In Venezuela, uncertainty spurs a middle-class exodus (Chavez is causing a brain drain)

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | October 11, 2007 | Sara Miller Llana

[grundle]

Now that he's calling for a referendum to reform the Constitution, including eliminating term limits for heads of state, this country is seeing a migration of middle-class residents who say they are fleeing economic and political instability and persistent crime.

"We never thought of living anywhere else. Venezuela is the most beautiful country in the world, and we have everything there. But if he reforms the Constitution, Venezuela is going to be a very dark place, and there is nothing we can do about it," says Lissette, tearing up. (She and Mervin did not want their family's last name published because they haven't left Venezuela for good yet.) "The truth is we need another option."

They are not alone. According to Luis Vicente Leon, the director of the polling company Datanalisis, 1 in 3 Venezuelans would consider leaving the country if they could. In addition to politics, they're driven by annual inflation of about 16 percent and a weakening national currency. Oil wealth has largely skipped over the middle class while blessing the rich and funding billion-dollar social programs.

The number of Venezuelans leaving is hard to nail down. According to the US Embassy in Caracas, the number of nonimmigrant visa cards has risen from 70,366 in 2003 to 109,586 last year.

But many Venezuelans are opting for other countries, as US immigration laws have tightened in the wake of 9/11. Nearby Panama, with a similar climate and political and economic stability, is a popular alternative.

[donna]

This is from 11-years ago. There is no “middle class” in Venezuela as America understands the term. These people are just more immigrant votes for democrats:

February 9, 1996
Whatever Happened to Venezuela’s Middle Class?
Excerpt

This Caribbean country of 24 million people, blessed with the world’s largest oil reserves outside the Persian Gulf, last year became the largest foreign supplier of oil to the United States. But its economy is in a shambles and its public payroll so bloated that hospitals cannot afford to buy medicine or equipment, while the Government remains unable — or unwilling — to trim its work force.

The country is entering its fourth year of recession, and the inflation rate, at 54 percent last year, is the highest in South America. Venezuela’s middle class, once accustomed to shopping sprees in Miami, has been reduced to near-poverty.

“The middle class is disappearing,” said Andres Serbin, president of the Venezuelan Institute for Social and Political Studies, a private research institute. “Now you have a clear polarization between the people who have and the people who don’t have.” (snip)

At the start of the 1990’s, Venezuela appeared to be well on its way toward the free-market economic reforms that other parts of Latin America have since embraced. But austerity measures that were endured elsewhere in the continent proved too difficult an adjustment for Venezuelans who, thanks to a $10-billion-a-year cushion of oil revenues, had grown accustomed to government largess.

The backlash against the free-market reforms instituted by Carlos Andres Perez, who was then President, included looting and two attempted military coups in 1992. Although the coups failed, they proved fatal to the economic policies and to the presidency of Mr. Perez, who was impeached in 1993 and charged with stealing $17 million in public funds. He remains under house arrest.

As the country awaited Mr. Perez’s reaction to the second 1992 coup attempt in a televised message from Congress, Rafael Caldera, a former president, unexpectedly took the microphone to voice understanding for the frustrations of the military men who led the coup attempts.

Swept back into the presidency by a mass yearning for less corrupt, more generous past, Mr. Caldera pledged to restore the kind of state-financed populism that had marked his administration in the 1970’s, but he did not address the country’s ability to finance such grand promises in the economy of the 1990’s

His measures have failed to check Venezuela’s economic slide.

According to a recent report by Data Information Resources to the Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce, in the last 25 years the share of household income spent on food has shot up to 72 percent, from 28 percent. The middle class has shrunk by a third. An estimated 53 percent of jobs are now classified as “informal” — in the underground economy — as compared with 33 percent in the late 1970’s.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E4DE1539F93AA35751C0A960958260

[Polybius]

"If they can’t keep their own country free what good will they be here?" ...... Donna, 2007

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army, was an Asian American unit composed of mostly Japanese Americans who fought in Europe during the Second World War. The families of many of its soldiers were subject to internment. ... The unit became the most highly decorated military unit in the history of the United States
"If they can’t keep their own country free, what good will they be here?" ...... Donna's grandfather, 1942.

"If he can’t keep his own country free, what good will he be here?" ...... Donna's grandmother, 1939.

