4. Findings
4.2 Frames
4.2.6 Immigration Reform and the American Senate
The frequency of use in this frame in both countries diverge in the two extremes because from Mexico was used only once but from the United States we can find 13 cartoons with a variety of different symbols and meanings, for example a pig wearing business suit and top hat to represent the private sector, the responsibility of American employers and big corporates such as the supermarket chain Walmart for promoting the migrants’ hiring and the American double standard of strengthen the border security and the anti-immigrant laws but at the same time keep hiring the illegal migrants. The complete collection of cartoons concerning to this frame has been attached in Appendix E.
4.2.6 Immigration Reform and the American Senate
Politicians in Mexico and the United States face a difficult decision when it comes to immigration reforms that allow illegal immigrants to legally stay in the U.S. In the past administrations, Mexican President Vicente Fox and American President George W. Bush unsuccessfully proposed as a temporary solution, the implementation of guest worker programs but American senators believed that more guest worker programs will only increase illegal migration and place a bigger burden on the United States society to provide more funding for educational and health services that these new migrants will need and cannot afford to pay.
However, migration between both countries is a social process that cannot be turned off and on like a light switch, especially when it has been an issue since the 1900’s. No longer can Mexico have a “no policy” policy and no longer can the U.S. expect for making unilateral decisions on issues that affect both countries. Both nations have determined that immigration reforms are priority even though each comes to the table with different reasons for negotiating. Mexico wishes to improve conditions for Mexican migrants while the United States wishes to control illegal migration and provide labor for needing sectors.
Mexico and the U.S. must negotiate bilateral agreements that can benefit all involved but negotiations over bilateral issues such as migration were postponed in the post-9/11 era when the American administration concentrated on its war on terrorism. Although these negotiations may keep receiving a negative public opinion if the U.S. economy does not improve and
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unemployment rates get higher, especially when citizen’s own financial and economic situations influence their opinion and can influence also their feeling towards immigrants such as xenophobia and discrimination, is vital that both countries come to an agreement because of their close proximity in addition to being members of the NAFTA.
In Cartoon A4, we can see a red carpet which is traditionally used to mark the route taken by heads of state on ceremonial and formal occasions. Then we see that American President George W. Bush dressed in a formal suit is being crushed by the wall with the words “No Amnesty!”
written on it in a sort of graffiti inferring to not allowing illegal immigrants to legally remain in the United States. With both hands he is holding the megaphone of “Immigration Reform” to shout: -“My fellow Republicans, tear down this wall”- referring to the famous words from American President Ronald Reagan to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy the Berlin Wall (USA Today, 2007). From the position he is laying over the red carpet and the direction where he is deviating the megaphone we can infer that some members of the Republican Party just passed along the red carpet, without paying many attention to his claims. The image tell us that despite President’s Bush attempts to ask for an immigration reform that can benefit the illegal workers inside American territory, the only response he is having from the legislators of
A4. “Tear down this Wall”
Credit: RJ Matson
June 15, 2007 “The St. Louis Post Dispatch”
M10. “Immigration Reform”
Credit: Angel Boligan May 20, 2007 “El Universal”
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the conservative Republican party, is not an immigration agreement but their denial and the construction of the U.S.A-Mexico border wall.
The last immigration amnesty was contained in the Immigration Reform and Control Act, passed in 1986. It allowed about 3 million people, who entered the U.S. before January 1, 1982 to gain legal status. But those who arrived without documents since then have been trapped in the same illegal status. The American Urban Institute estimated there were as many as 5 million undocumented people in the U.S. just before that amnesty (Bacon, 2000). But by 2000, it was rising again to 6 million and by 2009 the estimate reached the 12 million.
In Cartoon M10, we can see from the back of their seats the American legislators are raising their hands in the same manner they will express their vote towards the immigration reform. In this case, each vote is represented with one more brick. Seated in the wall edge, an ugly “Uncle Sam” wearing the stereotypical “stars and stripes” hat and striped trousers is taking each brick from each legislators’ hands, to continue building the wall, doing reference to the U.S.
senate Immigration agreement denial and consecutive border fence extension.
In the actual American administration under President Barack Obama, at his word, the Immigration reform would follow health care on the nation’s agenda after public polls have shown support for reforms from at least 60% of American people and the practical impossibility of deporting 12 million undocumented migrants currently living in the United States (Ruiz, NY Daily News, 2009). All images depicting the Immigration Reform frame are included in Appendix F.
Finally, we analyzed the incidence of the cartoons during the time frame selected for this thesis. As discussed in the previous chapter, we chose images published from 2003 to 2008 to coincide with the approval of the Security Fence Act of 2006 which authorized the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security to double reinforce the security fence and the installation of lighting, vehicle barriers, border checkpoints, sensors, cameras, satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles in an attempt to watch and control the illegal migration into the United States.
