Hard Times at the Golden Door

[Woodmonkey]

Hard Times at the Golden Door

In these tough economic times, millions of Latino immigrants have stopped sending money to their home countries, according to a survey released Wednesday. That is bad news for a lot of people.

The survey, by the Inter-American Development Bank, found that only half of 18.9 million Latino immigrants in the United States send money to relatives abroad. Two years ago, 73 percent did. Some countries saw remittances fall after years of growth: money wired to Mexico declined nearly 3 percent for the first three months of this year from the same period last year, the first drop since Mexico started tracking transfers in 1995.

The survey found that the sagging economy and loss of low-wage jobs were mostly to blame, particularly the downturn in the housing industry, but that crackdowns on illegal immigration also played a role.

The report was full of bad news for immigrants, legal and not. Of the 5,000 Latinos surveyed — about half citizens and legal residents, and half undocumented immigrants — 81 percent said it was harder to find a good-paying job, and just under a third said they were thinking of leaving the country.

There are people on the restrictionist side of the immigration debate who will cheer the news, arguing for more of whatever is causing it. Thanks to people like them, the nation’s de facto immigration policy is to try to make life untenable for illegal immigrants, elevating their fear to shake them loose from the United States.

Nobody should think of the decline in remittances, however, as anything but unfortunate. Immigrant workers are not just vital to the American economy, their money transfers are a critical bulwark against poverty for millions of people south of the border. Cutting off that lifeline will lead to more misery in some of the poorest parts of the hemisphere — and it will feed the desperation that sends more migrants to the United States.

If there was anything encouraging in the survey, it was the reaffirmation that immigrants, ever resourceful, are also fundamentally hopeful. Many reported in focus groups that they were ready to take lower-paying work or extra jobs to make ends meet. While almost 40 percent said they had seen their incomes fall, 69 percent said that their financial situations were “good” or “excellent” compared with life back home.

Tough enforcement may succeed in cutting off opportunity so severely that even some of these hard-working optimists uproot themselves and return home in search of a better life. But if that happens, those exiles may well pass a stream of compatriots heading north for the same reason.

The Source

[Woodmonkey]

The survey, by the Inter-American Development Bank, found that only half of 18.9 million Latino immigrants in the United States send money to relatives abroad. Two years ago, 73 percent did. Some countries saw remittances fall after years of growth: money wired to Mexico declined nearly 3 percent for the first three months of this year from the same period last year, the first drop since Mexico started tracking transfers in 1995.

That is good news for our economy as more of the money that is earned in this country, will be spent in this country.

The report was full of bad news for immigrants, legal and not. Of the 5,000 Latinos surveyed — about half citizens and legal residents, and half undocumented immigrants ...

< snip >

There are people on the restrictionist side of the immigration debate who will cheer the news, arguing for more of whatever is causing it. Thanks to people like them, the nation’s de facto immigration policy is to try to make life untenable for illegal immigrants, elevating their fear to shake them loose from the United States.

Half the people surveyed were illegal aliens, so what is wrong with making life untenable for them? For too long, they've been catered to.

Nobody should think of the decline in remittances, however, as anything but unfortunate. Immigrant workers are not just vital to the American economy, their money transfers are a critical bulwark against poverty for millions of people south of the border. Cutting off that lifeline will lead to more misery in some of the poorest parts of the hemisphere — and it will feed the desperation that sends more migrants to the United States.

For too long, the tax payers have been stuck with the bill for illegal immigrants and they are dragging us down. Legal immigrant workers are vital, but even they need to spend more money in the country that benefits them. Illegal immigrants are no asset to us, they cause the loss of good paying jobs since they'll work for less, plus they use us our health and school systems, not to say the rise in crime.

[leobold1]

There are people on the restrictionist side of the immigration debate who will cheer the news, arguing for more of whatever is causing it. Thanks to people like them, the nation’s de facto immigration policy is to try to make life untenable for illegal immigrants, elevating their fear to shake them loose from the United States.

You damn right I cheer this.

Too bad this columnist thinks more of people who aren't Americans than he thinks of those who are.

[BrianK]

Of the 5,000 Latinos surveyed — about half citizens and legal residents, and half undocumented immigrants.

To bad INS doesn't have the ability to find illegals. Maybe following people that do surveys could help them uncover where they are. According to the article 2500 were surveyed.

[leobold1]

Originally Posted by BrianK

Of the 5,000 Latinos surveyed — about half citizens and legal residents, and half undocumented immigrants.

To bad INS doesn't have the ability to find illegals. Maybe following people that do surveys could help them uncover where they are. According to the article 2500 were surveyed.

I caught that too. Do you want to bet that the people who did the survey informed the INS?

I got a million dollars that says they didn't.

[BrianK]

Originally Posted by leobold1

I caught that too. Do you want to bet that the people who did the survey informed the INS?

I got a million dollars that says they didn't.

I don't have that much money to bet. But if I did. I'd be betting those doing the survey were related in some way to the photo journalists that manage to photograph terrorists in the act of shooting innocents.