http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=3461541

Numbers show many immigrants fleeing Peru are moving to Arizona
June 11, 2005, 10:15 AM

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Up to 7,000 Peruvians have settled in the Phoenix metropolitan area in recent years, among them immigrants fleeing economic hardship in Peru and Peruvians moving here from other states.

"Arizona is a good state. It's a prosperous state. There seem to be many opportunities here," said Chandler resident Cesar Ocampo, 55, a native of Peru.

Alberto Massa, the consul general of Peru in Los Angeles, was scheduled to be in Mesa on Saturday to meet with Peruvians.

Massa said the purpose of his trip was to host a "mobile consulate," where Peruvian immigrants may apply for passports, consular identification cards and other services normally only available at the consulate in Los Angeles.

The size of the Peruvian population in Phoenix is small compared with the 150,000 the Peruvian government estimates are living in Southern California, and the 200,000 Peruvians living in both the Miami and New York City metropolitan areas, Massa said.

But the number is growing rapidly, in part because of illegal immigration from Peru, and Arizona's proximity to the Mexican border.

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