Very few countries matter to each other as Mexico and the United States yet, they do understand each other so weakly. They are very close to each other but they seem so distant in many things they do. The two countries have grown increasingly reliant on one another over the past years. There have been foreign relations between Mexico and United States for a very long time. In addition, they share a maritime and land border in North America (Dominguez and Fernandez de Castro, 2009). The two nations have accomplished several treaties multilaterally for example NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement), bilaterally, the Gadsden Purchase. The US and Mexico are members of different international organizations including the United Nations and the Organization of America States. In addition, Mexico and the US have close economic ties being each others third and first largest trading partners respectively. Furthermore, Mexico and the United States are also closely connected demographically with over millions of Mexicans who migrated to the US living in the US and over one million of American citizens living in Mexico. The main area of contention between Mexico and the United States’ bilateral relations has remained to be Mexican migration to the US since the 1920s especially after the Mexican War. Despite the US imposing restrictions on Mexicans migration, Mexico remains to be the leading country of illegal and legal migration to the United States. America has made their legislations more restrictive due to a concern for the high level of Mexican immigration.
The relationship between the United States and Mexico has always been turbulent. However, the United States helped Mexico attain its independence and overthrowing of Maximilian, nevertheless, it annexed half of Mexico’s territory after the Mexican American war. The most dramatic event in the historical relation between Mexico and the United States took place from 1846 to 1848 known as the Mexican War or to the Mexicans, the US invasion. The US was able to annex Mexico’s land and consider it its own. This is where a great instability began between the two states as many Mexicans migrated back there since they considered it their land. Other main causes of the turbulence between the US and Mexico are; illegal trade of drugs, illegal immigration and illegal trade and ownership of firearms. The United States and Mexico never agreed after the Mexican War as Mexico felt that its land was taken away by the United States.
The United States is relatively known for their proactive stance on the war on drugs, terror and on fire arms. The US has taken an active stance on the issue compared to Mexico. Mexico’s view on war on terror and drug is very different to that of the United States. The United States is affected by the arms trafficking to Mexico because it hurts and delays their efforts in the War on Drugs. About 90% of the drugs departing from Mexico are consumed in the United States by its citizens (Weintraub, 2010). There are 35 million people within the United States that abuse legal drugs and it is because they come easily to the country from Mexico across the borders. It is this arms and drugs cartels that damages the good health and relationship within the United States and Mexico. Mexico has allowed the drug trade to thrive as it has remained the main source of drugs entry in the United States. Therefore, Mexico and the US have varying views on the issue and this brings confusion among the states.
Even though Mexico and the United States are neighboring countries and part of the same continent, they have varying differences in their culture. They share a common border and despite their physical proximity there is a lot of dissimilarity in their beliefs, culture, traditions and social norms and conduct (Gorrill, 2005). In the United States, Americans give a lot of importance to their profession more than family. Both men and women have a professional life and so their children are brought up with minimal parental care but in an independent manner. Children only meet up their parents and spend time with them on special occasions because their parents are very busy with work. Comparably, Mexicans see family in a different perspective, to them, family comes first and their profession second. This is the main difference between the Americans and Mexicans. In Mexico, men work to fend for their families as women stay home to take care of their children and domestic chores. Children in Mexico are brought up with a lot of attention and parental care. Mexicans see Americans as people who are always busy and never pay attention to their children and so, they consider them as not loving. Moreover, Mexicans value their children a lot and cannot allow them to drive or drink before the age of 18 years. Americans live a life that is different from the Mexicans, many American children start drinking and driving at the age of 16 since they are always left to take care of them selves and this force them to do things on their own. As for education, Mexico sees the United States as having a higher standard of education compared to them. The standard of education in Mexico is a little bit lower compared to that of the United States and that is why, many elite Mexicans take their children to study in the United States since they rate their education as standard and above average.
In religion, the United States is a secular nation where every citizen has equal rights regardless of their faith. While 80.2 percent of Americans are Christians, a considerable number are practicing different faiths such as Buddhism, Islam. Hinduism and Judaism and there are the latter day saints. Christianity seems to be the main religion in the US since a good number is Christians. In Mexico, there is no official religion however Roman Catholicism is regarded as the main religion with 82.7 percent of its population. The difference between the two is that Mexicans are very religious and never consider Americans as religious.
On drug cartels, Mexicans believe that their government is doing its best on the campaign against drug traffickers. However, a sizeable number has confidence in the United States and are supporting them in cooperating with Mexico in the fight against drug cartels. They welcome the US to assist in training their Mexican police on how to deal with drug barons. Most Mexicans are blaming the United States and their own country for failing to stop drug violence in Mexico and a good number insist that the US is highly to blame.
In the United States and Mexico, time and punctuality have a different meaning. The people of the United States live by the clock since punctuality and timeliness are very important to them. Mexicans do take their time while doing something and they do not consider it to be more important so long as what should be done is done. This idea makes Mexico view the United States as dictators since they always have rigid plans and they are never flexible with them. In addition, there is a major difference between American and Mexican culture when it comes to status. Americans value status a lot and this makes them treat other people badly. Status is based on income level in the United States and that is many Mexicans are always against them because, Americans do undermine them especially when they work for them. This has created a lot of negative attitude of Mexicans towards Americans. In Mexico, status is put on a person’s title other than what they earn since they all believe they are hard working and show respect even to the people who work for them.
