Mexico

Mexico has signed and ratified all major international and many regional human rights agreements. The country actively engages with mechanisms monitoring compliance with these agreements. However, some major violations of treaties have been reported.

A constitutional reform to recognize Indigenous and Afro-Mexican groups as collective rights-holders with the power to make decisions about their communities has begun but not yet been implemented. Recognition of Indigenous rights is also not equal at the subnational level. There is no legislative agenda to mainstream migrants’ access to work, health care, identity documents or housing.

Mexican citizenship is obtained either by birth or naturalization. According to the Constitution, Mexicans and foreigners both enjoy the protection of human rights. However, irregular or undocumented migration is common and is linked to abuse and mistreatment. There are deep bonds of Indigenous citizenship and community engagement in certain localities. Afro-Mexicans do not enjoy equal access to social services, being characterized mostly as second-class citizens.

Current social assistance programs are poorly funded and do not engage Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples in their design. At the local level, corruption and discrimination often deny these groups access to health care and other services. The use of violence in controlling migratory flows contravenes international human rights commitments.

Shifts to self-identification for Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples has resulted in more accurate data collection and analysis on social discrimination related to race and ethnicity. However, data about migrant populations is limited and rarely collected. Public research institutions and non-governmental organizations have filled some data collection gaps in this area.

Mexicans often exercise their rights to peaceful assembly. In March 2020, tens of thousands of women initiated a one-day strike to protest the rise in femicides. However, Mexicans and migrants face violence from state and non-state actors, especially when defending natural resources from extractive projects, or in migrant caravans and movement across borders.

Polarization and clientelism characterize the current landscape of political parties. While at the national level, all parties discuss the value of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican populations, most do not include them as candidates for office. At the subnational level, parties generally do not acknowledge migrants whatsoever.

News media perpetuates polarized political narratives and promotes negative stereotypes about Indigenous peoples, Afro-Mexicans, and migrants. Overall, media tends to whiten Mexican-ness and the diversity inherent in Mexican society is not represented in the mainstream.

Mainstream media actors dominate the landscape. However, alternative media and social media play a role in preserving and celebrating Indigenous culture and offering dignified portrayals of migrants.

Civil society is very strong, with many organizations exercising influence over public life. They offer support to diverse groups in the justice system, collect and analyze key data on discrimination, and demand accountability from the government. On the other hand, religious civil society tends to be very conservative and a leading voice against LGBTQ+ rights in Mexico.

There is uneven adoption of measures to ensure equity in workplaces and promote respect and non-discrimination. Unskilled manual labour or informal jobs are largely filled by Indigenous, Afro-descendant, or migrant peoples. Women are overrepresented in informal, unskilled and unpaid labour.

Affirmative action policies are in place to improve representation of women, Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples but they are ineffective in practice. In many cases, candidates falsely represent themselves as part of an Indigenous community or claim to be transgender to meet gender parity requirements. Migrants are completely unrepresented in government.

Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples largely live in more rural areas characterized by extreme poverty. Wealth gaps are significant in Mexico and women typically shoulder the burden of family care and household economic management. Migration processes are very costly and migrants often fall prey to organized crime, leaving migrants in financial precarity and dangerous situations. Some migrants can obtain work permits, but there is little information made available to them about how to go through the process.

Poverty, poor health outcomes, illiteracy and discrimination are common among Afro-Mexican and Indigenous groups. The infant mortality rate is highest among the Indigenous population, largely due to the racist treatment that Indigenous women face in hospitals. There is little data on social inequality of migrants, though it is known that they lack access to health care and education.

Indigenous cultural products are often stolen and commodified without fair compensation to Indigenous peoples. Indigenous languages also disappear in favour of the dominant Spanish. Migrants and Afro-descendant peoples experience xenophobia and anti-Black racism, with Afro-Mexicans being generally outside the national Mexican imaginary. Recently, efforts have been made to recognize and celebrate the contributions of Afro-descendants to Mexican history.

There is general impunity for violent crime in Mexico, especially related to drugs and organized crime. Indigenous peoples seeking justice face violence and lack of access to services in their local languages. Afro-Mexicans, on the other hand, are often detained and mistaken for migrants. In Mexico, anti-Black racism and anti-migration discrimination are closely intertwined.

Organized crime persists and particularly impacts rural and Indigenous peoples. There is rampant violence and discrimination against Black and LGBTQ+ communities. Migrants experience violence from state and non-state actors.

There is distrust of migrants among Mexican populations and overall discrimination against Afro-Mexicans. While Indigeneity has become a part of Mexico’s nation-building narrative, negative stereotypes against Indigenous peoples undermine intergroup trust.

The Pluralism Perceptions Survey highlighted low levels of trust in institutions, particularly security authorities/police and the justice system. Migrants tend to trust their own communities but are suspicious of state authorities.

The Pluralism Perceptions Survey respondents expressed some unity in feeling that Mexico is one nation, though this sentiment has the negative impact of erasing diversity. Despite this finding, the report shows how Indigenous peoples do not experience much inclusion and see their right to speak their language constantly violated. Migrants are not often accepted and included as part of communities.

Overall feelings of shared ownership of society are low across groups as they feel they do not have decision-making power and the ability to influence outcomes in their own lives. Despite government initiatives meant to foster respect for diversity, every day social interactions are, in many cases, racist and discriminatory.