Thread: NC: Ticket out of Town

Ticket out of town

With fewer construction jobs to go around, some Latino immigrants are opting to leave the U.S.

And as immigrants leave, Latino businesses see profits squeezed

By Cristina Bolling
cbolling@charlotteobserver.com


PHOTOS BY DANA ROMANOFF – dromanoff@charlotteobserver.com
Plaza Fiesta Mall on Carowinds Boulevard has had a slow start in sales due to the tight economy. Shop owners at the mall say that many people come to browse and eat, but not many people are buying.

Tough for everyone
Over the year ending in May, unemployment rates rose nationwide, the U.S. Department of Labor reported.
Hispanics: from 5.8 percent to 6.9 percent
Whites: from 4.0 percent to 4.9 percent
Blacks: from 8.4 percent to 9.7 percent


Ana Caballero opened Hollywood Beauty Supply in early May in the Plaza Fiesta Mall. Caballero says business has been slow but believes it is improving.


Latinos line up at Autobuses ADAME on North Tryon Street which offers a daily bus service to Mexico. With the slowing economy, Autobuses ADAME has seen a large increase in their one-way travel to Mexico with fewer people riding the bus arriving in Charlotte.



It's a warm Friday night, and Angel Lopez slumps in his parked Mitsubishi and calls his mom in Puebla, Mexico. He has bad news:

No voy a poder mandar dinero esta semana.

“I won't be sending money this week.â€

"Mecklenburg building permits for new homes fell almost 40 percent in the past year. The Pew Hispanic Center reported that 29.9 percent of all recently arrived foreign-born Hispanics held construction jobs in 2006."

That is a LOT of jobs citizens could have been working, and that is just one VERY SMALL small area of the country!!!!!

Obviously, tens of thousands of construction jobs were taken from citizens.

Or should I say hundreds of thousands????

Are we supposed to feel sorry for a business that goes under when it was started in order to cater exclusively to illegal invaders?

Yea right!

I've decided that I am going to finncially boycott anything that is even remotely atttached to illegal immigration, including anyone who would aid, or abet, illegal immigrants. Hopefully I can help the exodus.

Every time I see another article about illegals leaving NC it puts a smile on my face. Lately - I've been smiling every day !!

Originally Posted by lateone

Every time I see another article about illegals leaving NC it puts a smile on my face. Lately - I've been smiling every day !!

It is a small smile. The smile will get bigger when they start leaving the schools and emergency rooms -- the number of DWIs, drivers without licenses and traffic accidents go down....

Hispanics: from 5.8 percent to 6.9 percent
Whites: from 4.0 percent to 4.9 percent
Blacks: from 8.4 percent to 9.7 percent

Looks like illegal immigration is impacting the black community in a very negative way. Wonder how the Rainbow Coalition explains that away.