In the case of Mexican Americans, immigration laws have also contributed to their discrimination. During the course of 30 years, there have recently been laws passed that prohibit the entrance of undocumented Mexican immigrants into the United States. Not only has this created financial barriers for Mexican immigrants, it has also contributed to the increasing discrimination that they face. After the establishment of the Immigration Reform and Control Act, there was a report that discovered that numerous firms discriminated against citizens to guarantee the unemployment of undocumented workers. This eventually caused problems, therefore, the reform went through adjustments to guarantee a decrease in discrimination, however, discrimination was still reported even towards native born workers. Even recently there have been many negative stereotypes against undocumented immigrants. Many white Americans claim that immigrants steal potential jobs from Americans, create crime and exploit government services. Because of this preoccupation, proposition 187 was created in hopes to restrict access to public services. In addition, within the last 20 years, there has been a wide increase in security at the frontier. For example the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act was established to increase the number of border patrols and …show more content…
In order to identify the Mexican American/Hispanic community, the dominant group has began to collectively categorize them as a race. However, as addressed in earlier lessons, a race is a social construct that is categorized by the physical characteristics of a certain group. In comparison, an ethnic group is categorized by their culture or nationality. Due to the racialization that the dominant groups is trying to impose on the Mexican American community, many subordinate groups, including Mexican Americans, have found several way to resist this categorization. One way that Mexican Americans have resisted racialization is by insisting that they are “white”. By doing this, they are alienating themselves from their ethnic group but affirm a status of privilege and power. Another form of resistance is by categorizing themselves with an identity of their own. In the same way, they are claiming their own identity and are avoiding being categorized by the dominant group. Another option is to identify themselves as part of a multi-racial group. While some try to identify with the white end of the spectrum, others try to alienate themselves from it by categorizing as anything other than white. By doing this the Mexican American community is resisting racialization from the dominant group and maintaining their own ethnic and “racial”