Thread: Guatamalan Kids Living Off Emigrant Cash

This is totally disguisting. Maybe employers of illegals should read this and they may think twice about their hiring practices. People for illegals should read it as well. It may change some people's minds.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nation ... ationworld

Money from the U.S. can alter motivation


In Guatemala, some young people live off emigrant cash

By Juan Carlos Llorca
The Associated Press
Posted June 12 2007


SALCAJA, Guatemala · Working and going to school have become optional in this highland Guatemalan town, thanks to a flood of U.S. dollars sent home by emigrants living in the United States.

The family-run mills that produce brightly colored, hand-woven traditional fabrics have fallen quiet as their potential work force -- mostly young men -- hang out at the town's pool halls or video game salons, living off remittances and waiting to make their own journeys north.

"Kids have easy money, and the only thing they know how to do is spend it on video games," complained Salcaja Mayor Miguel Ovalle. "In this town, school attendance has fallen in part because many go to the U.S., and also because those who stay don't want to go to school."

Some 48,000 Guatemalans left between 2005-2006, almost all to the United States, according to the Geneva-based International Immigration Organization, which also found that more than 1 million Guatemalans between the ages of 10 and 20 years old were getting U.S. remittances last year.

Last year, Guatemalans in the United States sent home more than $3.6 billion, of which $300 million went to some 300,000 people in the province of Quetzaltenango, home to Salcaja. That's a substantial cash flow in a $35 billion economy with an industrial output of just $6.7 billion last year as measured by gross domestic product.

Similar challenges are evident in other parts of Latin America, where remittances have made low-wage labor increasingly undesirable. In some places, local employers are being forced to raise salaries. In others, traditional industries are simply being abandoned.

"In many communities in Mexico and Central America, remittances have prompted a healthy competition among employers who offer better salaries because of the scarce work force, but dependence on remittances has also slowed local economic growth," said Eliseo Diaz, a researcher with the Tijuana, Mexico-based Colegio de la Frontera Norte.

In many Mexican communities, small businesses such as auto and tire repair shops and plumbing services are disappearing. "For many people, it's much easier to spend the money they receive than go look for it, and when this happens, productivity is reduced, affecting their local economy," Diaz said.

During the 1980s and part of the '90s, almost every household in Salcaja had at least one loom, and weaving the fabric used for traditional Mayan skirts was the first way young men earned their own money.

Now, some mill owners have moved their looms to remote, rural villages with little or no migration, where people will work for a salary of 900 quetzales, or about $120 a month.

"The thing is that this work is really hard, and you earn very little," said Secundino Taracena, the owner of one mill. "It's easier for a young person to sit back and receive money" from the United States.

About 1,000 families in this town of 12,000 people receive their remittances through a finance and credit cooperative called Salcaja, R.L.. "We want to foster investment, instead of consumption," said the cooperative's general manager, Romualdo Pizabaj.

But for many, like Franklin Robles, 32, who lived in Chicago and Trenton, N.J., for 10 years, wages will always be too low in Guatemala.

"None of the young guys are going to work for the 1,400 quetzales [$200] that you earn in a month," said Robles, currently unemployed. "And why would they study when someone who goes to school doesn't earn any more than that?"

Many simply bide their time until they can head north themselves, paying smugglers as much as $7,000 to guide them into the United States. Some are lucky enough to have parents who can bring them in legally.

"I don't want to study. It's boring," said Nery Raul Rodas, 14. "I'm just waiting for my dad to fix my papers so that I can go to the U.S. to work."

Guatemalan Deputy Foreign Relations Secretary, Marta Altolaguirre, acknowledged that many towns struggle to compete with remittances, but the government isn't overly worried about it

"I don't want to study. It's boring," said Nery Raul Rodas, 14. "I'm just waiting for my dad to fix my papers so that I can go to the U.S. to work."

Yeah, we need to take care of these people. They need it. It will make the world a better place.

Similar challenges are evident in other parts of Latin America, where remittances have made low-wage labor increasingly undesirable. In some places, local employers are being forced to raise salaries. In others, traditional industries are simply being abandoned.

Thus they no longer want to do the jobs "Americans won't do" so I wonder what senor Boosh thinks about his perpetual outdated line. Oh wait, that's why they want to legalize the millions here now so they can bring in the next 20 million to pick the vegetables that the illegals no longer want to pick.

I would be curious to see what our pro-illegal elected would say about this article if asked. Is this what they had in mind? This will stop the flow of illegals? This will keep more from coming over in the future? Also, this 14 year old who quit school will come here when Dad "fixes" his papers to do what? Does he think he will work and earn good money at 14 or is he planning on going to school here and having the teachers help him play catch-up since he will be so far behind, behind in his own country and probably at the level of a first grader when compared to students in America? Can he read in Spanish? Will he be able to read in English? How will he ever catch up? More money spent to educate these people whose own parents can't even participate in their education by learning English and speaking it around the kids to help the kids learn. Don't these people think of the future, or is the only important thing how much money can they make today? As far as "jobs Americans won't do", illegals don't/won't do those jobs. Give them time and construction pay won't be good enough for them anymore either.

Steph; those kids won't go to school and if they would they would drop out. In today's Miami Herald there was an article about how many drop out there are in Miami Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Many of those don't even get their GEDs.