and sent back to their homes. Most of the immigrant children were born in the U.S and their parents were found to be the ones who are mostly undocumented. The only fighting chance they have in order to stay in the U.S is the anti-human trafficking law. The law gave them a fighting chance by letting them have a hearing on their behalves before being forced back to their countries. As we all hear every day on the news about Trump “boarded security” it has put a lot of strain on the Mexican population. Unfortunately, Trump will not give up his fight for the wall and because of that, he believes that this wall will make the U.S gain control back of its people. (Felter & Renwick, 2018)
Although discrimination towards Mexicans has been around for decades, the talk about the wall has stirred the controversy more. Discrimination against Mexican culture surfaced because our society feels as if it is okay to speak their minds because President Trump does. Luz Garcini, a writer who took it upon herself to investigate the discrimination against undocumented Mexican. In our society about 69 percent undocumented Mexican immigrants have claimed to be discriminated against. She has conducted interviews with 246 Mexican Immigrants. While doing her interviews the results showcased that most interpersonal discrimination against Mexicans was non-verbal and verbal communication behaviors. Mostly all undocumented immigrants have said they had an encounter with someone being cruel to them even more so because of Trumps wall security. For instance, the results shared that Mexican men had more interaction with interpersonal discrimination rather than women. Women felt that their interpersonal discrimination was more of a stressful situation for them. Luz study also expressed that the physical emotional aspect of their lives was being traumatized. The study also mentioned that those who are struggling with their undocumentation suffer from psychology distress. In her research, the psychological distress can vary for undocumented immigrants depending on their location. Luz believes that more studies should be done to investigate the hatred toward the Mexican people. (Ruth, 2018)
Mexicans also face challenges on being able to find jobs and to obtain an education. A part of not being able to have an education had to deal with their poverty, indigeneity, gender inequality, and shortage of their education funding’s .Due to the fact that about 18 percent of Mexicans are living in poverty at a young age they had to quit going to school to get a job to be able to provide for their families. The more family members they had working the more income they would be receiving. Mexicans have been able to make a small break through but the quality of their education they learn is not nearly enough. In Mexico alone they have low scores for their reading literacy, math and science subjects. Shrinking of the education budget also caused many social problems to showcase. Around the year of 2004, it was found that the money used to fund the student’s education was way too low on the spectrum. Therefore, causing the Mexican government to make a budget cut on their education findings. With the cuts being made this forced for more drop outs and lack of knowledge to be taught to them. This is what has caused for Mexican culture to suffer from working social problems. Without being able to have at least a decent education they would not be able to find jobs that will pay more than minimum wage. The more we hear about trump wanting to build the wall the more social problem the Mexican culture will face. (ICF, 2017)
With the many challenges the Mexican People are facing now they are scared for what the outcome is going to be. The challenges that may continue to happen is indeed because of the wall that President Trump wants to build. So, the question is what do they do? How can they fight to stay? What’s going to happen to them and their families? The unknown to these answers is what is the scariest thing for them. Therefore, it’s important that they are aware that they have rights and there are here to help them. Through the U.S there are organizations an agency’s that have the right tools to help the Mexican People at a time like this.
An organization called MALDEF which stands for Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund was established in 1968. Their home base for this organization is in Los Angeles California as well as having offices located throughout the U.S. Their mission is to protect and severe the civil right of all American and Latinos that are living in the U.S. Being that they have been around for decades they truly have made a difference in many people lives. Within the organizations they work with many varies cases and are willing to fight for their communities. One thing that is important to them is helping the community with getting an education. They helped by making sure that all the Latino Americans are receiving an education with equality. They fight for their rights to gain a higher education regardless of their ethnicity and make sure that the schools are treating them with respect. MALDEF also protects and servers’ immigrants’ rights by speaking on their behalves and show casing by law. discriminatory policies are in place for private and public sectors. MALDF also fight for the equality in the working environment. They make sure that those who are considered immigrants are just as everyone else ins society given the opportunities of work. They make sure that that working places are not discrimination and or harassing those who are within their companies. This organization has touched and helped our society. There commitment to our society is ever lasting and they will continue to fight for the quality no matter if the wall is built or not. (Access to Justice, n.d.)
