Tijuana, a border city
Tijuana is a city located at the border between the Mexican State of Baja California and the US State of California. International migration to Tijuana has become a notorious phenomenon since the 1980s. Some migrants see Tijuana as a bridgehead to US California, converting the city into a stopping point on one of the most important terrestrial migratory routes in Latin America.
In 2004 the total population was 1,462,000, with a 4.9 per cent annual growth rate. Among Tijuana’s residents only 3.2 per cent were born abroad, of whom the bulk (three per cent) in the USA. People born in the USA are usually quite well accepted since they are either Mexicans born there or affluent, leisurely Anglo-Saxons living by the seaside. In 2004, Tijuana was host to over 43,000 US-born residents and to 16,750 immigrants from other countries, not including family members born in Mexico (who represented 1.1 per cent of the total population, or two per cent of the number of local families with a foreign member).
Residents born outside Mexico and the USA come from a variety of countries. Chinese migration is the largest and longest standing: some 3,000 Chinese citizens are residing in Tijuana and another 6,000 have already been naturalised.. Paradoxically, the 2000 census in Tijuana did not register a single person that had been born in China.
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Apart from US and Chinese nationals, natives of 35 other countries reside in Tijuana: El Salvador, Argentina, Colombia and Guatemala are the better represented, together with Korea. Few migrants initially saw Tijuana as their final destination. The great majority ended up residing in the city after failing to migrate to the USA.
Tijuana is a city of migrants and for that reason young adults (16-35 years old) are better represented than other age groups.
International migrants on average are characterised by a prevalence of males. The male to female ratio among (non USA-born) migrants is much higher than for Tijuana as a whole. However current migration flows include increasing numbers of females.
International migrants are employed mainly in the lower segments of the service sector, where skill requirements are typically low.. However, the census does not capture an important part of the international migrants in Tijuana, who most likely have to accept much harder working conditions.
International migration as a defining feature of Tijuana
Tijuana’s local population does not stick to any particular perception of international migrants, except for the Americans who are considered as privileged and not well integrated in the city.
The population’s casual attitude most likely derives from the fact that no social group has any legitimacy to ascribe any particular connotation to the migrant condition of other groups. Tijuana’s social structure is made up of small social groups who do not form a socially cohesive entity, within a society where hierarchies are not so strongly defined.
This social structure results from the combination of two distinct factors: the city’s national function as a migration bridgehead, where diversity is the norm almost by definition; and the almost uninterrupted economic growth that in the past has fostered upward social mobility. The local population is used to the ethnic diversity that is a defining feature of mestizo Mexico; in turn this creates an environment conducive to the integration of international migrants.
The low profile maintained by international migrants also helps to blur any specific social role attached to them. In particular, the perception of international migrants is not tainted by urban violence or criminality, as is often the case in other locations.
There is no neighbourhood with residents of a predominant country or region of origin in Tijuana, except a residential area of Americans that is associated with tourism. In addition, foreigners do not use the public space for their national or religious celebrations.
The image that Mexicans have of Americans Tijuana is complex and generally ambivalent. It is structurally determined because interaction with Americans is unavoidable in the border space, and any awareness thus gained results in tolerance of foreigners.
The blurred image Tijuana Mexicans have of the city’s foreign residents is also related to the degree of integration in local society which foreigners experience due to some characteristics of international migration to the city, primarily the fact international migrants in Tijuana are still only a small proportion of the population.
Paradoxically, social exclusion is also a driving force behind the inclusion of international migrants into urban society. The wages of the majority of the Tijuana population are low, and many of them live in marginalised conditions. Many poor international migrants manage various degrees of social insertion through the spaces that marginal and informal behaviour allows. The city’s marginal conditions also allow for the social inclusion of these poor foreign migrants due to lax social control by the authorities given the limited resources available.
