Living in Mexico City, I took a walk recently to a nearby park in an area called Ajusco.
Given it’s been a week since I had a drink, I figured to have a nice night and buy some liquor at the nearby OXXO.
While normally I would go for the cheapest vodka, I didn’t really need to as I hadn’t been drinking as much and had extra cash for nicer liquor.
Well, nicer than Oso Negro or Tonayan.
Sorry Black Bear, my friend – another day we will see each other.
So I stood in line for some rum instead.
Standing in front of me was a line of people with the person by the counter wanting to send money.
As a side point, this is always my luck, no?
I can’t go to one fucking OXXO without someone standing in front of me wanting to send money.
These cocksuckers always take a year and a half to get the numbers out and send the money.
I wish for a day where I can walk into OXXO, grab what I need, pay and walk the fuck out without waiting forever because some midget 5’6 Mexican dude needs to send money to mistress to stomp his balls later in the night.
But, given this is Mexico, one can not expect less!
So I waited.
The person eventually sent the money and went out the door.
Then the person in front of me – a skinny young male – put his beer on the counter to purchase.
He wanted cigarettes too.
Unfortunately, the worker behind the counter had difficulty at first understanding the brand of cigarettes he wanted.
The dude kept repeating the name of the brand and the worker behind the counter – a very black looking dude – kept pointing at each brand until he got it right.
Then he scanned the item.
The young man in front of me paid.
Then, as he had his purchased items in hand and right before leaving, he said something along the lines of “hablas español, verdad?”
“You speak Spanish, true?”
The worker gave him a blank look.
At that point, the young man carried on saying more shit under his breath about the dude.
I didn’t catch it what he said but I at least heard the word “pendejo.”
Something something pendejo something something.
Clearly not a fan of the worker who sold him the beer and cigarettes!
Life went on.
Now it was my turn.
I told the dude what I wanted.
Well, I had to point at what I wanted.
Got it easy enough.
During the interaction, it was semi-clear to me that this dude wasn’t Mexican.
What was he?
I have no idea.
But, given he is black and seemingly with limited Spanish skills, I can only assume he is Haitian.
That’s my best guess anyhow.
I genuinely have no idea but that would be what I would guess.
Given how many Haitians tend to be pretty black looking and all of the Haitians that have entered the country stuck and needing work to make ends meet…
Sure, he might be Haitian.
Definitely not Mexican anyhow.
And in the neighborhood next to Ajusco – Pedregal de Santo Domingo – you got plenty of Haitians and Jamaicans running around as I wrote here.
So your guess is as good as mine.
Either way, seeing someone bitch at the dude about his seemingly lack of Spanish skills (and possibly other issues that guy might’ve had with the worker) was not unexpected.
To put it simply, I’ve heard plenty of criticisms that Mexicans have about these folks.
The usual complaints being that “they are violent” and “they steal jobs.”
This true?
Don’t Believe the Hype?
Is the hype all bullshit?
Well, I can’t say if they are violent or not.
Haven’t seen any evidence of that in real life nor have I seen any of that online.
So I’ll leave that one alone.
But stealing jobs?
Well, to be fair, the job that this Haitian dude was occupying could have, in theory, been given to a Mexican.
In fact, other folks say the same in other cases where Haitians take local jobs as you can see in these screenshots here.
"Ahora entiendo a Estados Unidos"
Long story short, the same company that owns OXXO hired a bunch of Haitians recently.
Not sure if that dude I saw was part of the same group of Haitians hired or even if he was Haitian or not.
Still, as you can see in the comments, various folks starting bitching about how “they’re stealing our jobs!”
Or how “why not hire a Mexican first?”
A sentiment along those lines.
And, truth be told, I’ve heard this sentiment before among others as I’ve said over the last year or so.
Given many of these Haitians have come from Chile (and other countries?), I wondered if the same idea was expressed elsewhere.
So I looked online.
Well, as you can read here, supposedly 38% of Chileans think that migrants steal jobs in their country.
Of course, not all migrants in Chile were Haitians but they were part of the same group that Chileans were bitching about, I imagine.
Though, being fair to the Haitians in Chile, apparently many were put into forced labor as you can read here.
And it’s not just Chile!