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According to Morley (2006a) this approval incensed public opinion without precedents not only in Mexico but also in Latin America, therefore the incidence in cartoons referring to the border wall might be also been influenced with the passing of the Secure Fence Act. In Chart 4.2 we can appreciate the significant difference of the occurrence in the cartoons’ publication during 2006 in both sides of the border.
Chart 4.2 Incidence of the Cartoons published by country
Also in 2008, the frequency in the appearance of the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Mexican newspapers’ cartoons started to rebound because the tensions among both neighbors were heightening after the murder of a Mexican migrant by a Border Patrol agent, incensing again national debates about the abuse of power and the violations of human rights in the Mexican-American border. Stelzner (1965) wrote that “the predominant interests and ideas of any period are reflected in its figurative language which in turn affects and influences the subjects to which it is applied” (p. 52). The cartoons selected in this thesis are a powerful example of this, since they became the reflection of the coverage of the U.S.-Mexico barrier in both countries newspapers’.
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Chapter 5
Conclusion and Discussion
This study has used a qualitative approach to analyze the symbols and frames of newspapers’
editorial cartoons from Mexico and the United States characterizing their border wall. The three research questions addressed about how each of the main actors was framing this relevant social issue thru the use of political cartoons published in their national press as well as the main differences, agreements and disagreements in the U.S.-Mexico border wall portrayal. Our results show some interesting differences. Concerning the first research question about how did the Mexican cartoons framed the walled border, we found two frames and symbols exclusively used in cartoons of Mexico’s dailies: one shouting the consequences of the wall in the high number of cross-border related deaths of the migrants and the other characterizing Mexico’s preoccupation with the unequal conditions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its hope for a renegotiation with the United States. However, the Immigration Reform and American Senate was the largest frame and symbolism utilized in the Mexican cartoons, seeing an accord with the United States in this field as far and unreachable and also exhibiting the failed attempts of Mexican ex-President Vicente Fox and current Chief of State Felipe Calderon in negotiating a migration agreement with the United States.
The second research question addressing how American press framed the border wall in the political cartoons shed some light in the main concern of the United States thru the use of the Employment and migrant workers frame and symbols which was the most commonly used by the U.S. and almost non-existent in the Mexican sample. In the majority of these cartoons, the Americans satirize their own policies about strengthening the anti-immigrant laws and the border security with the construction of the border wall, the installation of high tech surveillance equipment and the deployment of Border Patrol Agents to keep the illegals out while at the same time, huge American companies like the supermarkets Walmart as well as the agriculture, and
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construction businesses keep searching for cheap labor and hiring migrant laborers. Interestingly, the use of symbols towards the Immigration Reform and American Senate was the second higher in frequency of use and points to the border wall as the result of a “bipartisan” deal, clears the Senate denial to grant amnesty to the illegal migrants already living in the U.S. and exclusively within this frame, some cartoons made use of an elephant representing the Republican party, as for example “stuck” in the border fence or building a wall around himself while the “Latinos” are only watching and wondering what is wrong with that elephant.
The third and final research question addressed how the American cartoons differed from their Mexican counterparts. The comparison between the frames and the symbols utilized by both actors informed us about the relation and main worries of both nations, their similarities and differences, as for example in the use of frames by Mexican press such as Death and skulls and Economy and NAFTA which were nonexistent in the American cartoons’ selected for analysis in this thesis. Also the enormous difference among both countries in the frequency of use of the Employment and migrant workers frame and symbols because while we only found one cartoon in the Mexican press, the American newspapers’ contained 13 images referring to the “mixed message” the U.S. government and American employers are sending to Mexican people, in one side, tightening the security in its South border but in the other, offering jobs usually compensating with very low wages that are unacceptable for American citizens but sufficient for illegal workers. Moreover, the balance found in the use of Division and the Berlin wall was very interesting and the connotation gave by both countries as well because while both nations used the comparison of the American Security Fence with the Berlin Wall, for Mexico represented segregation, but for the United States was a sarcasm pointing they are accurately alike but with the minor difference that the Berlin Wall was built to keep its citizens in, as opposed as the wall built in the Mexican border which its main aim is to keep undocumented people out. In addition, the equilibrium in the occurrence of Freedom using the symbol of the Statue of Liberty but communicating different meanings as for example the trampling of freedom rights in the Mexican perspective with American President George W. Bush literally treading the liberty statue to keep building the border wall or the Mexicans opportunist use of freedom deriving in
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temporary working visas in the American portrayal. Also, the surprising found of exactly the same use of the Statue of Liberty symbol turning her on her side to make the U.S.-Mexico border fence but with the difference that the Mexican portrayal made no use of text while the American included a speech balloon. Could both countries agree in the vision of wall up-liberty down?
