Join WFP Southeast and the Student Action with Farmworkers on a Delegation to Oaxaca, Mexico!

Just immigration reform is one of the most important social justice issues facing our country. Economic inequalities, fueled by US free trade agreements, compel many Latin Americans to travel north. In 1994, the U.S., Mexico and Canada implemented the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Mexicans were told that increases in trade, foreign investment and exports would raise incomes and living standards. The agreement was supposed to reduce migration, create more and better jobs, and reduce prices for goods. These promises remain unfulfilled.

U.S.-subsidized agriculture enables American corn to be sold at prices 30 percent below Mexico’s cost of production. The influx of cheap subsidized grains under NAFTA has resulted in the loss of at least two million farming jobs. The jobs created by NAFTA to replace lost farming jobs are not sustainable. The average wage in Oaxaca is 7 pesos an hour - about half a dollar. In Oaxaca, one small chicken costs between 100 and 120 pesos – that’s 15 hours of work for one chicken.

Basic food necessities are almost unattainable for most Oaxacans. Since 1994, the cost of the basic food basket in Mexico has risen 60%. Since 2001, an estimated third of manufacturing jobs created in Mexico have been lost as companies move their production orders to countries with cheaper labor, such as China. The number of Mexicans migrating each year to the U.S. has more than doubled. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of immigrants living in North Carolina increased by 274 percent.

On this delegation you can expect to:

• Learn about the roots and realities of migration.
• Learn the impacts of U.S. and international policies on migration.
• Meet with migrants traveling north and those who have returned from the U.S.
• Meet with small scale and organic farmers, and visit a Zapotec women’s weaving cooperative.
• Meet with a Oaxacan state agency that provides legal and other services to migrants.
• Experience rural Mexican life and hospitality during a homestay.
• Learn the most effective ways to work for just immigration reform.

Download Delegation Flyer