What's Different About the Border Economy?
On the national stage, Texas' economy is its best selling point. But this so-called "Texas Miracle" doesn't extend statewide: In the border region, unemployment reaches as high as 13.2 percent, and the median income is 30 percent lower than the statewide average. The Rio Grande Valley has been "probably hardest hit of any area in the state" by the national recession, said Tom Pauken, chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission.
The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area has the highest unemployment rate of any metropolitan region in Texas. Brownsville has the lowest median income at $21,800 a year — 30 percent lower ...
Comments (6)
Ron Ogden via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Truth ..
Luisa Inez Newton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
muy triste en El Valle
Marcus Cunningham via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The thing about the Valley is most people were already poor to start. When you're already down, there's not much further to go. There is good growth here across many sectors. Education is also improving thanks to investments in higher education and the IDEA academies.
Antonio Garza via Texas Tribune on Facebook
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Reynaldo de la Garza
The reasons for and the history behind the Valley's unemployment rate, would need to be delved into much deeper than just the current economic situation and current demographics.
Anthony Martinez
What's different about the Houston economy? What's different about the Austin economy? What's different about the Lubbock economy? Why not a similar headline for these regional cities? Why is the border always painted as the "other" in Texas? I am guessing it is because the border is geographically distant from the rest of Texas; more economically intertwined with Mexico; and largely populated by Mexican-Americans and Mexicans.
But even then, the headline assumes a cultural and economically homogenous "border" that does not exist. Case in point: El Paso has been a major urban center for over 100 years, while the Valley remains largely agricultural. El Paso has more in common with the culture and history of East L.A. than McAllen or Edinburg. I have never heard anyone from El Paso refer to themselves as "Tejano." And there are other more and less nuanced examples.
If the reporter is going to write about maquilas writing about the border makes sense. However, if the reporter is going to write about agriculture, it makes sense to compare agricultural communities with other agricultural communities. If the reporter is going to write about the impact of the military, compare El Paso to Ft. Hood and San Antonio and Austin. Unfortunately, this article arbitrarily carves out a "border" other and then goes on to compare apples to oranges to bananas (metaphorically speaking).
The problem with the "Texas Miracle" isn't that it didn't extend to the border. The problem with the "Texas Miracle" is that it didn't extend to Texas. But that's another discussion for another article on another day.