The third research question also direct us to the high and balanced proportion of the Immigration Reform and American Senate use, depicted 12 times in the Mexican cartoons and 9 in the American, excelling the salience of this political issue for both North American neighbors because they have been affected for the lack of a comprehensive bilateral agreement that can mutually benefit the countries. The American portrayal shows the concentration of the U.S.
senate to keep building a wall and strengthening the South border instead of considering an immigration reform and show their concerns thru the illegal immigration depicted as a Tsunami while the U.S. incarnated in a parent, is building a short sand wall to stop it or drawing very tall senators standing beside a very short “Politics of Immigration Reform” wall but feeling afraid to cross it. The Mexican representation includes the unsuccessful trials of Mexican leaders to arrange an immigration agreement and the failure of the border citizens’ protests. The use of a short ladder that seems like will never surpass the tall border wall as a symbol to express Mexico’s difficulty to reach an immigration reform.
As a means of visual discourse, editorial cartoon uses particular pictographic expressions to transform complex meanings in easily recognizable symbols which simplify a certain topic and enable the audiences to interpret their meaning in a glance. As Cohen (1979) refers, the real power of symbols lays in its ambiguity, and is this lack of a precise definition along with the use of recognizable myths and metaphors that gives the editorial cartoons the unique feature to cause a potent effect in a soft but effective way. In the case of the U.S.-Mexico barrier cartoons has been evident the use of symbols as powerful framing devices, revealing the national concerns in encoding and decoding the same physical fence.
Press (1981) believes that cartooning depends on the political system. Both Mexico and the U.S. are ruled under a democratic government which promotes the freedom of press.
However, during the data collection we did not find a single cartoon depicting one of the main
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issues between the U.S. and Mexico: the drug trafficking. On October 2007 the Mérida Initiative was announced as security cooperation between the U.S. and the governments of Mexico and the countries of Central America with the aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking, transnational crime and money laundering. If according to Press (1981), during peacetime in a Western democracy, cartoonists are “watchdogs”, why we did not find any cartoon characterizing the drug trafficking especially in the border between both nations? A recent research of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ, 2010) has shown that Media killings and disappearances have made Mexico one of the world’s most dangerous countries for press freedom, with a wave of unprecedented violence related to organized crime markedly increased the last few years. The effects of violence can be felt on both sides of the border with widespread self-censorship as a result of fear, preventing the Mexican media from reporting the news and U.S. reporters covering the drug trade facing threats and intimidation. Therefore, we suspect that violence has become so pervasive that trafficking organizations now exert effective censorship over key issues such as the border wall analyzed in this study. This could be a factor in the absence of “drug trafficking”
though prevalent and important in the cartoons from both countries.
In addition, as outlined in our “hypotheses” the majority of the selected cartoons included in this thesis exhibit the national background of the newspapers in which they were originally published. Each country is firmly standing in a nationalistic perspective mostly pointing what is wrong in the other. From the Mexican point of view, the Americans are not tolerant, are not willing to negotiate both a migratory and a free trade agreement; with the wall construction they are blocking, they are segregating and violating the basic human right of liberty. From the American perspective, the Mexicans are opportunist, abusive, stealing jobs, and violating its sovereignty illegally entering the country in spite of the border wall construction. However, we also found some cartoons that are critical of the border wall by taking a non-nationalistic perspective, especially in the two more salient frames, those referring to the Employment and Migrant Workers and the Immigration Reform and American Senate where we found American cartoons depicting illegal laborers constructing the wall and being hired or supervised by Uncle Sam or others where the military agents in the border are fencing American companies as an
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effective way to stop the hiring of undocumented workers. Also American cartoons characterizing the U.S. congress afraid to cross the immigration reform wall and how this same reform is being transformed into a wall construction. Given the freedom of expression tradition across the U.S. and Mexico, the border cartoons from both sides have exhibited their respective independence and criticalness in viewing the wall. These findings also confirm previous research findings that international news is “national” and it reflects the political system and the state of press freedom of the countries in which the media operate.
Moreover, we also found a large amount of the symbols used to characterize the border wall representing the respective popular cultural icons from each country; such are the cases of Uncle Sam to symbolize the United States and the men wearing a big hat to characterize the Mexicans. The Statue of Liberty to represent freedom, even though sarcastically, and the skeletal figure to depict death. These are icons of “universal” recognition just as Morgan & Welton (1992) pointed out, some images become apparently universal signs owing their widespread use to the international structures of mass communication and Cahn (1984) accurately suggested, cartoonists rely on those visual properties that are universally understood “…across cultures, ages, and levels of intelligence” (Conners, 1998: 97).
Nevertheless, though the same symbols may be used by both countries, the context in which these icons are used differs. For Mexico, the Statue of Liberty in cartoons is blocking the entry of migrants to the United States, for Americans it is authorizing the entry of thousands of people with temporary visas. For Mexico, the comparison of the U.S.-Mexico barrier to the Berlin Wall, suggests segregation but for Americans this comparison is illogical because the barrier was not thought to keep the U.S. citizens in, as it was the objective of the Berlin wall, this barrier was built to keep undocumented migrants out.
This analysis shows how thru the use of specific symbols both countries cartoons’ have signified and framed the main economic, political and social issues for which they are concerned.
Decoding its meaning, political cartoons have given us an insight into what these two nations
Decoding its meaning, political cartoons have given us an insight into what these two nations