As you can read here, many Haitians fled to Brazil initially in search of jobs and, similar to people saying that immigrants do jobs that locals don’t want to do in the US, this might be the case also in Brazil?
““We were experiencing a decline in our work force because so many Brazilians are going to work at the two hydroelectric projects,” said Ana Terezinha Carvalho, the personnel management analyst at Marquise, a company in Porto Velho. The city lies in the upper Amazon River Basin, where Brazil is employing thousands to build two big dams, called Jirau and Santo Antônio.
Ms. Carvalho said her company quickly hired 37 Haitians who arrived last year, to collect trash in Porto Velho and take it to the city’s landfill. Some make more than $800 a month, in a job that includes benefits like health insurance, overtime and paid holidays. “There weren’t enough Brazilians, so we were happy to hire the Haitians,” she said.”
However, as you can read here, plenty of Brazilians share the concerns of plenty of Chileans regarding the perceived impact of Haitians “stealing the jobs.”
“Las actitudes racistas, xenófobas y antinegritud también han obligado a la población haitiana a abandonar Brasil. En 2015, grupos de migrantes haitianos fueron baleados en São Paulo en dos ataques diferentes. 178 Los ataques parecían estar motivados en parte por la creencia de que los haitianos eran responsables de la crisis económica, ya que un atacante gritó: “¡Los haitianos nos roban el trabajo!”. 179 La afluencia de migrantes venezolanos en 2016 aumentó aún más las tensiones entre los brasileños nativos y las comunidades de inmigrantes.180 En marzo de 2018, un grupo de brasile- ños expulsó por la fuerza a los migrantes de un refugio improvisado en el estado de Roraima y quemó sus pertenencias.181 Los rumores de esos ataques xenófobos contra la población de Haití y otros migrantes crearon un clima de temor entre las comuni- dades haitianas.”
Still, as you can read here, many of these folks in both Chile and Brazil made their way eventually towards the US due to issues in both of the countries above (among other motivations).
As a result, many got stuck in the US.
And, as we have seen, some need jobs in Mexico now.
Over the last year and a half, this has been obvious to me as you would most commonly see Haitians working UBER Eats, Rappi, etc.
Now OXXO?
And some of the locals in Mexico, similar to those in Chile and Brazil, began bitching with authorities trying to stop the Haitians from continuing on in Mexico and finding work in other cities deeper into the country as thousands try crossing the border from Guatemala as you can read here.
“Un millar de migrantes originarios de Haití, todos con solicitud de asilo en trámite, emprendieron una caravana que este sábado salió de la ciudad de Tapachula, Chiapas. La mayoría busca llegar a ciudades de México donde obtener fuentes de empleo.
La decisión de salir de la ciudad la tomaron luego que la Comisión Mexicana de Ayuda a Refugiados (COMAR) no ha dado respuesta a sus solicitudes de refugio, un proceso que debería completarse en tres meses, y ahora tarda más de un año.
“Denos una oportunidad de salir, para poder circular y buscar cómo podemos trabajar para comer, porque hay que pagar casa, y hay personas que están viviendo en el parque, que tienen niñas y niñas”, pidieron los migrantes.
Ante este escenario, al amanecer de este sábado migrantes salieron de la ciudad en caravana; se les unieron migrantes de Centroamérica y algunos cubanos. Luego de avanzar unos 30 kilómetros, a la altura del municipio llamado Huehuetán, agentes de la Guardia Nacional (GN), del ejército mexicano, y del INM colocaron un cerco para impedir avanzar. En este operativo, interceptaron a unos 300 de ellos, y mediante el uso de la fuerza, los obligaron a subir autobuses para trasladarlos a la estación migratoria Siglo XXI.”
“They stealing our jobs!!!”
Final Thoughts
First and foremost, I think we can all agree that Haiti isn’t the nicest country to live in on the planet.
When it comes to situations where we help people from very rough backgrounds in other countries, it’s always been my opinion that the process worldwide isn’t very fair or well organized.
I never consider it OK for Colombia and Peru to do most of the heavy lifting to help Venezuelan immigrants.
Nor do I think that it’s fair for Turkey or Lebanon to do most of the heavy lifting for Syrian migrants.
