Thread: DE: Illegals complain about job and housing losses

Del. Hispanics take hard hit in slow economy

By SUMMER HARLOW
The News Journal

As one of only a handful of hairstylists for Latinos in the area, Marilu Patiño is in the know about what's going on in her community.

As she highlights and cuts and styles, she listens to what her customers have to say, and lately the topic of conversation has been money -- how to earn it, how to save it.

"People who don't have a job are worried because they can't find one, and people who work are nervous they're going to lose their job, so everybody's stressed," said Patiño, who owns the NezaYork International salon in the Wilmington Flea Market on Maryland Avenue. "Before, the American dream was to buy a car and a home and still be able to send money back to Mexico for your parents. But now they can't afford a car or a home. They're just worried about eating."

Even with her salon, Patiño, 29, is concerned. Business is the slowest it's been since she opened six years ago.

Clients who came in once a month now come in every three months -- in these tough times, haircuts are the first luxury to land on the chopping block, she said.

Her tips have dwindled from $7 to $1, with her clients shamefacedly telling her it's all they can afford.

After reaping the benefits of years of an expanding economy and booming housing market, the nation's Latinos now are suffering a disproportionate blow dealt by the stalling economy.

Record-high Latino homeownership rates have given way to foreclosures. The jobs and wealth created by the housing boom -- Latino wages rose at a faster rate than for other workers from 2005-06 -- now, amid the slump in the construction industry, have been replaced by growing joblessness and shrinking paychecks.

And for the first time ever, foreign-born Latinos, who immigrated to this country specifically to work, have higher unemployment rates than native-born Hispanics.

"Hispanics are at the lowest socioeconomic level right now, and that has a ripple effect," said Maria Cabrera, chairwoman of Delaware's Hispanic Business Association. "You had a lot of construction, a lot of labor jobs with Hispanics working in those fields, but that's come to a halt, and those people are unemployed, so they're not going out as consumers and spending money. That means the little market on the corner isn't bringing in money, and little restaurants are not getting customers, and wire services are not transferring money back home because immigrants need all their money to survive. So then all those businesses suffer, too."

Unemployment jumps

After reaching historic lows in 2006, unemployment among Latinos is rising faster than the rest of the U.S. population, jumping to 6.5 percent in the first quarter of the year, compared with 4.7 percent for all non-Hispanics, according to a labor report from the Pew Hispanic Center.

The unemployment rate for Delaware's Latinos jumped 40 percent from 2006 to 2007, more than the 31 percent increase in the state's overall unemployment rate during that same period, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In June, the country's Hispanic unemployment rate continued to rise, to 7.7 percent, while the jobless rates for whites and blacks remained level.

More than half of the jobs Hispanics have lost have been in the construction industry, said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research at the Pew Hispanic Center. In Delaware, the overall number of construction jobs dropped by nearly 2,000, or 5.8 percent, from 2006 to 2007.

"You had a huge influx of foreign-born Hispanics, not with an awful lot of seniority, depending on one single industry, and when that one single industry collapsed, the workers most likely to be let go are ones with the least seniority, and the ones who often are undocumented," Kochhar said. "So it's no surprise Hispanics have been hit more because construction is leading the downturn."

An estimated 44,000 Latin American immigrants live in the First State, up 45.5 percent from 30,240 in 2006, according to the Inter American Development Bank. The U.S. Census estimated the overall Hispanic population in Delaware in 2007 at 56,152.

Every day, families contact the Latin American Community Center in Wilmington, seeking help with housing costs and electricity bills.

"We've never had so many people asking for assistance, looking for jobs," said Maria Matos, the center's executive director. "Our food closet stays empty. It's the worst I've ever seen it."

The shrinking economy is hurting everyone, so unlike in previous years the center can't help with rent or utility payments.

Jorge Echavarria, work force development coordinator at the center, said he sees about 45 clients a month seeking jobs. A year ago, he could find most clients work within 30 days.

"They come in looking for anything, and they're willing to take two or three part-time jobs just to make ends meet," he said.

Some employers are taking advantage of the many Latino workers who will take any job available, he said.

"They'll pay a measly $4 an hour for what used to be double digits," he said. One restaurant owner contacted him seeking to hire a cleaner, earning $35 for an eight-hour day -- less than $4.40 an hour in a state where the minimum wage is $7.15.

"I refused to send him anyone," Echavarria said. "That's exploitation."

Hispanics targeted

Gerry Kelly, Delaware's deputy bank commissioner, also has seen the downturn in the economy bring out the worst in people.

With 3,853 foreclosure filings in the fiscal year that just ended -- up almost 60 percent from 2006 -- scammers have targeted the state's Hispanic community.

"They'll say, in perfect Spanish, 'I'll represent you for $1,000 a month in the foreclosure problem you're having,' " Kelly said. "They'll say, 'I'm the amigo you need,' but they're scamming people left and right."