On security, Mexico considers itself to be safer than many cities in the United States. Most Mexicans in the United States feel unsafe visiting popular US cities but Americans feel very safe while visiting Mexico and that is why they spend most of their vacations there frequently. Mexicans see the United States as a state full of gang groups and unsafe to walk on some popular streets. Mexico also has some cities that are insecure but their take is that the United States streets are unsafe to walk on compared to Mexican streets. Security on the streets is a major issue in the United States compared to Mexico.
The history of Mexican Americans extends for over a hundred years in the US and has continued to play a vital role in the evolution and growth in America. According to a national opinion survey in Mexico that was conducted in March 2013, it is indicated that 66% of Mexicans have a favorable opinion over the United States which is up from 56 percent of 2012 (Adams, 2006). This means that as years go by, Mexican’s attitude towards the US is improving from how it was in the past years. Mexicans had no confidence in the US especially when they were forced to work for low wages after migrating to the US, a land that they once owned. The United States invaded Mexico and took away a part of its land and this has never died in the hearts of Mexicans. However, as much as there is an increase in the statistics of the Mexicans confidence in the United States, still a good number do not have confidence in Obama in dealing with world affairs. In addition, Mexico now believes that the US takes into account their country’s interests when dealing with international policy. A survey done in 2012 indicates that, 56 percent were dissatisfied with the US and argued that the United States does not take into account Mexico’s interests and only 40% agreed that it does (Camarota, 2009). It means that their confidence in the United States has increased in 2013 but initially, they never had confidence in the US.
In addition, overall 70% of Mexicans believe that deep economic ties between the two countries, the United States and Mexico will be good for Mexico. This is because; it will deeply deepen their economic and commercial relations (Camarota, 2009). When most Mexicans are asked if the US is having a positive impact on their economic condition, they have mixed views. One third argues that, it has a positive impact while 28% think that the United States is having a bad impact on the economy of their country.
Around 11 million Mexicans live in the United States and about 6 million migrated and are living there illegally. Most Mexicans have varying views on this as some feel that it is their right for many of them to live in the US because part of their land was taken by the US while others, around 44% feel that, it is not a good idea for Mexicans to live illegally in the US. About 61 percent of Mexicans argue that they cannot live or migrate to the US even if given an opportunity since they do not like the United States (Camarota, 2009). Conversely a sizable minority of about 35 percent say, they would move to the US is given an opportunity and even without authorization. Mexican’s attitude towards the United States varies as some think living in the United States is cool and those already there are leading a better life. Furthermore, a good number of those living in the United States articulate that life is better and they have achieved their goals. On the other hand, a minority argue that life in the United States is worse and many of their friends and families who went to the US came back home because they could not find any work to do and even detained for immigration reasons.
Mexicans and Americans are neighbors and have different views about each other. For Americans, they have a favorable view about their neighbors compared to Mexicans who have a lower opinion of their neighbors. Mexico sees the United States as an exploiter in gaining its wealth. They argue that they exploit other people’s wealth in order to get rich and a minority feels that America gets its wealth due to it being a free country with lots of employment opportunities. Generally, Mexicans have a negative view on Americans while they do have more positive views on them (Dominguez and Fernandez de Castro, 2009). Mexicans believe that, they are very hardworking and America views them as hardworking too since many of the illegal Mexican immigrants do work for Americans.
Mexico is the most populated and industrialized of the third world nations but it remains impoverished in comparison to the United States. It plays an important role as an exporter of petroleum and a pivotal role in the politics of both the US and Mexico yet, it is still treated with neglect and misunderstanding with the United States. This is the reason as to why Mexico and its people are against the United States influence and its investments in their country. They view the United States as an exploiter and a problematic source while other countries view the US as a protectorate and a blessing. Mexicans do not completely trust the United States and Mexico has learnt to prosper from their position and not fight for it. Mexico is doing its best to handle its issues especially with drugs and arms without the help from the United States because they believe they can, despite a minority supporting the United States help. The US never viewed Mexico as a strong partner and it is only recent that it started viewing Mexico with profound respect and interest yet still, many Mexicans still view the US negatively. Their relationship is at least growing as times passes by as Mexico is one of the United States main trading partners with internationally exported products including tourism and oil. The relationship between Mexico and the United States has been turbulent but it is improving as years pass by.
References
Camarota, S. A. (2009). Public Opinion in Mexico on U.S. Immigration: Zogby Poll Examines Attitudes -http://cis.org/ZogbyPoll-EffectsOfAmnesty
Gorrill, J (2005). Doing Business in Mexico/ Mexican Social and Business Culture. Communicaid Global Communication, Retrieved from http://www.communicaid.com/mexican-business-culture.asp
Weintraub, S. (2010). Unequal Partners: The United States and Mexico. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Adams, J. A. (2006). Bordering the Future: The Impact of Mexico on the United States. New York: Praeger Press.
Dominguez, J. I and Fernandez de Castro, F. (2009). The United States and Mexico: Between Partnership and Conflict. New York: Routledge.
