Mexican American history
Refer to pages 491-509 in Latino/a Thought by Vazquez. Answer question three on page 509 using the case of South or Central American immigrants. Mention in your answer why these groups have tended to avoid or delay becoming U.S. citizens. Be as specific as possible and include evidence from the lecture notes and the assigned reading.
Answer
Mexican American history
America receives thousands of immigrants every year, some of whom arrive in the country after escaping war and persecution from their home countries. Some of these immigrants are allowed to settle as refugees in the U.S., and others apply for asylum after they reach a U.S. border. The U.S. immigration process can be exceedingly hard to navigate, and this can take a while to wait for the application to be confirmed for one to become a citizen.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Central American population in the USA was tiny, comprising of a mixture of affluent individuals and low-skilled employees. However, in the post-1980s, there has been a large-scale and overwhelming Central American migration into the United States. This has been attributed majorly by economic challenges and political instability in the region.
The population of Central American immigrants began their fast expansion in the late 1970s, when a sequence of civil wars shattered out in the region. These people included many in response to war repression and violence, Salvadorans and Guatemalans who were from rural areas with little formal education, fled the north. Many who left Nicaragua, by comparison, were mostly well-educated elites. The Reagan administration strongly discouraged Salvadorans and Guatemalans from applying for political asylum as part of its regional foreign policy: their approval rates were below three percent in 1984, compared to twelve percent for Nicaraguans, and far below the standards for Poles and Iranians.
Though they became recognized in the USA, the Central American immigrants have delayed becoming U.S citizens because they were less probable to be naturalized citizens than the total foreign-born population, partly because of the large presence of TPS benefactors and unapproved persons ineligible for US citizenship.
