Thread: Mass:OUR VIEW: Today's immigrants echo earlier waves

OUR VIEW: Today's immigrants echo earlier waves

June 29, 2008 6:00 AM

For more than a year, the worsening national disaster born from the failure of the country to deal effectively with illegal immigration has been played out in Greater New Bedford.

Ever since hundreds of law enforcement officers swooped down to arrest 361 illegal immigrants employed at the former Michael Bianco Inc., a factory producing gear for U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the community has been sharply divided over the issue of people sneaking across U.S. borders to take jobs here and send money back to Central America, where friends and family live in poverty and political vulnerability.

There were pro-immigrant and anti-immigrant protests, outrage by state, local and federal authorities over the handling of the raid and endless debate in the media, especially conservative talk radio.

The Standard-Times, whose news coverage and editorial positions were praised by some and slammed by others, published scores of stories and hundreds of photographs, countless letters and a wide range of opinions.

We knew we needed to understand better the cultural, economic and political forces that were helping to bring thousands of Central Americans, many of them Mayans from Guatemala, to this old fishing port that has received wave upon wave of immigrants since the days when it was the foremost whaling port in the world.

We assigned some of our best reporters — Becky Evans, who covers the fishing industry; Jack Spillane, who covers politics and writes a column; and former staff writer Aaron Nicodemus — to cover the immigration story both here and in Guatemala. Award-winning photographer Peter Pereira and reporter Evans traveled to Guatemala to witness firsthand the forces at work in that country that were driving immigration here.

Mr. Spillane and Mr. Nicodemus worked the story in New Bedford, covering how people got jobs in the fish houses and factories of New Bedford, how they had to live to avoid detection, and how the community as a whole received them.

The results of this nearly two-year investigation appear in The Standard-Times beginning today and continuing through Wednesday, with much more on our Web site SouthCoastToday.com, for those who want to dig a little deeper — or simply to see more of photographer Pereira's superb work.

We hope you will take the time to read as much of it as you can because the story it tells is really the story of the remaking of our city.

You will learn that little has changed in the past hundred years. Other immigrant groups, including the Portuguese, had to fight for a toehold here. Often, they too were poorly received, although the nation's immigration laws were more lax in those days. You will learn that while many Central Americans who came here illegally want to return, many want to remain in the United States and become citizens if they can.

They aspire to the same things we all do: food for our children, a roof over our heads, a better future for their families, and a measure of safety and freedom they were unable to find at home.

You will learn about the changing prospects within the local economy that have put millions of illegal immigrants in competition with U.S. citizens and legal immigrants for more and more jobs — and the resentment that has resulted. And you will learn about why this issue is so difficult to solve politically.

Our objective here is to provide light on the subject, rather than heat. There has been enough of that, often applied by people on both sides of the immigration question who are unable or unwilling to understand one another's viewpoint.

We invite you to join us for this special report, "The New Immigrants," on those who have found their way to our shore and to our city.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbc ... /806290307

THE NEW IMMIGRANTS
Many view crossing border as life or death choice
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By BECKY W. EVANS
Standard-Times staff writer
June 29, 2008 6:00 AM

CHINIQUE, Guatemala — In 1995, Casimiro Pixcar Gonzalez illegally entered the United States on an inner tube.

He floated across the rushing Rio Grande on the tube, which he shared with two other Guatemalan migrants and their guide.


For five weeks, the group had traveled surreptitiously through Guatemala and Mexico. When they reached the Rio Grande (known to them, as the Rio Bravo del Norte), they could see Texas and their economic freedom waiting on the other side.

“I thought I was going to die in that river,â€

After crossing the liquid border, the group walked along the train tracks for days. Eventually, they arrived in Corpus Christi, Tex. From there, Mr. Pixcar took a plane to Washington, D.C., and buses to Boston, Providence and later, New Bedford, where he knew he could get a job in the fishing industry




Oh really? Is he working on the boats? It's my understanding that it is a federal offense for any illegal alien or otherwise non CITIZEN person, to fish our waters.

Perhaps ICE should visit the docks in New Bedford?

This is a {SOB} series so I'm going to post all of the stories they're posting today so we can be up on what they're up to.

Chapel in Guatemala a testament to civil war horrors


Top Photo
Soldiers from the Guatemalan army invaded Zacualpa in the 1980s and occupied the Espiritu Santo Catholic Church and Monastery. Since named the “Chapel of Martyrdom,â€

Funds wired home ease poverty, fracture families
Remittances viewed as mixed blessing in poor province

Top Photo
Bishop of El Quiche region, Mario Alberto Molina Palma, discusses the immigration of Guatemalans.PETER PEREIRA/ The Standard-Times
By BECKY W. EVANS
Standard-Times staff writer
June 29, 2008 6:00 AM

CHICHICASTENANGO, Guatemala — Eswyn Cardosa Gonzales, 15, lost his parents to the United States when he was a year old. He hasn’t seen them since.

When his parents migrated illegally to the United States in search of well-paying jobs, Eswyn stayed behind in Guatemala. He was raised by his grandmother.

