Global Policy Forum

by James F. Smith

It is the flimsiest of greenhouses, just sheets of plastic wrapped over a simple frame of two-by-fours to protect the chrysanthemum seedlings sprouting inside. But this community flower-growing venture and other initiatives like it in southern Mexico could help slow the massive illegal migration to the United States. The goal is to provide Mexican peasants with good jobs so they can afford to stay home.

With the help of Mexican and U.S. academics and foundations, 41 village families here have tried for two years to earn at least part of their living from the greenhouse soil. The results so far have been meager: The first year, there was a tiny profit, but then insects and plant disease hurt subsequent crops. The serious problems the group has faced in this village in the state of Oaxaca illustrate the obstacles confronting such development efforts. It's not hard to see why half the population of 1,600, including most of the men, has migrated to San Diego County for comparatively well-paying jobs.

A 50-mile drive to another Oaxacan town finds peasant farmers-turned-artisans practicing a more individual brand of capitalism, and with more financial success. Some are earning enough from hand-woven wool carpets that they don't feel they must return to the U.S. Yet the weaving villages of the Central Valley still lack effective marketing. So they often sell their handiwork to retailers in the nearby carpet center of Teotitlan del Valle at cut-rate wholesale prices.

These contrasting approaches to job creation in one of Mexico's most migration-prone regions are both financed in part by money from migrants living in the United States. For years, migrants' money has provided the financial backbone for these families--and it usually was spent on basic needs, or on street light and sewer projects. The goal now is to transform this financing into a larger investment to provide opportunities for youths who would otherwise migrate. The various attempts in Oaxaca suggest that it won't be easy but that it can be done if the people are allowed to shape their own ventures.

Raul Hinojosa, who runs UCLA's North American Integration and Development Center, said the support of migrants from El Trapiche who live in San Diego and work there in flower fields will be critical for the flower-growing effort to succeed here. Hinojosa has devised a two-year project to provide technical input and training for the co-op members that draws on the migrants' finances and knowledge. The association of El Trapiche migrants in San Diego gave a portion of the $5,000 initial investment in the greenhouse. Another chunk of financing came from the Mexican government's community development fund. But technical support is now more important than money. So the town's migrant club has agreed to put up one-third of the additional $60,000 needed during the next two years, most of it earmarked for training. In the past, few of these clubs have tried to build profit-driven enterprises back home.

"If there is ever going to be any stabilization of the migration process, it is through this kind of development," Hinojosa said. "The big question we're asking is: Is there a point where you can launch big-scale, sustainable job-creation projects?" Hinojosa is monitoring 30 such projects in the states of Zacatecas, Jalisco and Oaxaca, trying to identify pitfalls and workable models.

Elsa Payo Gomez, the leader of the greenhouse cooperative, said most of the members are older than 50. Nearly all are women whose men are in the United States. She said she hopes to build three more greenhouses so that rotating harvests are available for constant delivery to nearby markets. Now, the greenhouse's mums all flower at once, so there is a spurt of income and then none until the next harvest.

Juan Hernandez, head of President Vicente Fox's office for Mexicans abroad, said the greenhouse project "is an example of what can be done. We want to find models that work. . . These microbusinesses create 10, 20, 40 jobs, and they add up. We can surprise all of Mexico with what we can do here." Hinojosa added: "You are teaching us what needs to be done. People go north because there is nothing they can do at home. So you are giving us great ideas so that people can stay home."

Co-op member Placida Castillo, 62, said fewer people have been migrating recently in part "because we all hope that this project will create more opportunities here." The government financing agency recommended that the community plant mums, but the co-op members want to switch to hardier gladioli, which are easier to produce yet sell for just as much. Rafael Reyes, a migration expert at the Oaxaca Technological Institute, said the communities have effective ways of generating cash that should be encouraged and extended--especially those that rely on individual initiative. "We should ask, 'If we lend you money, what would you do with it?' " Reyes said.

He cited the carpet-producing villages of Oaxaca as prime examples of high-quality, locally driven entrepreneurship that needs greater marketing and sales support. To expand the greenhouse initiative, the co-op and its supporters found a nongovernmental community group in nearby Zimatlan that knows the flower industry. Under the two-year plan, that group will provide technical support. The problems are daunting. The women lost money over the first two years paying for fertilizer and other inputs, and they struggled to penetrate the Oaxaca city flower market. Now the women want the project restructured for any additional greenhouses, so that they earn a $5 daily cash wage.

Cornelio Flores, a former migrant who came back to help run the greenhouse, hopes the co-op can raise the quality of the flowers. Then, "instead of having to leave, the men could come home and work here. For now these are just dreams. But who knows?"

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