Public Health

I remember a movie where Mexico had to (quite ironically) close its borders amid too many Americans trying to illegally cross. Was it 2012, the disaster movie? Anyway, I see whatever film that was being prophetic.

When I was young and dumb, I used to opine that, to solve the immigration problem, the US should annex Mexico and modernise the country by basically breaking it up into states and providing them resources and infrastructure. Don't debate me on this, I was young and dumb and I won't defend the opinion now, decades later.

So, that being said, what if sort of the reverse happened? What if Mexico opened its borders to American immigrants and provided them with this free health care, as long as they work. So no freeloaders. You'd have to get a job and prove you worked so many hours, over a course of 5 or 10 years, a path to citizenship, albeit a hard one. I would say "and you would have to learn Spanish," but I think there would be so many takers, they would have to make English a second official language (like Canada has with English and French).

If you're an American, would you emigrate to Mexico on the condition that, in exchange for citizenship, which includes universal healthcare (not just after you obtain it, but the whole time you're working toward it, of course), you'd have to submit weekly or monthly proof of gainful employment. What if you couldn't work just anywhere, but you had to work in infrastructure, modernising the Mexican cities and improving the way of life for every Mexican (in your area)? Would that change the deal?

(I don't mean to imply Mexicans are stuck in the Stone Age or that their cities are much worse than American cities. I am saying the peso is weaker than the dollar and "don't drink the water in Mexico" is known throughout the world, so certainly some kind of infrastructure and economical work needs doing. It's not meant to be a slight against the country or its people.)