The Repatriation of Mexicans during the 1930
Waldorf College
BUS 4000- Organization Diversity Inclusions

ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the repatriation of Mexicans during the 1930s. President Herbert Hoover authorized a program between 1929 and 1939, were many Mexican Americans were repatriated to Mexico. The purpose was to free up jobs during the Depression. There is an estimate of 500,000 to 2 million Mexicans that were repatriated during the Great Depression. This paper will explore the states most affected by the repatriation as well as the impact it had on the U.S. and Mexican economy.

The Repatriation of Mexicans during the 1930s Mexican Americans were hit extremely hard in The Great Depression of the 1930s. They were faced with being deported due to the job crisis and food shortages that affected all U.S. workers. As unemployment swept the U.S., hostility to immigrant workers grew, and the government began a program of repatriating immigrants to Mexico (Depression and the Struggle for Survival). Police and other authorities forced some to go but others left voluntarily. Many that were repatriated had never even been to Mexico and many of those deported to Mexico were American citizens born in the U.S. In a shameful episode in the nation's history, more than 400,000 were sent across the U.S.-Mexico border from Arizona, California, and Texas. President Hoover found himself on the defensive from labor unions. To appease them, he told Secretary of State William Doak to figure out a way to rid the country of its immigrant population with the belief that this would open jobs for unemployed Americans. William Doak stated that, if the immigrants were gone, the employment problem would end (Bridges, 2011). From LA the raids and ensuing deportations diffused across the country; along with them the repatriation movement spread. These two actions had the same goal: to rid the country of unwanted Mexicans regardless of their actual citizenship status. The repatriation process was viewed as a way to move people back to Mexico legally as quickly as possible. The justification was that it would save the government money in the long run to ship all Mexicans home (Bridges, 2011). Mexicans began large-scale migration to the United States again during World War II. Mexicans often did not speak of the repatriation, but continued to distrust police and government authorities. Some purposely did not speak Spanish to help avoid identification and did not pass on the language to their offspring (Bell,2012). The states most affected by the repatriation were Arizona, Texas and California. Although more work has been written on California than other states, statistics show that Texas had a larger number of repatriates than California during the depression. While 52,946 were repatriated from California, 132,639 were repatriated from Texas. Over half of the total U.S. repatriates came from Texas (What Historians Have to Say). The reasons for repatriation are not clear but historians tend to agree that as times turned bad during the depression, Mexicans were among the first to be dismissed from their jobs. Thus, repatriation was a cheap, effective way of reducing the suddenly bloated, idle workforce. Mexican immigrants who had lost their jobs were returned home in significant numbers. This successful remedy for getting rid of unwanted workers would not be forgotten. The repatriation was quite a cynical and severe way to fight the economic recession, which has left a terrible trace on the destinies of many families (What Historians Have to Say).
References
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