Thread: Migrants struggling for work in Tx return to Mex as a burden

Comments 36 | Recommend 3

Migrants struggling for work in Texas return to Mexico as a burden

11:26 PM CST on Monday, February 1, 2010
By ALFREDO CORCHADO
acorchado@dallasnews.com

CORRAL DE PIEDRAS, Mexico – The leader of this community has a message for its native sons and daughters who work in Texas and dream of returning home: Don't do it. You'll regret it.

To make her point, she has the perfect example: her husband.

Teresa Cadena Moreno, 34, the mayor's delegate in this farming community of 5,000 people in central Guanajuato state, has noticed a troubling trend over the past few months. With the slowdown in the U.S. economy, she is seeing a rising number of expatriates returning home. They're not coming just for a Christmas visit or town celebration, but with every intention of staying permanently. And that has the town in a bind.

They come back with more expectations than they left with. They want better public services – roads, schools, sewer systems – and, more important, jobs. Some complain about the lack of drinking water. Their children often speak only English or broken Spanish.

"It's not easy," Cadena said. "We're a poor community that relies on the remittances of our migrants, not on them returning home to stay."

It's not easy for the returnees, either.

Last fall, Cadena's husband, Jaime Hernández, 32, returned home after working in construction in Tyler. He had every intention of staying put for a while, if not permanently.

As a painter in Texas, Hernández made in one day what he makes here in a week, roughly $100, he said. Yes, food is cheaper here and his home is paid for, but after a few weeks "you miss a good steak," he said.

"You have to watch every peso you spend," he said. "Here you fight to maintain whatever you have, not necessarily to get ahead."

In the third quarter of 2009, the Mexican government recorded an unusual trend: 108,078 emigrants returned home to stay, up 30 percent from 2008. The trend was expected to continue through the fourth quarter, though those numbers haven't been released yet.

Meanwhile, money sent home by Mexicans abroad plunged a record 15.7 percent in 2009, a reflection of the sluggish U.S. economy. Remittances are Mexico's No. 2 source of foreign income after oil, totaling $21.2 billion in 2009 compared with $25.1 billion in 2008, according to the central bank.

For a country that says it wants to see its emigrants return home, these trends put Mexico in a quandary.

For more than two decades, the Mexican government has been trying to re-establish bonds with Mexicans living abroad.

The government even has an agency, the Office for Mexicans Abroad, with a campaign that in part aims not just to lure return investment in Mexico, but to encourage emigrants to return home. Just not now.

"There are a lot of pretty, nostalgic words spoken by the Mexican government," said Primitivo RodrÃ*guez, director of the Coalition for the Political Rights for Mexicans Abroad.

"But where is the substance? The question really is, 'How can Mexico reserve a job for you, immigrant, when the government can't even guarantee a job for your cousin or brother back home?' "

Mexico's long, devastating recession and drought have left millions unemployed or underemployed.

Even as President Felipe Calderón declares the recession officially over, it will take time for many municipalities to rise from financial ruin. Last year, the National Association of Mayors reported that more than 70 percent of Mexico's 2,439 municipalities were broke or near bankruptcy.

Corral de Piedras is no exception.

Jesús RamÃ*rez RamÃ*rez, 42, worked in construction throughout the southeastern United States but returned home last year when work became scarce. Now he sells corn on the cob for 10 pesos, about 90 cents, each.

"There's not much work here either. ... I'd like to go back, but it's hard," he said, pointing to one of his seven children.

And the returning emigrants add to the strain on the community, Cadena said.

"We don't have enough room in our schools, much less bilingual teachers, as some students arrive speaking English, and they can't fit in," she said.

"I don't want to sound ungrateful or offensive," she said, "because here almost everyone has a relative living in the United States."

Cadena runs a neighborhood grocery store with help from the money her husband has sent from the U.S. Recently, she said, he has been edgy, staying up late at night, worried about the difficulty of making a living at home. Finally, he told his wife he had decided to leave again.

"Being away from my wife, my kids, my hometown is very painful," Hernández said. "Living apart is no life. But so is living without a good-paying job."


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... d7bb7.html

Now THIS sounds like an article that would come from a rag that named illegal aliens " Texan Of The Year" ...

And the returning emigrants add to the strain on the community, Cadena said.

"We don't have enough room in our schools, much less bilingual teachers, as some students arrive speaking English, and they can't fit in," she said.

But it's okay for illegals to put a strain on American communities forcing them to build more school space to accomodate illegal students, and hire bilingual teachers. And guess what, your students don't fit in here either. No pity party here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote:
And the returning emigrants add to the strain on the community, Cadena said.

"We don't have enough room in our schools, much less bilingual teachers, as some students arrive speaking English, and they can't fit in," she said.

But it's okay for illegals to put a strain on American communities forcing them to build more school space to accomodate illegal students, and hire bilingual teachers. And guess what, your students don't fit in here either. No pity party here.

Exactly.

Could all of the ILLEGALS hired by the DISD return south to help in mexico's education problem and the DISD could hire United States Citizens?

"There's not much work here either. ... I'd like to go back, but it's hard," he said, pointing to one of his seven children.

Just get out and stay out. I'm so freakin sick of this! Why oh Why do these people not take to the streets against thier OWN govt!? This once again proves that mexico is nothing but a useless appendage on the US! I have never EVER in my life seen so many lazy, whiney, ....oh never mind!


.....one more thing: STOP HAVING SO MANY KIDS! MAYBE YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE (AND THIERS) MIGHT BE A LITTLE BETTER WITHOUT SO MANY MOUTHS TO FEED! Now theres a concept!

Most latin-american indigineous families have their own land with corn, and with all the family members spread about, there is plenty of food. Don't buy their little sad story. Those countries are an agrarian paradise. The U.S. has many more starving people than Mexico.

"you miss a good steak," he said.

And that $100.00 a day could certainly help our some struggling American and their family, and the United States. As a painter, he may never pay taxes, plus he sends his money to Mexico.

Psalm 91

It is written, He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."

Yeah well, they are not our problem, let them demand stuff from Mexico and stay out of the US! Sick and tired of whining illegals with their hands out & entitlement attitudes, demanding handouts and burdening us, time to go home and demand all you want there, we're broke and don't owe you jack!

These lazy bums were a burden on Mexico before they left, now Mexico is just getting their own problems back. Good riddance!