Mexican American

The ethnonym Mexican American describes United States citizens of Mexican ancestry (14 million in 2003) and Mexican citizens who reside in the US (10 million in 2003). According to the Pew Hispanic Center, in mid 2001, 4.5 million Mexicans were residing illegally in the United States. Mexican Americans account for 64% of the Hispanic or Latino population of the United States. Settlement concentration is mostly in the Southwestern part of the United States, however, there are isolated concentration of Mexican-Americans near the Chicago area and in mostly rural areas in Florida and North Carolina.

Economic issues

The American economy has long needed service workers, manufacturing workers, farm laborers, and skilled artisans. Mexican workers have usually met those demands for cheap labor. However, fear of detection and deportation keep many illegal immigrant workers from taking advantage of social welfare programs as well as interaction with public authorities and makes them highly vulnerable to exploitation by employers. Some employers, however, over the last decade, have developed a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude, indicating a greater comfort or casual approach toward hiring ethnic Mexican residents.

Related Topics:
American economy - Service workers - Manufacturing workers - Farm laborers - Artisans - Deportation - Illegal immigrant - Social welfare

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In U.S. states where Mexican Americans make up a significant percentage of the population, such as California and Texas, Mexican Americans almost exclusively occupy most blue-collar occupations, such as restaurant workers, janitors, truck drivers, gardeners, construction laborers, material moving workers, and other manual labor. In many of these places with large Latino populations, blue-collar workers are often assumed to be Mexican Americans because of their dominance in those occupations. Occasionally, tensions have risen up between Mexican immigrants and other ethnic groups because of increasing concerns over the availability of working-class jobs to non-Hispanic ethnic groups. However, oftentimes, economists feel that Mexican-American laborers are actually taking jobs that most other people are not looking for and are satisfying a growing demand for cheap manual labor.

Related Topics:
California - Texas - Blue-collar - Latino

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