Virginia Arreola: Connecting U.S. Foreign Policy to Latin American Migration

I use the film Harvest of Empire in my Intro to Global Studies course to highlight how globalization has impacted certain countries in the context of U.S. political and economic policies and their implementation. For example, the World Wars created worker shortages in the U.S., which prompted the creation of federal government programs to bring in workers from México and Puerto Rico; the impact of NAFTA on the Mexican economy and how that triggered immigration into the U.S. from México. For the most part, students are not aware of the history of U.S. intervention in Latin America.

I ask my students to reflect on the interconnection of our foreign policies, the economic and political stability of other countries, and the subsequent immigration of the people of these countries into the U.S. I include one of my student’s reflections on this:

Previous to this documentary, I wasn’t aware of the degree to which U.S. intervention has impacted Latin America, especially Nicaragua. I understood that there was a mass U.S. occupation within Latin America which exploited workers and the environment (such as sugar and other goods) but I wasn’t aware of the U.S. supporting terrible dictators for the sole purpose of economic greed. [T]he U.S. came into Nicaragua, used them for their resources and created several internal issues between the Nicaraguan government and the people, then left and turned their back and denied entry or U.S. citizenship to the Nicaraguan citizens fleeing high amounts of danger and violence. […] Thousands of Nicaraguan people seeking asylum and an opportunity to live in a safe nation were denied entry into the U.S. It’s fair to say that the U.S. has a moral obligation to help innocent Nicaraguans because the U.S. supported the chaos which caused them to leave.

—Virginia Arreola, college professor, Oneonta, New York