By the turn of the twentieth century, many Americans had began to view the immigration of Mexicans as an intrusion and a danger to their established ways of life. Many North Americans saw themselves as being to civilized and educated to perform the unskilled labor provided by the displaced Mexicans during the large-scale immigration. Many politicians and other men of the U.S. government as well in the twenty-first century accepted this notion. Some citizens of the United States recognize the issue of illegal immigration as an American problem. As demonstrated in this paper, that there is no single catalyst of immigration but there is the existence of numerous problems in both the country of origin and the receiving country. On one side it may seem to be an American problem but Mexico was experiencing a time of tumultuous economic movement and weakness when compared to the United States.[1] Nevertheless both governments must remember that it will be a long and hard process i ... Read more ...

The attempts of industrialization by President Porfirio Diaz commencing in 1876 and more importantly, the large demand for labor that was a result of the expansion of international railroads fueled by the post-Westward Expansion of the United States, were the catalysts of the large-scale immigration of Mexican rural farmers between 1890 and 1920. The economic conditions of the United States and Mexico complemented each otherthe former with a labor shortage, the latter with labor abundanceso that the governments of the two countries encouraged the large-scale immigration of Mexicans into the United States. The immigration dubbed the Welcomed Mexican Invasion acknowledged the size of and the acceptance shown the labor that Mexican immigrants provided.

The immigrations had an opposite as well as equal impact in Mexico. President Diaz had economic problems of his own as a result of losing 1.5 million of the total population and probably more due to his industrious policies. As a result of the r ... Read more ...

The railroads had become an extremely essential commodity that allowed Mexican laborers to travel north cheaper and faster as well as the means to support new U.S. towns/cities and to expand trade to new markets. The developing towns along the border in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona utilized the railroad networks that were built cooperatively by Mexico and the United States. By the late 1920s Mexicans also constituted an estimated 75 percent of all unskilled construction workers in Texas.[1] The development of Mexican communities along the border was crucial to the development of the Southwest economy and the integration of Mexican and Chicanos[2] into mainstream American society. Without the construction of railroad networks that commenced in the 1870s and continued into the twentieth century the large-scale immigrations would have taken more time and may not have positively impacted or strengthened the southwestern economy. That the r ... Read more ...

The networks of railroads built both in Mexico and the United States at the beginning of the administration of Porfirio Diaz in 1876 to 1920 had lasting effects. Had the southwestern areas of the United States not been connected via the railroads to densely populated areas in Mexico where economic unrest abounded due to displaced campesinos and the implementation of haciendas, then it is possible that the economy of the southwest may not have grown at such rapid rates because the region would have lacked the large labor force filled by the displaced Mexican rural farmers.[1] Railroad distances in Mexico increased rapidly, In 1876 there had been only 691 kilometers [414 miles] built; by 1890 there were 8,948 [5368 miles], while in 1900 and 1911 there were 14,573 [8743 miles] and 24,717 kilometers respectfully [14830 miles].[2] Comparing a map of the Mexican Central Railway of May 1896 (Refer to ... Read more ...

economy grow at increasingly high rates. As a result of the number of Mexicans that used the railroads to enter and work in the United States, first on a seasonal then ultimately a permanent basis, the southwestern present-day cities developed with a profound Mexican/Latino influence.

The inclination of the United States to increase its economic influence, in this case through expanding railroads in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, would ultimately alter the cultural and economic characteristics of the United States. Railroads both in the United States and Mexico transported Mexican immigrant laborers to the southwest. The connection between the railroads and Mexican labor not only resulted in economic growth but also the cultural incorporation of Latino culture into the never-ending melting pot of America. The capitalistic influences and actions of the United States on Mexico would eventually lead to relations both negative and positive. But at the time there was a genera ... Read more ...