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The United States has long been a destination of choice for the dispossessed. Despite intense efforts over the years to guard its boundaries, the U.S. has barely slowed the tide of illegal immigration, particularly along its lengthy border with Mexico. And a look at America's growing vulnerability to ecomigration provides a telling glimpse of what is rapidly becoming a global predicament. Most people think of the Mexican exodus as economic fallout--a product of peso crashes and grinding recessions. But the problem goes much deeper than that. Mexico's government estimates that some 900,000 people a year are forced off the land by desertification, as erosion and overuse of fields renders them unfit for farming. These displaced citizens must compete for jobs with an additional 950,000 young Mexicans who enter the labor market each year as a result of population growth. The situation feeds on itself because Mexico's land scarcity forces the government to allow farmers to work vulnerable fields, which then leads to more desertification. Michelle Leighton Schwartz, co-founder of San Francisco's Natural Heritage Institute, sees bleak prospects: "Population and political pressures will continue to force Mexicans to destroy croplands. There are just too many poor Mexicans and not enough land." |