Another organization that has had a major impact for the Mexican people is the American Mexican Association which was created to represent sectors of our society. Their team represents, community organizations, corporations, academic institutions local government, chambers of commerce, media, business and religious institutions. The AMA is spread out the U.S and is in Far West, California, Texas, Midwest, Northeast and southeast. Their mission is to eliminate the dissemination against the Mexican culture. Their goal is to help the Mexican people have a voice by telling their stories and trying to make the communities come together again. Instead of believing what we here they want to show America what the Mexican culture really is. They want their voices to be heard from both sides of the boarder. They also believe that if we start to eliminate the hatred going on and we come together we can accomplish more for out society. AMA are activist they won’t stop fighting for the right of the Mexican American in our society. No matter what it takes and even with everything happening they will still make sure that those who are Mexican have people who hear and feel their pain. They will stop at nothing to make sure they are all treated with respect and that they will be served with equality. (American Mexican Association, n.d.)
Now that we have a sense base of the Mexican culture social challenges another question comes to mind. With the crisis we ae in now, what and how would a social worker handle a client with the ethnicity of a Mexican? Being a social worker means helping our community become a community. Depending on my client’s needs depends on what type of strategies I would use to help them. I feel as though that every social worker has their strengths and their weaknesses. I for one know that I have a couple and I am still working on them. How I do things compared to another social worker may be different but that is okay. When working with a client my techniques and strategies will vary depending on the client’s needs. But three strategies I have that will never change are my communication skills, my empathy and listening skills. I think is important to communicate with my clients for me to be able to provide them with resource and or services I need to know what kind of help they need. It could be from housing, job to food to be put on their tables.
When we have a good communication, this helps form a trustworthy relationship between me and my client. We are never sure what are clients are going through and in order to find out we need to talk about it. Next for me is my empathy compassion toward my client. My strategies for this are reassuring my client that I am here for them and not for me. I need to showcase to them that I care about their wellbeing and I can in fact help them if they are willing to let me. Although their culture is different from mine, I need to be respectful of their culture and to do my job to the best of my ability. Lastly, my listening strategies are my most important one I think I would use to work with clients. If our clients feel as if we are not listening, then they will not car to come back and or seek more services I picked these three strategies because I feel that showcasing that I care for them brings them hope in their lives. Showing casing that I listen, communicate and care about their wellbeing is what is important to be a social worker. (What Skills Are Required etc..., n.d.)
Today the Mexican culture is not being treated fairly. With President Trump pushing for the wall to be built, the Mexican culture are facing their worst nightmare. They don’t want to live the lives they are living which is why there is so many in the United States. If we stopped and listened to them maybe, we would have a better understanding why they are here. With the hatred and the crisis of the boarder wall, the Mexican culture will still face the social challenge of discrimination. If they are banned from entering the U.S completely their poverty level will rise and cause more social challenges. They would lose out on obtaining a good education and or holding a job that pays more than minimum wage. The matter of the fact is that we are a diverse society and we should all be treated equally. Although we are indeed in an emergency crisis, we need to remember that we are all different and no matter what our culture is we should be treated fairly. The hatred that is happening could end badly if trump keeps pressuring his wall. Will the Mexican culture ever be accepted in our society? The unknown for the future is scary and the Mexican people deserve a fighting chance.
References
American Mexican Association. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ama-usa.org/
Access to Justice. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.maldef.org/public-policy/access-to-justice/
Felter, C., & Renwick, D. (2018, July 2). The U.S. Immigration Debate. Retrieved from
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-immigration-debate-0
ICF. (2017, December 20). 4 Barriers To Quality Education In Mexico. Retrieved from
https://icfdn.org/barriers-quality-education-mexico/
Ruth, D. (2018, June 14). Nearly 70 percent of undocumented Mexican immigrants report
discrimination. Retrieved from http://news.rice.edu/2018/06/14/nearly-70-percent-of-undocumented-mexican-immigrants-report-discrimination/
What Skills Are Required To Be a Social Worker? (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://socialwork.simmons.edu/skills-required-social-worker/
