The American Dream is losing some of its most devoted fans: Mexicans. If Americans are now loath to go south of the border in case they contract swine flu, Mexicans increasingly don't want to go in the other direction for fear of catching unemployment. New figures showed last week that the number of Mexicans coming to the States has fallen by a quarter – a whopping 226,000 people – in a year. Some Americans won't be sorry, as more than half of Mexican immigrants are working here illegally. But the people who rely on them in their farms, kitchens and childcare equations will be horrified.
In good years, the US runs on Mexicans and so it's perhaps not entirely surprising that they tend to be regarded as a commodity. In New York, where Mexicans are now the fastest growing ethnic minority, they're hardly the most glittering example of the city's famed culture of economic opportunity, many still stuck in the menial jobs they've done for years. A prominent local Mexican recently called on New Yorkers to "look into the eyes of the people who are serving them, who are taking care of their children, who are delivering their food – look into their eyes and say, 'I see you'."
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