Mexican Workers Case Study

Question 5: Mexican workers are usually the most economically and politically oppressed out of most ethnic categories. As stated in earlier responses, since the expansion of capitalism and industrialization, Mexican workers were preferred to work the low wage, high demanding jobs. Currently, this is often still the case. Due to their immigrant status and their lack of documentation, it is easy to take advantage of Mexican immigrants because they produce cheap labor and can easily be replaced. Even since the late 1900s, Mexican workers were discriminated by being paid less than whites. In fact, Mexican workers were left in low wage positions for a lengthy period of time. Even after President Roosevelt had established an anti-discrimination

Some of these factors are the continuing discrimination in the workplace, low paying jobs and level of education. As addressed in previous responses, the amount of discrimination shown toward the working class of Mexican Americans makes it difficult to find stability in the workplace, often creating income inequality. In contrast to European Americans, Mexican workers are often pursued for their low wage and rarely pursue high skilled jobs. In the case of European Americans, they are often paid higher and have a greater opportunity in pursuing better job opportunities. Not only are Mexican Americans affected by the discrimination in the workplace, they are also affected by the level of education that they have access to. On average, white families have the means to afford higher levels of education, while working Mexican American families who are paid with low wages might not be able to afford the same quality of education. Because of the need for money, the is a cycle that is difficult to break out of. Education makes a difference between family incomes because a good education is often needed to pursue high paying jobs, however if one does not have the money to pursue a higher level education, one had to work instead to pursue a living. Because of this, Mexican American families are seen in the unfortunate situation of having to work instead of pursuing an education that could eventually lead them towards more financial stability. This is why it can be an unbreakable cycle: many Mexican American students had a higher drop-out rate than white students because of the need for money. Due to the need for financial stability, students would drop out, start a low paying job and when the next generation arrived, the cycle would repeat. Of course, this is not always the case, since currently much of the Mexican American aim to receive a higher education in hopes