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Title: Mexico works to bar non-natives from jobs
Source:
AP
URL Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie ... &SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Published: May 21, 2006
Author: AP
Post Date: 2006-05-21 17:09:03 by Zipporah
Keywords: None
Views: 121
Comments: 14
By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press Writer AP Photo/JENNIFER SZYMASZEK World Video Advertisement MEXICO CITY (AP) -- If Arnold Schwarzenegger had migrated to Mexico instead of the United States, he couldn't be a governor. If Argentina native Sergio Villanueva, firefighter hero of the Sept. 11 attacks, had moved to Tecate instead of New York, he wouldn't have been allowed on the force. Even as Mexico presses the United States to grant unrestricted citizenship to millions of undocumented Mexican migrants, its officials at times calling U.S. policies "xenophobic," Mexico places daunting limitations on anyone born outside its territory. In the United States, only two posts - the presidency and vice presidency - are reserved for the native born. In Mexico, non-natives are banned from those and thousands of other jobs, even if they are legal, naturalized citizens. Foreign-born Mexicans can't hold seats in either house of the congress. They're also banned from state legislatures, the Supreme Court and all governorships. Many states ban foreign-born Mexicans from spots on town councils. And Mexico's Constitution reserves almost all federal posts, and any position in the military and merchant marine, for "native-born Mexicans." Recently the Mexican government has gone even further. Since at least 2003, it has encouraged cities to ban non-natives from such local jobs as firefighters, police and judges. Mexico's Interior Department - which recommended the bans as part of "model" city statutes it distributed to local officials - could cite no basis for extending the bans to local posts. After being contacted by The Associated Press about the issue, officials changed the wording in two statutes to delete the "native-born" requirements, although they said the modifications had nothing to do with AP's inquiries. These statutes have been under review for some time, and they have, or are about to be, changed," said an Interior Department official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name. But because the "model" statues are fill-in-the-blanks guides for framing local legislation, many cities across Mexico have already enacted such bans. They have done so even though foreigners constitute a tiny percentage of the population and pose little threat to Mexico's job market. The foreign-born make up just 0.5 percent of Mexico's 105 million people, compared with about 13 percent in the United States, which has a total population of 299 million. Mexico grants citizenship to about 3,000 people a year, compared to the U.S. average of almost a half million. "There is a need for a little more openness, both at the policy level and in business affairs," said David Kim, president of the Mexico-Korea Association, which represents the estimated 20,000 South Koreans in Mexico, many of them naturalized citizens. "The immigration laws are very difficult ... and they put obstacles in the way that make it more difficult to compete," Kim said, although most foreigners don't come to Mexico seeking government posts. J. Michael Waller, of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, was more blunt. "If American policy-makers are looking for legal models on which to base new laws restricting immigration and expelling foreign lawbreakers, they have a handy guide: the Mexican constitution," he said in a recent article on immigration. Some Mexicans agree their country needs to change. "This country needs to be more open," said Francisco Hidalgo, a 50-year-old video producer. "In part to modernize itself, and in part because of the contribution these (foreign-born) people could make." Others express a more common view, a distrust of foreigners that academics say is rooted in Mexico's history of foreign invasions and the loss of territory in the 1847-48 Mexican-American War. Speaking of the hundreds of thousands of Central Americans who enter Mexico each year, chauffeur Arnulfo Hernandez, 57, said: "The ones who want to reach the United States, we should send them up there. But the ones who want to stay here, it's usually for bad reasons, because they want to steal or do drugs." Some say progress is being made. Mexico's president no longer is required to be at least a second-generation native-born. That law was changed in 1999 to clear the way for candidates who have one foreign-born parent, like President Vicente Fox, whose mother is from Spain. But the pace of change is slow. The state of Baja California still requires candidates for the state legislature to prove both their parents were native born.
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#1. To: Zipporah (#0)
I read that president Fox's mother was Irish and that he was born in Ireland and that he lived for years in Ireland as a child, moved to Mexico sometime in childhood. The mexicans like people from spain, but they strongly distrust people from Ireland/germany/england/france, etc.
Hmm dunno about that but I do know he was educated in part at least in the US..
americans can't even buy homes in mexico as far as I'm concerned. I mean this 99 year lease thing is not property ownership IMHO. but in el norte the 'illegals' can buy homes.
And worse.. Americans pay for them.. the Catholic church and other churches as well .. are doing it.. they collect social security etc.. its outrageous.
Why do Mexicans distrust Europeans? That sounds weird.
"That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves." Kim Stanley Robinson, "Green Mars" p318
I don't understand when the US decided to train & educate every tom, dick & harry from every tinpot, banana dictatorship across the world. What about educating our own populace? Most Americans are comprehending written material at a 4th grade education level!
"That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves." Kim Stanley Robinson, "Green Mars" p318
Well that IS the way the want to keep us..
I thought his father was Irish and that's why he had the name Fox? How does a Mexican end up with a name like that? Maybe his real name is Bush....
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
Hey mehitable! Youre right! Fox was born in Mexico City to a wealthy Mexican family of mixed Spanish-Irish descent (his father was of part-Irish descent and his mother from the province of Asturias in Spain) of Guanajuato. He was educated at the Universidad Iberoamericana and attended seminars put on by the Business School of Harvard University (though he did not obtain an MBA degree). After the end of his formal education he went to work for The Coca-Cola Company where he started as a route supervisor and drove a delivery truck. He rose in the company to become supervisor of Coca-Cola's operations in Mexico, and then in all of Latin America.
Don't you know it pisses off the Chimperor whenever he has to stand next to Fox at photo ops. Fox is about 6'6". The Chimp says he's 6', but he has not "grown" in office. It's hard for chimps to stand upright.
This is absolutely true.. those with Castillian spanish/white heritage rule Mexico.. have you ever seen Mexican soaps?? Heres a pic of him standing next to Fox ..
All I know is when I tell my brown-skinned mexican immigrant friends that Vicente Fox has an irish background they get upset and go into denial mode. so, his father's side of family comes from Ireland and his mother's from Spain.
yeah, you watch mexican tv and it is mostly white people who play the roles, including blond women. and you look at the mexican immigrants to america, and they're all brown-skinned.
Wow, how weird that it upsets them. Maybe they're racist against white people :) That reminds me of another Irish father/Mexican mother combo (and a much finer example): Anthony Quinn.
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
like President Vicente Fox, whose mother is from Spain.
#2. To: Red Jones (#1)
I read that president Fox's mother was Irish and that he was born in Ireland and that he lived for years in Ireland as a child, moved to Mexico sometime in childhood.
#3. To: Zipporah (#0)
#4. To: Red Jones (#3)
americans can't even buy homes in mexico as far as I'm concerned. I mean this 99 year lease thing is not property ownership IMHO. but in el norte the 'illegals' can buy homes.
#5. To: Red Jones (#1)
#6. To: Zipporah (#2)
#7. To: peteatomic (#6)
What about educating our own populace? Most Americans are comprehending written material at a 4th grade education level!
#8. To: Red Jones (#1)
#9. To: mehitable (#8)
#10. To: Zipporah (#9)
#11. To: Sam Houston (#10)
last 479 years of Mexican history: whites rule, mixed-race mestizos toil, Indians endure.
#12. To: mehitable, Zipporah, Sam Houston (#8)
#13. To: Zipporah (#11)
#14. To: Red Jones (#12)
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