"If they can’t keep their own country free, what good will they be here?" ...... Donna's great-great-grandmother, 1893.

"If they can’t keep their own country free, what good will they be here?" ...... Donna's great-great-great-grandfather, 1863.

"If you can’t keep your own country free, what good will you be here?" ...... Donna's Native American ancestor, December 11, 1620.

[Polybius]

There is no “middle class” in Venezuela as America understands the term.

February 9, 1996 Whatever Happened to Venezuela’s Middle Class? Venezuela’s middle class, once accustomed to shopping sprees in Miami, has been reduced to near-poverty.

"Middle class" is not how much money you have in your bank account at any given time. It is a state of mind that, given the freedom to succeeed, produces money.

If you give trailer trash $1 million, it will be blown in a couple of years and they will have little to show for it.

If you take away everything a hard working businessman ever earned and leave him nothing but the freedom to succeed, he will simply rebuild his wealth all over again.

[Fairview]

What a beautiful post. This is definitely the post of the week. Thank you for taking the trouble.

~Fairview, daughter of an immigrant and a first-generation American

[donna]

So, you think the “middle class” of Venezuela, after voting for Chavez, will come to America and win the war of terror?

That’s some thinking, LOL.

[N3WBI3]

The Irish could not feed themselves, what good could they have done here... oh nevermind..

[N3WBI3]

what a load of crap donna,

How productive has the Vietnamese boat generation been in the US. By enlarge withing 1-2 generations they are mostly educated business owners and professionals.

Read what the statue of liberty says, so long as someone wants to come here and work and leave behind $motherland more power to them.

I say we should *drastically* increase the number of people from Venezuela allowed to come to the US and play it up as ‘allowing Venezuelans who yearn for freedom are welcome here.

[wardaddy]

Hasta La Vista Altamira.

[monkeycard]

Mr. Diaz says only something as traumatic as the kidnapping of one of his children would force him to emigrate

With all due respect, that is a little late.

[Polybius]

So, you think the “middle class” of Venezuela, after voting for Chavez, will come to America and win the war of terror? That’s some thinking, LOL.

Ummm .... Donna, why on Earth do you believe that the "middle class" of Venezuela "voted for Chavez"?

The Venezuelan middle class did not "vote for Chavez" any more than the the Goldman family donated money to the O.J. Simpson Legal Defense Fund.

The middle class in Venezuela despises Chavez because he is nothing more than a demagogue with guns who is preaching class warfare against them.

Out here on a liberal corner of the Left Coast, I have a Venezuelan friend who is asked by our local, home-grown, American-born liberals what she thinks of that wonderful man, Hugo Chavez, who hates George Bush just as much as they do. She fumes at what "idiots" these "socialists" out here are.

As to "war", the anti-Chavez Venezuelan middle class is just as anti-Communist as we of Cuban descent are. In our particular case, at least in my family, since coming to American from Cuba in 1960, my uncle, my brother, my sister and I have accumulated 48 years of military service in the U.S. Armed Forces and two Purple Hearts. Why should these Venezuelan middle class legal immigrants be any less devoted to America than we of Cuban descent are?

This article is about the Venezuelan "brain drain" caused by the fact that the Venezuelan middle class that Chavez is waging a socialist class warfare against is leaving Venezuela and taking their education, energy and skills elsewhere.

The Venezuelan middle class immigrants are anti-Communist, anti-socialist, already well educated, hard working and legal.

It seems to me that those are exactly the immigrants America would be well served with.

[donna]

In 1979, Deng Xiaoping arrived here on an official visit. China was emerging from the Cultural Revolution, and poised to embark on the capitalist road. When President Carter sat down with Mr. Deng, he told him he was concerned over the right of the Chinese people to emigrate. The Jackson-Vanik amendment, Mr. Carter said, prohibited granting most favored nation trade status to regimes that did not allow their people to emigrate.

"Well, Mr. President," Deng cheerfully replied, "Just how many Chinese do you want? Ten million. Twenty million. Thirty million?" Deng's answer stopped Carter cold.

In a few words, the Chinese leader had driven home a point Mr. Carter seemed not to have grasped:

Hundreds of millions of people would emigrate to America in a eyelash, far more than we could take in, far more than our existing population of 270 million, if we threw open our borders. And though the U.S. takes in more people than any other nation, it still restricts immigration to about one million a year, with three or four hundred thousand managing to enter every year illegally.