And, many times over, I think it’s bullshit that so much of the world bitches at the US for having a border policy (but yet still takes in more immigrants than most countries on a total number basis) while most of the world does jack shit relatively speaking to help migrants or take in immigrants.
“According to the United Nations, the ten countries with the highest foreign-born (immigrant) populations are:
United States (48.2 million)
Russia (11.6 million)
Saudi Arabia (10.8 million)
Germany (10.2 million)
United Kingdom (8.4 million)
United Arab Emirates (8.0 million)
France (7.9 million)
Canada (7.6 million)
Australia (6.7 million)
Spain (5.9 million)”
Having said that, I also think too that this example of Haitians coming over to Mexico (among other Latin countries before they arrived to Mexico) is a good example too of two things.
For one, it shows the changing immigrant dynamic that can be seen in the country where you do slowly see more Haitian influence in the neighborhoods down here as I wrote more about here for example where I have seen more Haitian influence in the neighborhoods I’ve lived in.
But also it shows, for those who are not familiar with life outside the US, how countries like Mexico can have their own migrant situation to address.
Finally, it’s an issue I laugh at also.
I can’t help but laugh at the situation.
While I have no judgement against the Haitians and hope that they find the best that they can in life for their situation, it’s more of a comical situation to laugh at the Mexicans bitching about them taking their jobs.
What happened, amiguitos?
For all my life, you Mexican folks been bitching about how the US deports Mexicans and can’t believe that we complain about you all stealing our jobs…
Then, when you’re put in the hot seat, you all bitch about migrant stealing your jobs!
What the fuck!
A bit hypocritical much?
Personally, I see it as a “taste of your own medicine.”
You all bitch about the US wanting to protect its borders but now you all shit yourselves when your borders are violated.
Suck it.
In short, it reminds me of this article I wrote here over a year ago.
In which you see many times over how Latin Americans will see injustive when the US deports undocumented Latino immigrants but yet their own countries deport undocumented Latino immigrants.
Be it the Chileans who hate the Colombians.
The Colombians who bitch about Venezuelans (or any country in Latin America that bitches about them as they’re all over the place).
The Costa Ricans who bitch about Nicaraguans.
The Dominicans (and Mexicans, Chileans, Brazilians, etc) who bitch about Haitians.
Or the Mexicans who bitch about Central Americans from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, etc.
The Argentines who bitch about Bolivians.
Or the Chileans who bitch about Bolivians!
So on and so on.
In short, all of this really does nothing more than to expose the hyprosisy, for a second time, that many Latin Americans (though not all) carry when they simultaneously bitch about the US enforcing its border policy but yet want a border policy for their own country.
NOT IN MY BACKYARD!!!!
George Carlin -- not in my backyard
Personally, I don’t mind the Mexicans working in the US or the Haitians working in Mexico.
But it is entertaining to see the Mexicans put in the hot seat and how they react when a situation of a much smaller scale happens to them.
And I say “a much smaller scale” because there’s about 4.9 million undocumented Mexican immigrants in the US as you can read here versus the 71,599 Haitians in Mexico as you can read here (in which not all of those are illegal).
Man, if Mexico is shitting itself so much over whatever pitiful amount of illegal immigrants it has compared to the US, I can’t imagine what their reaction would be if it had to take on what the US does.
Can we call Mexico racist yet for being just so xenophobic to people taking their jobs?
Well shit…
Someone beat me to it here!
“This article aims at analyzing the discourse Internet users hold against Haitian migrants in Mexico. Based on / Using 277 comments published between 2016 and 2018 and approximately 24 news reports regarding Haitian migration -in transit or in search of settling in Mexican territory- disseminated through the digital version/edition of El Universal newspaper, the article analyzes the discourse mechanisms operating in anti-migrant interventions. The xenophobic comments -several of which are also of a racist nature- outstandingly construct Haitian migrants as a multidimensional threat who live at the expense of public funds/money.”
But, to end it on a more positive note, obviously not every Mexican is against helping out the Haitians as you can see here.
Many do support them like how there’s plenty of people who support immigrants in the US.
Many do anyhow....
Anyway, I’ll leave it at that.
Leave any comments below in the comment section.
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Thanks for reading.
Best regards,
Matt