Going where there's work: Declining number of immigrants in S.J. likely due to economy's plunge

By Jennifer Torres
October 12, 2009
Record Staff Writer

Typically around this time of year, said James Vidal, who owns California Travel on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, business increases as clients come in to book flights and bus trips to Mexico.

"One of the reasons is, for the people who work in the fields, that work is done," Vidal said.

Another reason, he said, is that many families traditionally spend the long winter holidays with relatives in Latin America.

And now, he said, "The other reason is the economy."

From 2007 to 2008, the number of immigrants living in San Joaquin County dropped by more than 10,000 people. It is the first such decline in at least five years and one that some attribute to financial instability and lack of jobs in the United States.

Several reports over recent months have documented a leveling off of immigration, especially from Mexico. Discouraged by uncertain employment opportunities and increasingly expensive and dangerous border crossings, immigrants seem to be entering the country in smaller numbers than in the past.

Most recently, U.S. Census Bureau figures showed a drop in the country's foreign-born population, particularly in California.

Immigrants still account for more than 22 percent of all residents in San Joaquin County. But until 2008, their numbers were steadily increasing.

Between 2004 and 2005 alone, the county added about 12,000 immigrants, Census records show. At the time, construction was booming.

"These current times are a bit more difficult, especially for those who were working in construction," said Jose Lopez, who oversees the migrant ministry program for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton.

Fidel Vazquez, who came from the Mexican state of Chiapas about 10 years ago, said competition for agricultural jobs has increased, in part because of displaced construction workers.

"There is less work than before," Vazquez said, "and more people trying to get jobs."

Lopez said he does not know of immigrants who have left the county permanently and returned to Mexico. But many, he said, are going further afield to find work - traveling to Oregon and Washington, for example - than they would have in the past.

Others, facing mounting instability and economic pressure, are attempting to seek legal residency or citizenship, said Gloria Briscoe of St. Mary's Interfaith Community Services.

The nonprofit agency has volunteers who help clients compile documents and complete immigration forms.

"We've been doing it for about three or four years now, and our numbers have increased," Briscoe said.

Overwhelmingly, immigrants living in San Joaquin County entered the country before 2000. About 55 percent of them come from Latin America, predominantly Mexico. That is down from 57 percent in 2007, which suggests that most of the immigrants who have left the county were originally from Mexico.

Meanwhile, the segments of the county's foreign-born population comprised of Asians (36.7 percent to 37.5 percent) and Europeans (2.7 percent to 4.5 percent) have grown slightly.

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