While Kelly couldn't provide the number of Latinos whose homes have been foreclosed, he said the state is assisting with a study examining foreclosure trends among Wilmington's Spanish-speaking population.

"They do appear to be struggling more than the rest of our population," he said.

On Saturday, in Dover and New Castle, the state will conduct bilingual foreclosure-prevention and mortgage-counseling programs.

Nationwide, nearly half of the home loans issued to Latinos in 2006 were subprime. As such, one in 12 are likely to end in foreclosure, said Catherine Singley, spokeswoman for the Washington-based National Council of La Raza, the country's largest Hispanic advocacy group.

"It's a double blow, because people are losing their jobs and homes," she said. "We're seeing all the gains made in the last decade being eroded."

At the Sussex County Habitat for Humanity, volunteer coordinator Alison Gaffney said she can't say she's seen a marked increase in the number of Spanish speakers seeking information about moving into a Habitat home.

But there are those who illustrate how difficult the economic times are, she said. Like the man who had bought a house with money earned at his construction job and now can't make his mortgage payments.

Or the woman who worked alongside her disabled husband in the family's plumbing business. Their company went under, and the woman had to get a job in a factory, and she's the family's only wage earner.

Several months ago, salon owner Patiño and her husband, who works for a remodeling company, started to fall behind on mortgage payments for the home they had purchased four years ago. Not wanting to move their family of four back into an apartment, they decided to rent out their two extra bedrooms.

Entire families are moving in together to cut down on expenses, said Olga Jimenez, case manager for family support services at the Latin American Community Center.

Prosperity lost

Even businesses are merging in an effort to share costs and maximize profits, said Cabrera, of the state's Hispanic Business Association. She said her bilingual consulting firm Los Angeles Inc. joined forces with another business.

Nationwide, Latino business ownership had been growing three times faster than the national average. But now, Cabrera said, many are on the brink of closing, or are having to get creative, diversifying their offerings to bring in new business.

"These are tough times," she said. "It's not enough just to do drywall. Now you have to extend your services to remodeling and home improvement and anything else you can do."

Nothing to send back

Beyond their daily economic struggles, many immigrants also are coping with the guilt of not being able to support their families in their home countries, Patiño said.

"It's our moral obligation to take care of our parents," she said. "But how can we afford it?"

The latest numbers from the Inter-American Development Bank show immigrants can't afford to regularly send money to their homelands as in years past. The percentage of adult immigrants in Delaware regularly sending remittances to Latin America plummeted from 88 percent in 2006 to 52 percent this year, according to the IADB's poll.

It's too soon to tell whether the soured American Dream will prompt some immigrants to return to their home countries, or whether tales of economic woes will prevent further immigrants from coming, said Guillermina Gonzalez, executive director of Voices Without Borders in Wilmington.

Patiño, for one, isn't going anywhere.

She and her family have chosen to make their lives here, she said, and they'll weather the economic storm.

"Now we think about what we have to buy, instead of what we want to buy," she said. "We prioritize now. And we wait for the president to change, and hope things will improve."

LINK: http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs ... 8807280343

Can't understand why some illegals say they want to stay. Maybe we should find them and deport them. THen they can get back home. I am concerned that not enough will leave during this economic recession.

To me the most positive thing about the recessions is illegals losing jobs and houses and maybe being forced to leave.

Oh my the sky is finally falling, for some of you, illegal criminal aliens.

It took too long, and guess what it is not over,yet. Because you are still getting a dollar tip which mean there are still illegal criminal aliens, in America still.

I am sick of this.....

Delaware's Hispanic Business Association

Pew Hispanic Center.

Latin American Community Center in Wilmington,

What happened to the AMERICAN Business Assoc....the AMERICAN Center....the AMERICAN Community Center....it used to be that Organizations couldn't exist unless EVERYONE could join...I don't think I would be welcome to join the Hispanic Business Assoc.....

Even Rotary International HAD to welcome women.....

The article fails to mention that the hispanics they are talking about are most likely illegal aliens and don't belong here anyway. There will be no help for them except to go home.

There is jsut not enough reportage about the feelings of legal Latinos and illegals. The legals are pissed for the most part. The illegals feel they are taking charge of the country.

In Florida many have self deported due to the economy. There have been numerous articles in newspapers about how there are few jobs for them especially in construction. In fact many have let their landscapers and maids go as they can no longer afford to keep them.

Swatchick, thanks of the the good post, Goodness, I would hate to let all my maids and landscapers go because of the economy. I feel so sorry for these folks (employers using illegal labor to save a few bucks.)

Legalatina, do you have a link to this story. It is very interesting. I'd like to see if there are any pictures and/or video to go with it.

thanks


Remember to include links on all articles

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs ... 8807280343