How did a change in corn prices help push Mexican farmers toward work in the United States?

Trade policy helped turn some Mexican farmers into migrants by weakening their livelihoods while American employers still needed their labor. NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, allowed corn grown by subsidized U.S. farmers to enter Mexico. Those subsidies, government payments to producers, helped make imported corn cheaper than locally grown corn. Takaki describes the result: “This bankrupted 1.5 million Mexican farmers” (YPT 331). This says many Mexican farmers lost the ability to keep their farms financially viable. It shows how a policy governing trade could change whether families could survive by continuing their existing work. Because bankruptcy destroyed livelihoods, migration could become a response to economic displacement rather than a freely chosen adventure. However, the story also requires an explanation of why people headed north. Takaki writes, “Without Mexican labor, many farmers and fruit growers cannot harvest their crops” (YPT 332). This says American agriculture depended on workers from Mexico to bring crops to market. It shows that the country restricting migrants at its border also contained employers who needed their work. Labor demand therefore pulled people toward opportunities after lost income pushed them from their farms. This illustrates the Key Idea that Economic forces drive history. Government-backed price competition and employers’ need for workers connected the loss of one livelihood to the search for another across a national border. To explain this migration, we must examine the rules and jobs shaping people’s choices as well as their individual decisions.