Local capacity for labour absorption is also a major source of social inclusion. Tijuana’s economy has been growing fast over since the 1980s, keeping the unemployment rate below one per cent on average. International migrants can find jobs easily. At the same time, economic growth has also generated some of the highest average wages in the country, enabling many international migrants to avail themselves of higher incomes than many native Mexicans. At the other end of the scale, Tijuana’s many undocumented migrants have to live on very low wages.
International migration and national policies
Immigration in Mexico is regulated by the Ley general de población (General Population Act) and by the Reglamento de la ley general de población, an executive ordersetting out practicalities for enactment. The federal government enforces the legislation via the National Migration Institute (INAMI) and the federal police. The role of State and municipal governments is to support INAMI as it enforces the legislation, rather than enforcing it themselves. Mexican immigration policy gives preference to skilled individuals such as scientists, technicians, researchers or professors, as well family members of Mexicans when granting work and immigration visas.
The Population Act sets out drastic legal sanctions against undocumented immigrants, who can be punished with up to two years’ imprisonment. However, the law allows INAMI to expel undocumented migrants instead of sending them to prison, an alternative which INAMI makes ample use of in view of its inability to pay for judicial proceedings and for humanitarian reasons. In the first six months of 2004, INAMI detained 1,109 illegal migrants from 57 countries in Tijuana.
In 2000, 2001 and 2004, Mexico’s federal government ran a regularisation scheme for undocumented residents, which is especially tailored to large cities like Tijuana. Undocumented migrants could apply if they had been in Mexico since the year 2000 or earlier. The scheme has proved to be easy and safe for undocumented residents and the refusal rate has been almost zero. However, since the beginning of the legalisation scheme INAMI has only regularised 698 undocumented persons in Tijuana, mostly Central Americans, particularly from Guatemala and El Salvador.
The civic rights of documented international migrants are restricted under the Mexican Constitution, with two consequences for urban governance. First, the interests of legal international migrants are not represented in parliament or the local councils. In Mexico, they are considered as an issue primarily for the police or administrative services. In addition, international migrants currently do not represent a social problem in Tijuana, and therefore do not register on the local political agenda. The second consequence of migrants’ restricted status is that can obtain full civic rights only through naturalisation.
Urban policies for international migration
Although local government in Mexico is in a position to carry out social policies with regard to legal foreign migrants, the Tijuana municipality has not developed any such direct policy.
This does not mean that international migrants are left without any support, though. On the contrary, integration of migrants has never been hamstrung by local authorities or the community, for three main reasons. (1) Government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) alike run social support schemes aimed at Mexicans in such a way that foreign migrants benefit, too. (2) Local economic growth in the last decades has greatly facilitated migrant integration. (3) Local society is tolerant of foreigners since the city sits on the border and is comprised of immigrants.
The three levels of government - federal, state and local – contribute to migrant integration in two ways. Their social programmes directly assist the underprivileged they provide financial and other support to local NGOs assisting low-income families. Foreign migrants benefit from both types of public sector intervention in a variety of ways.
The public sector’s direct involvement with international migrants is limited. However, the municipal health system and the State and municipal assistance systems offer food, basic medical attention and information on social services to all low-income earners, including international migrants.
As for indirect involvement with foreign migrants, NGOs in Tijuana received 7.7 million pesos from the State government in 2003, and in 2004 64 NGOs received 3.1 million pesos from Tijuana city authorities.
Most NGOs assist poor residents and recently arrived migrants on a specialised basis. Of the 298 NGOs registered with the Tijuana authorities, 68 include international migrants among their target population. These institutions contribute to migrant integration in a variety of ways.
NGOs providing shelter, such as the Casa del Migrante (Migrant’s House) play an even larger role in the integration process, providing support along the migratory route and, for some, for settlement in Tijuana.
Employment is the other great facilitator for migrant integration in Tijuana. Foreign direct investment has been growing rapidly in the last decades and labour demand from local industry has been very high. It can take up to three months before employers check new workers’ status. For most migrants this is the formal space where they get integrated into the city. On the other hand, the informal sector also plays a significant integrative role. |
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