Source

[donna]

But austerity measures that were endured elsewhere in the continent proved too difficult an adjustment for Venezuelans who, thanks to a $10-billion-a-year cushion of oil revenues, had grown accustomed to government largess.

Ha, you can be their sponsor.

[shield]

This country is turning into Cuba fast...Cubans left and now reside in America. VZ’s will be fleeing ... however, VZ’s will return ‘cause chavez is a goner. Lowlife commie...

[cowtowney]

“How long now, until Hugo announces plans to use oil revenues, to begin construction on the “Venezuela Wall”?”

This is the issue. Think about the socialist countries like Cuba, North Korea, Burma, etc. They don’t allow emigration.

How is Chavez going to stop this drain? Cuba’s got an ocean...the others have guards. Ever seen the old Berlin Wall? Jeesh! I wouldn’t put anything past Chavez.

[MattinNJ]

The cream of the crop will come here and will be a solid GOP voting bloc like the Cubans and Niceraguans.

[donna]

GOP losing its grip on Miami’s Cuban-Americans
Times Latin America Correspondent
September 15, 2007

“There has been a seismic shift in the political views of Cuban-Americans,” said Joe Garcia, chairman of the Democratic Party of Miami-Dade County. “The Cuban vote is becoming less Republican.”

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/15/State/GOP_losing_its_grip_o.shtml

[Billthedrill]

Chavez WANTS the middle class to flee, this is part of his plan. That will only leave the elite and poor people, and Chavez with a big pile of oil cash and a pig pile of weapons.

You are absolutely correct. That is a precise working description of socialist utopia - a wealthy party cadre presiding over a kept and controlled mass of common people. The middle class has no place in it and never has. Marx's greatest contempt was reserved for the bourgeiosie, especially the petit bourgeoisie who were the greatest barrier against the sort of "progress" he had in mind.

That is very much the sort of "progress" Chavez has in mind. An extraction economy is perfectly suited for him to achieve it. All the middle class can do is get in the way, and that will not be tolerated.

[Polybius]

But austerity measures that were endured elsewhere in the continent proved too difficult an adjustment for Venezuelans who, thanks to a $10-billion-a-year cushion of oil revenues, had grown accustomed to government largess.

Ha, you can be their sponsor.

Ummmm .... Donna, this article is talking about the "brain drain" of successful middle class Venezuelans who, like successful American conservatives, do not need Government handouts.

My Venezuelan friend takes no hand outs, is a medical professional who makes very good money on her own and, when she got a divorce, she did not even claim her community property share of her ex-husband's lucrative business. "Why should I ask for half of that? He worked hard for that business and he should keep all of it. I can make my own money."

Contrast that attitude to the average American that now considers Government money as a birthright.

For my own retirement, I have planned it as if Social Security did not exist.

My attitude and that of my Venezuelan friend is a throw back to how Americans used to think 75 years ago before the Democrats taught the majority of American voters that the U.S. Government was their mother.

[Polybius]

The Jackson-Vanik amendment, Mr. Carter said, prohibited granting most favored nation trade status to regimes that did not allow their people to emigrate. "Well, Mr. President," Deng cheerfully replied, "Just how many Chinese do you want? Ten million. Twenty million. Thirty million?" Deng's answer stopped Carter cold.

There is a difference between "Emmigration" and "Immigration".

Denial of "Immigration" rights means that I am not allowing you into my house.

Denial of "Emmigration" rights means that you are under house arrest even though you have an invitation to come to my house or somebody else's house.

Jimmy Carter should not have been stumped by that rhetorical trick but, then again, Jimmy Carter was never the sharpest pencil in the box.

Hundreds of millions of people would emigrate to America in a eyelash, far more than we could take in, far more than our existing population of 270 million, if we threw open our borders.

Yep. They sure would.

So, we should be selective in regards to which people we allow in, shouldn't we?

If we are to have immigrants at all, what better immigrants than anti-Communist, anti-socialist, well educated, middle class Venezuelans?

[donna]

em·i·grate [ émmi gràyt ] (past and past participle em·i·grat·ed, present participle em·i·grat·ing, 3rd person present singular em·i·grates)
intransitive verb
Definition:
leave to live in another country: to leave a place, especially a native country, to go and live elsewhere