Immigration, Population, and Economic Growth in El Paso, Texas The Making of an American Maquiladora

By David Simcox
August 1993
Backgrounders and Reports

Executive Summary

El Paso, Texas, the nation's largest border city, has boasted unusually rapid growth in population, labor force and jobs since the 1970s — all hallmarks of progress in the growth-minded southwest. In the 1980s the city's economy created jobs 80 percent faster than did the U.S. economy. Yet El Paso Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), already one of the poorest among major cities, has gotten poorer relative to the rest of the country, with chronically higher unemployment and lower earnings. Poverty in the city is now more than twice the national average and average earnings a third below it.

This study looks for the reasons for the city's "growth without prosperity" in demographic factors, such as persistently high birth rates and rapid international migration, that shape the performance of the schools and the size and skills of the labor force and, in turn, the prevalence of low-wage labor-intensive industries.

Manufacturing employment in El Paso rose steadily in the 1970s and l980s while it was stagnating in the nation as a whole. Investment in industries that are declining nationally, such as apparel, leather, food processing, primary metals and miscellaneous manufactures, has flourished in El Paso's low-wage, non-union environment. The city's wholesale, retail and services sectors have also seen rapid job growth, much of it in low-wage, low skilled occupations, in part spurred by Mexican consumer demand.

(Posted by Alejandra Franco)

http://www.cis.org/ImmigrationInElPaso-LaborMarket

Juarez massacre may mark a turning for Mexico

The January killing of 15 young people has created a furor and left some wondering whether it's a tipping point, a moment when Mexicans overcame their fear and fatalism to confront the violence.

By Tracy Wilkinson

Reporting from Mexico City - The slaughter last month of at least 15 young people with no apparent criminal ties has galvanized the Mexican public in ways not seen here in more than three years of bloody drug warfare and has forced the government to enact long-resisted policy changes to combat violence.Some in Mexico are wondering whether this is their nation's tipping point, a moment when public outrage that has bubbled along finally overcomes the fear and fatalism that largely silenced or intimidated Mexican society.Led by parents of the victims in the Jan. 31 massacre, citizens of Ciudad Juarez have marched, protested, challenged Mexican President Felipe Calderon and demanded a new strategy for reducing the number of the gruesome crimes that have made their city one of the world's deadliest. Joining grieving parents in their wrath have been civic leaders, entrepreneurs, politicians, educators and priests.

More here

[Posted by Julia Martinez]