Posted on 12/04/2007 7:05:22 PM PST by DmBarch
Like hundreds of thousands of middle-class Brazilians who moved to the United States over the last two decades, Jose Osvandir Borges and his wife, Elisabeth, came on tourist visas and stayed as illegal immigrants, putting down roots in ways they never expected.
After packing up their plasma-screen TV, scholastic trophies and other fruits of 12 prosperous years in the Ironbound in Newark, the couple and their American-born daughter, Marianna, 10, were scheduled to fly back to Brazil for good this morning. They expect their son, Thiago, 21, to follow in a year or two, despite his reluctance to leave the only land that feels like home.
“You can’t spend your entire life waiting to be legal,” said Mr. Borges, 42, reflecting on a hard decision born of lost hopes, new fears and changing economies in both countries since he arrived in 1996. By law, the couple faces a 10-year bar on re-entering the United States, even as visitors.
That decision — to give up on life in the United States — is being made by more and more Brazilians across the country, according to consular officials, travel agencies swamped by one-way ticket bookings, and community leaders in the neighborhoods that Brazilian immigrants have transformed, from Boston to Pompano Beach, Fla.
No one can say how many are leaving. But in the last half year, the reverse migration has become unmistakable among Brazilians in the United States, a population estimated at 1.1 million by
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Talk about a right of entitlement. Come here illegally and then complain it takes too long to become legal...
I’ve had some here tell me that attrition wouldn’t work, and that it would be impossible to deport millions.
I guess they were *WRONG*!
They figured there would be another amnesity. It shows how people from developing countries think. If we stand firm then a lot of them will go home on their own. And Mitt can then mow his own grass. There is still one thing that money can’t buy...poverty. Imported or domestic.
They’re the future — and that includes Americans. People will change countries as frequently as they change jobs.
Good, get out!
Happiness is an illegal Brazilian leaving the US with an illegal Mexican under each arm.
Did I just hear the sound of the door hitting them in the derrier as they left?
I believe you are correct
There's a neighborhood not that far from me that illegal Brazilians have transformed.....into a violent,dirty,dangerous pit.Murders...deaths that result from individuals practicing medicine without a license.....
It’s already happening. Everyday I meet more and more NYLONS (New York to London) commuters. I see kids with highly specialized skill sets who don’t look to spend more than two or three years in any country and haven’t had a landline telephone in five years. At certain bars here in NYC, you can hear them negotiating what language to communicate in (it’s French when they’re flirting) and making plans to meet next week or next month in Paris or Hong Kong or Berlin.
Globalization baby.
I’ll say it again...
No job and nowhere to live and they’ll go home on their own.
I don’t believe that most Brazilians come here to become citizens. Maybe some. Based on the small sample I have seen, they come here, get one, sometimes two jobs, the entire family works, works their collective butts off, and collect cash, plasmas, Harleys, microwaves, and did I say cash?
One family is waiting for the exchange rate to be right, then they’ll move back to Brazil with a cargo container full of stuff that’s difficult to get at home, and use the cash to set themselves up in a dream house (that costs much less than in the USA).
There’s a travel agency that specializes in shipping to Brazil and also runs a self-storage sideline. They like to handle the family moves, they move the people and all the stuff they accumulated during their profitable stay here.
If “many” families are leaving now as the article says, perhaps it’s getting harder to pile up cash and iPods, so they are calling the business venture done. Maybe the exchange rate has become favorable?
...also one of the unintended consequences of “less gubmint.” With the developed world trending toward less gubmint there are fewer ties to nationality. Loyalty is increasingly toward whatever corporation they happen to work for at the time.
I don’t know that I would give loyalty to a company, they sure aren’t loyal to you, but capitalizing on opportunity certainly is on the rise
I recently spoke to one of these people who was nearing retirement and asked where he intended to settle down. He answered, “Somewhere with good weather and good views. Maybe California or Tuscany.” He wasn’t kidding, he saw little practical difference between the two.
Must be nice to be that rich L0L
How many is a brazilian?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.