Thread: CO: Giving up on the American dream

denver and the west
Giving up on the American dream
With its faltering economy, the U.S. is no longer the land of opportunity it once was for Mexican immigrants.
By Bruce Finley
The Denver Post
Updated: 11/23/2008 09:22:03 AM MST

A tightening economy and social hostility are driving once-hopeful Mexican immigrants such as Absalom Lopez out of Colorado.

Seven years after an illegal crossing that led to abundant work cooking and cleaning, Lopez, his wife and their 6-year-old, Denver-born son plan to chase their dream of opening a tortilla factory in Mexico. They say their $1,000-a- week combined earnings here plummeted in recent months to around $300. They're moving from a $700-a-month rented house in Wheat Ridge to a cheaper two-room apartment until they head home to Veracruz next year, Lopez said.

Negative remarks and lower wages for Latino workers "hurt you," he said, citing social climate as a factor in his family's decision.

"Mexico's a better place to raise a child. . . . If we stay longer, we'll lose money, because there won't be enough work."
They're among growing numbers of immigrant families uprooted by economic hard times who now are recalculating whether to go or stay. Any exodus would add to what recent surveys in both the U.S. and Mexico show to be sharply reduced migration into the United States.

"This crisis in the U.S. is affecting many Mexican nationals. They came here seeking better opportunities. Some now are thinking of going back to Mexico. Some are moving to other states," said Eduardo Arnal, Mexico's consul general in Denver. "These are people accustomed to dealing with difficulties."

Colorado's population of 5 million includes 243,000 Mexico-born residents — many of them with U.S.-born children — and another 37,000 immigrants from elsewhere in Latin America. Latinos, half of them immigrants, make up a recently estimated 14 percent of the nation's workforce.

Signs point to exodus

Signs of the gradual exodus can be found throughout Colorado.

• Starting in September, Mexican government officials noticed more workers lining up at their consulate for one-time permits that let Mexicans moving home import U.S.-purchased possessions tax-free.

Up to three a day ask for these permits, along with dozens seeking passports and other documents, officials said, compared with two a week last year.

• Business is brisk at cash-only car dealerships along Denver's Federal Boulevard that cater to immigrants. Mexican workers are hunting for affordable pickups, useful for hauling belongings — 1998 or newer to comply with Mexico's environmental laws, said Maria Casillas on the Sierra Auto Sales lot at South Federal and West Cedar Avenue. She and her husband have sold 21 vehicles in the past three months, triple the number sold during that period in 2007.

"They say they're going home because there's no work and they can't pay the rent. One family, their kids didn't want to leave because they don't know people down there."

• Bank data show the amount of money Mexican workers send home is falling for the first time in a decade. Mexico has come to rely on these remittances, which totaled $24 billion last year.

• Denver bus depot managers say Mexico-bound buses are filling up more swiftly than usual. Since October, four 55-seat buses a day departed from Denver's Central de Autobuses Americanos — a surge that manager Jose Hernandez said previously happened only for the December holidays.

"Some are going one-way," he said. "You figure they aren't coming back."

"Better to get back home"

Mexican and Central American immigrants' recalculation
is complex because economic opportunities in home communities often are worse. Joblessness plagues rural areas in Mexico. Foreign-run maquiladora factories pay as little as $50 a week.
Recently, a mother who raised three U.S.-born children huddled tearfully by her husband outside Denver's Mexican Consulate. For 15 years, his welding, truck driving and work at construction sites earned enough to make $1,200-a-month mortgage payments on a house in Aurora — even though she and her husband were in the country illegally.

Now after a year without work, they're facing eviction. They couldn't even afford the $95 permit Mexican officials offered for hauling possessions to Mexico tax-free. They asked that their names not be printed because of their immigration status, but they were in the process of packing up his Ford truck to head south in search of a more affordable life in Ciudad Juárez.

Inside the consulate, Mexico- bound unemployed homebuilder Antonio Manzo, 30, said the only way he'd return to Colorado is legally. He and fellow immigrants paid $1,500 each to smugglers a decade ago and nearly died crossing the desert to enter the U.S. illegally, Manzo said.

President-elect Barack Obama would have to find a way for qualified Mexicans to work here legally with dignity, he said. Today he's departing reluctantly from close friends in Colorado Springs, trying to look on the bright side. He and his visiting fiancee, Olga Guzman of Sonora, plan to marry after visiting his parents in Michuacan. For years Manzo sent his family $200 a month — until this year.

"They understand," Manzo said. "They say: 'If there's not much for you to do now, better to get back home.' "

Enforcement also a factor

Advocates of reduced immigration argue that increased enforcement at both workplaces and along the borders also has contributed to the departure of illegal residents.

"Though the slowdown in construction and other industries no doubt contributed to the decline, there are several reasons to think that enforcement was a major factor in the decision of illegal immigrants to leave," wrote Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, in a recent column. "First of all, the decline in the number of illegal immigrants started before their unemployment rate increased; in the past, much smaller dips had been seen in the illegal population, but only after their unemployment rate increased."

