Posted on 01/16/2009 4:32:51 PM PST by kellynla
Flor Gutierrez has a bird's eye view of how immigrants – 37 percent of California's labor force – are reacting so far to a punishing recession.
She runs El Mercadito Latino in Elk Grove, where Mexicans and Central Americans shop and wire money to family back in their home countries. In December, she said, customers wired the same amount of money as they always have during a holiday month. But Gutierrez is bracing for a plunge.
"They definitely are buying less for themselves," she said. "We may see people getting by with less here, so they can continue to help out those back home who are even worse off."
Gutierrez's observations mirror what researchers at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C., think tank, describe in a report issued Wednesday.
"Immigrants and the Current Economic Crisis" reviews statistical research and other information and concludes that there is no hard evidence of illegal or legal immigrants leaving in droves because jobs have dried up.
In addition to agriculture, immigrants are concentrated in construction, manufacturing and services, industries that have been battered by the downturn.
No doubt, tough times have already prompted some to leave U.S. soil and produced a "flattening" in the estimated number of illegal immigrants entering to seek jobs since 2007, said Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, which studies U.S. and global migration trends and policies.
But home countries, especially those tightly linked to the U.S. economy, such as Mexico and those in Central America, are not hospitable places to search for work, either.
Drug trafficking violence and crime in Mexico are disincentives to returning, as is immigrants' strong sense of responsibility to provide for family, the report says.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Where is IKE when we reeeeeeeely need him...
ping
My mother lives in Arizona and reports that the highways heading south are packed with old pickups full of middle-aged Mexican men heading home.
ping
Lots of them leaving NW Arkansas, too. I work with a fellow who buys up all their stuff when they pull up stakes, and he stays VERY busy.
Hearing also anecdotal evidence of high vacancies in apartment complexes here.
Why should they? Obamanation’s handouts are just around the corner.
Translation:
The problem is that when the US has a cold, the rest of the world gets pneumonia.
The economies of those countries are in even worse shape than we are. Why would they want to go back?
If California had Oklahoma-style laws instead of the welcoming ones they’d leave.
Very true. So much for wishful thinking and notions of "decoupling" of other economies from US economy and financial system. They are only happy to say they are "independent" of US economy (or even "better" than US, when the dollar is being [deliberately] weakened for exports) but when the fit hits the shan they start blaming US for their economic woes.
They’re bailing out of the NW big time, with their American wives and kids. Many are scared to try and cross back to MX as they have committed crimes here and don’t want to get ID’d/busted on the way back. So of all things they are trying to figure a way to sneak into Mexico, LOL.
This is anecdotal evidence of course, but, then again, so is this article.
This is anecdotal evidence of course, but, then again, so is this article.
This is unmitigated BS. I’m still waist deep in illegals.....
Lots of apts and rental homes in Springfield, MO, too. Not far away. Adios, amigos.
Isn’t Spain welcoming them?
Even with the economy crashing, they still prefer the U.S. to the poverty and gang violence of Mexico.
So would I.
But of course...and when you can live here tax free, receive food stamps, free medical care, free housing assistance, free education...WHY NOT!
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