Recently, immigration to the United States has been a hot topic in politics. With former President Obama deporting the most immigrants in history (Main) (Murphy 4-24-18) and President Trump’s intentions to slash DACA leading to the deportation of even more immigrants, it begs the question: why do immigrants choose to come to the United States in the first place? In the case of those who emigrated from the Latin Americas, factors of violence and neoliberalism catapulted their countries into immense instability and polarized class inequalities causing them to leave for the more stable shores of America (Main) (Murphy 4-17-18). Government policies tried to control this mass exodus, but other policies have instead unintentionally raise immigration
…show more content…
Neoliberalist reform was most prevalent in Chile during the right-wing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. With the counsel of the Chicago Boys, a group of American trained economists, the movement of a laissez-faire, neoliberalist economy in Latin America spurred forth. While it did push Chile into some economic growth, there were many unforeseen downsides to the reforms. Of these downsides came intense boom and bust cycles; one economic bust was the largest since the Great Depression (Murphy 4-17-18). Although this was anticipated by the Chicago Boys and the government, the extent of the recession was much more extreme than initially intended. Furthermore, by the late 1990s, the wealth disparity had grown so rapidly that the region (Latin America) was reporting the biggest income gaps in the world between the rich and poor (Gonzales 250). These moments of severe recession and immense class inequality were caused by the neoliberal reforms; Latin Americans suffering from the disparities caused by the reforms sought a better life by immigrating to America. Policies such as the Caribbean Basin Initiative and the creation of more Free Trade Zones further developed the move of Latin American countries toward a more laissez-faire market. However, no free trade policy rivaled the impact on emigration more than
Neoliberalist reform was most prevalent in Chile during the right-wing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. With the counsel of the Chicago Boys, a group of American trained economists, the movement of a laissez-faire, neoliberalist economy in Latin America spurred forth. While it did push Chile into some economic growth, there were many unforeseen downsides to the reforms. Of these downsides came intense boom and bust cycles; one economic bust was the largest since the Great Depression (Murphy 4-17-18). Although this was anticipated by the Chicago Boys and the government, the extent of the recession was much more extreme than initially intended. Furthermore, by the late 1990s, the wealth disparity had grown so rapidly that the region (Latin America) was reporting the biggest income gaps in the world between the rich and poor (Gonzales 250). These moments of severe recession and immense class inequality were caused by the neoliberal reforms; Latin Americans suffering from the disparities caused by the reforms sought a better life by immigrating to America. Policies such as the Caribbean Basin Initiative and the creation of more Free Trade Zones further developed the move of Latin American countries toward a more laissez-faire market. However, no free trade policy rivaled the impact on emigration more than