The Other Side of Immigration:

                                            ~  Necessary Evil Leaves Ghost Towns

        “A necessary evil” is how is been called the fact of emigration for the citizens of Michoacan, in the 1:44min. trailer of the documentary “The Other Side Of Immigration” by Roy Germano. Kilometers of once cultivated but now abandoned barren lands remain as a question towards the future of the dissected families of residents who are left behind. “No one wishes to be far from their families” says a woman like many others whose family members traveled to U.S. looking for better opportunities to build their house and sustain her economically. Many say that this state, as others in Mexico, functions thanks to the funds that is mailed from the U.S. to mainly females who wait for years for their husbands to go back home.

        In a Let’s Talk Live interview, the director states that this film was made with the intention of divulging detailed reasons of the emigration to the U.S. of civilians of this Mexican state in an effort of finding a solution.

     








    The ones who can cross the militarized border risking their lives through days in the barren region helped by coyotes, labor in Beverly Hills mostly in gardening, construction, gastronomy and housekeeping.

     Cristina Guerrero, community worker of the city of Guajaca remarks in the documentary “The Other Side”, the importance of the accelerated social problem emigration cause, the clash of culture when this relatives come back, and that in the long term, as if many young people leave, this cities will disappear.

      Communities in Los Angeles organize projects to generate funds and collects to funds to their home towns to survive by building, classrooms, churches, municipal plazas, well-being centers and houses who are destined to remain empty like in the Guajaca city.

  One of the comments written as an answer for the trailer in The Economist suggests; “the average illegal pays a coyote something like $10k for a CHANCE of making it over the border and the risk of dying of thirst in the desert. Instead, the USA could charge an entry fee of $15k (air-conditioned bus, plenty of water, 100% success rate) and a $5k/year well-being cover fee to let the immigrant come over as a temp. worker. He would have an ID, get a permit, and pay all taxes to boot. Any children born here to these temp. workers should NOT be US citizens. Diaspora is a fact of life. We might as well set up a system that function for everyone.”

 An article from 'The Guardian' about a campaign to stop Arizona's visitor's law says "I came to America from Mexico when I was five, crossing the border with my sister to join my parents who were undocumented workers. My father worked as a groom at the race track, in laundries and in construction. My mother was in the garment industry.

   "We were lucky – we managed to use a one-off amnesty to gain legalization in 1980 before Ronald Reagan shut off the opportunity in 1986. 

"When people ask me what all these undocumented immigrants are doing in this country, I reply: 'We are laboring for you, making this country desirable. We are looking after your children, making your houses beautiful, tending your gardens, so that you can thrive and raise your families. We are laboring for you.'"

 







 May be we should think in focusing more on a temporary residency kind of status for the ones that offer cheep hand labor in the States that also wishes to go back to their homeland to visit their families.

This, enjoying plenty of freedom and rights.

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