By the numbers

A look at remittances, or portions of wages, sent from the U.S. to Guatemala:

-- Money transfers sent to Guatemala by family members in the U.S. account for about 11 percent of Guatemala’s gross domestic product. *

-- Remittances grew from $3.6 billion in 2006 to an estimated $4.1 billion in 2007. *

-- In 2005, the average monthly amount of remittances sent to a household was $270. **

-- 60% of recipients lived in rural areas. **

-- 55% of recipients were women. **

-- 60% of recipients had only a primary education. **

-- 40% of recipients were under 15 or over 65 years of age. **

* Economist Intelligence Unit

** U.S. Agency for International Development

His parents now live with his sister in Fresno, Texas. Each month, they send a portion of their wages, known as remittances, back to Guatemala so Eswyn can pay for school, clothing, calling cards and other expenses.

Eswyn says he misses his parents “a little bit.â€

Wages earned in Whaling City transform Guatemalan village

Victor Garcia, one of the detainees of the 2007 immigration raid on the Michael Bianco factory in the South End of New Bedford, finds himself back in his hometown of Xicalcal, Guatemala, with wife, Juana Ruiz Garcia, and two daughters, Brenda Marivel Garcia and twin Lidia Yanette Garcia.PETER PEREIRA/The Standard-Times
By BECKY W. EVANS
Standard-Times staff writer
June 29, 2008 6:00 AM

XICALCAL, Guatemala — The story of immigration in 2008 is playing out in this rural village, where concrete houses, financed by an influx of U.S. dollars, are springing up from the cornfields.

Most residents of the tiny village can name a close relative who lives in New Bedford. Wages earned in the Whaling City’s fish plants and factories are helping families in Xicalcal (CHEE’-kawl-kawl) build larger homes with tiled roofs, glass windows and metal doors. Their smaller, more traditional houses are constructed of adobe bricks and have open windows and doorways.

In another village, all 16 members of the Josefa-Calel family live in the middle of the woods. Pigs, puppies, chicks, and turkeys wander beneath the scraggly shrubs and trees that serve as drying racks and closets for the family’s wardrobe of second-hand clothing. Meals are cooked over an open fire in a small hut made of corn stalks. Similar huts scattered around the property offer rickety beds with thin mattresses and worn blankets.

Less than 200 yards from the wooded compound, a neighboring family has built a three-story house from brick and concrete. A spiral staircase winds up the side of the house. A car is parked in the driveway and secured by a locked gate.

Both villages are located in the northwest highlands of Quiche, one of Guatemala’s poorest provinces and the region that most of New Bedford’s Guatemalan immigrants call home.

According to the development group World Bank, about 56 percent of all Guatemalans (76 percent of indigenous groups) lived in poverty in 2000, while 16 percent lived in extreme poverty. Adults on average had 5.4 years of schooling, and indigenous people had 1.9 years. Life expectancy, malnutrition and infant and mortality rates were weak compared to other middle-income countries.

In Quiche, 85 percent of the population is indigenous, mainly of Mayan descent. Eighty-two percent of the region’s population lives in rural areas, some of which lack basic infrastructure services such as water, electricity, health and sanitation. Two-thirds of the population is illiterate. Adolescents who graduate from primary school, which lasts for six years, have few opportunities to advance their education. Jobs are scarce, and those who are employed work mainly on small farms that grow corn and other produce.

“There are very few opportunities here,â€

He wears a grim expression while giving a reporter a tour of his half-built home. He says he needs $5,000 to complete the construction. To raise that sum working five days per week in Xicalcal, where he would make about $4 per day, he will need to work for at least five years. If he were still working 40-hour weeks in New Bedford and being paid $7 per hour, he could earn that amount in about five months





Ya know, for a second there I actually thought I felt a hint of something over this individual's plight but turns out it was nothing a shot of Maalox didn't take care of after too much coffee on an empty stomach

Honestly, forgive me my sarcasm but I find it very hard to sympathize with the fact that this person cannot finish building his house. There are far too many American citizens who have worked their asses off and cannot afford to make repairs or upgrade substandard housing they are forced to endure...never mind being able to build a home of their dreams.

Yet this individual can come here illegally, hold a job illegally......a job that should have rightfully gone to an American citizen or legal immigrant.....and then have the utter GALL to bitch because his dream home is sitting unfinished in Mexico because he was deported.

Sorry pal....but what we want in this life is very different from what we actually get and those who break the law eventually get exactly what they deserve.....even if it does run contrary to what they wanted.

Originally Posted by azwreath

He wears a grim expression while giving a reporter a tour of his half-built home. He says he needs $5,000 to complete the construction. To raise that sum working five days per week in Xicalcal, where he would make about $4 per day, he will need to work for at least five years. If he were still working 40-hour weeks in New Bedford and being paid $7 per hour, he could earn that amount in about five months





Ya know, for a second there I actually thought I felt a hint of something over this individual's plight but turns out it was nothing a shot of Maalox didn't take care of after too much coffee on an empty stomach

Honestly, forgive me my sarcasm but I find it very hard to sympathize with the fact that this person cannot finish building his house. There are far too many American citizens who have worked their asses off and cannot afford to make repairs or upgrade substandard housing they are forced to endure...never mind being able to build a home of their dreams.

Yet this individual can come here illegally, hold a job illegally......a job that should have rightfully gone to an American citizen or legal immigrant.....and then have the utter GALL to bitch because his dream home is sitting unfinished in Mexico because he was deported.

Sorry pal....but what we want in this life is very different from what we actually get and those who break the law eventually get exactly what they deserve.....even if it does run contrary to what they wanted.

I'm beside you 1000 % . Well said . To bad our Government is so corrupt that for a few bucks they sell out not only the Citizens ,but the Country .