Mexican and Central American workers in Colorado often come from impoverished indigenous communities where they saw no other option but to leave. Here, as they work, they also pay taxes and spend money — spurring economic growth.

"If unemployed immigrants leave and go back, I don't see how we lose much of anything," University of Colorado economist Michael Greenwood said.

The Pew Hispanic Center has estimated, based on surveys, that the U.S. population of undocumented immigrants dropped from 12.4 million in 2007 to 11.9 million in March. The center also estimates that for the first time in more than a decade, more immigrants are arriving in the U.S. legally than illegally.

Mexican authorities echo those figures, estimating last week that the number of people leaving that nation has fallen by 42 percent since 2006.

But even taking into account those estimates and the indications of an exodus, thousands of immigrants remain in Colorado hunting for day labor.

Downturn hits hard

Waiting at East Colfax Avenue and Dayton Street in Aurora with other disillusioned men, Alejandro Cruz, 30, cringed at the prospect of toiling for $50 a week making Dockers trousers at a factory near his home.

On the other hand, he's never met his 2-year-old daughter, Barbara, and wants to get to know his three sons, who may have forgotten him, said Cruz, who begged for bus fare to leave at the end of November.

"Here there's no work. Better to live with my family," he said.

Late on the $600 rent for the apartment they share, he, his father and his cousin keep telling the landlord: " 'Four or five days more?' He says: 'OK.' "

The Pew Hispanic Center study found the economic downturn has hit immigrants disproportionately hard, with median household income falling by 7.3 percent. A survey by the multi-national Interamerican Development Bank found that, beyond the economy, "the immigration climate" was making it difficult for immigrants to get by in the United States. "The question," the bank's remittances specialist Robert Meins said, "is at what point do they reach the point where they can't adapt anymore."

Now Denver's newly jobless wander into El Centro Humanitario de Trabajadores, which offers employers $10-an-hour labor, looking for anything they can get. They find that the number of employers seeking workers has decreased by 20 percent, with five a day or fewer dropping by, said Min Sun Ji, El Centro's director.

"Workers are really depressed. I'm hearing from people that they need more low-income housing," she said.

Pattern seen worldwide

The shifting U.S.-Mexico dynamics mirror similar changes elsewhere. In Britain, Polish workers are leaving for better opportunities in Poland, said Bela Hovy, chief of the migration section in the population division of the United Nations in New York.

Once-poor countries such as Brazil that now have growing economies increasingly can harness workers, Hovy said. A fluid global mixing is emerging in which "every country is becoming a country of origin, a country of destination and a county of transit," he said.

Now Mexican officials look ahead as their population ages and returning migrants with skills press for opportunities at home. Mexico has started micro-credit and small-business-promotion programs. Government officials will help families transfer school records of U.S.-born children, Arnal at Mexico's consulate said.

"We're a rich country. Our problem is, the wealth is in a few hands," he said. "We look forward to stopping immigration because we'll be looking for people to work in Mexico. . . . The problem is that they can't get good salaries."

Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com

http://origin.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11047298

This needs to be on the front page.

Did you see the related Nevada story? Apparently this is happening everywhere. Well, we Americans are also having to leave homes, are receiving less money and less work, and cutting corners, and having to revise our life plans too.

Originally Posted by BetsyRoss

Did you see the related Nevada story? Apparently this is happening everywhere. Well, we Americans are also having to leave homes, are receiving less money and less work, and cutting corners, and having to revise our life plans too.

So true BR AND we've doing it for a while. No tears here. It's just catching up with those who took work from Americans.

I just came out of Chapter 7 and am bracing for a possible layoff next year. And I have no homeland or family back somewhere to return to if America doesn't work out for me.

Well I'm glad for Colorado but so far North Carolina hasn't had any reduction in it's illegal population. I find it interesting that one said "It is better to raise a child in Mexico." Hmmm...I hadn't heard that now there was food stamps and free health care in Mexico but what do I know. Also I hadn't heard that the education situation there has changed either. I don't care why they are leaving but if they are going back to Mexico or where ever they came from illegally I don't care. I'm just glad to hear they are leaving. I just hope they all are going back and not coming to North Carolina.

YAHOO!!

How many more millions to go?

Originally Posted by BetsyRoss

"Mexico's a better place to raise a child. . . .

They should spread that out to their fellow countrymen our
we could use it as our motto for our campaign...

If these are construction people they should be able to pool their talents and get underway with some kind of community development program. They can combine the natural longevity and durability of Meditteranean construction methods (like stucco, tile and stone) with the technology they learned in the States and have the better of both worlds. A lot of our own ceramic plumbing fixtures are already made in Mexico, as are a lot of cementitious products (floor tile, brick, block, etc). In fact there are plants for producing a modern, cement board building product very near to Mexico City. All that they need is some good "community organizers" to lead the way....

Even rats know when to jump off a sinking ship.