Thread: VA: Recession puts pressure on immigrants

Recession puts pressure on immigrants

JUAN ANTONIO LIZAMA TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Published: August 10, 2009

Xiona Solis, a 56-year-old widow from Honduras who lives in Chesterfield County, has spent the past nine months looking for a job.

"The little money I had in the bank went to pay rent," she said.

Solis, who had been working for a cigarette-packing factory in Chesterfield for eight years until she was fired, said her son-in-law has been paying her rent and bills.

"Only God knows how I've made it through all this time," she said. "My daughter [in Honduras] told me, 'Mom, if you can't find work, come home.' I said, 'Yes, I'll be there soon.'"

Anecdotes abound of immigrants returning to their countries because work has dried up with the recession.

Nonprofit, business and government organizations serving immigrants in the Richmond area report hearing people leaving, talking about going back or preparing to do so.

Solis said she has been selling her things little by little.

"If I don't find anything this week, I have to take flight," she said last week during a job fair.

But the Chester-based Shamin Hotels hired Solis as a housekeeper, and she's staying.

While some studies have shown that unemployment among immigrant Latinos is higher than the general population, if they are returning to their countries because they can't find work, it doesn't appear to be a trend.

"Anecdotal evidence suggests that return migration to some countries, including Mexico, appears to have increased in the last two years; however, data do not yet substantiate these reports," concluded the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute in its Immigrants and the Current Economic Crisis report released in January.

The Pew Hispanic Center, another Washington-based think tank, concluded in an analysis released last month that there is no increase in the number of Mexican-born migrants returning home from the U.S.

Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, said they haven't seen a jump in school registration in Mexico or an increase in nationals applying for permits in consulates in the U.S. to take their belongings to Mexico, which indicate more people are going back.

"What we are seeing is a relocation of immigrants within the U.S., that because of the economic situation, they are moving to areas where it is relatively easier to find a job," he said.

Tanya Gonzalez, manager of the City of Richmond Hispanic Liaison Office, said she has seen an increase in immigrants coming from other areas of the U.S., mostly single men, passing through her office looking for work.

"They have heard that the recession in Richmond wasn't as bad as in other states," she said.

But where private companies called the office looking for workers before the recession, now her staff members spend time going through classifieds to find job information for people, Gonzalez said.

She has seen an increase in immigrants with U.S.-born children coming to her office seeking information on school enrollment in their countries of origin and asking about the documents their children would need to come back into the U.S.

She also has seen more people requesting help with rent money, Gonzalez said.

"That's a difficult request to work with because of limited resources in the community," she said.

Nellie Vega-Cruz, coordinator of Conexiones!, a job-training and job-placement center by the nonprofit Telamon Corp. of Richmond, said about 80 percent of her clients have talked about returning. The center serves about 200 people a month, mainly Hispanics, she said.

"They're desperate," she said. "They can't pay rent. They don't have food."

The people most affected are those who are in the country illegally, Vega-Cruz said.

"I can't assist them in their job hunt, because they can't work," she said.

With the government cracking down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants, more people are losing jobs and it's making it harder for them to find work, Vega-Cruz said.

Most of her clients come looking for construction, plumbing and electrical work, but those jobs have dried up, she said.

"But the opportunities for employment locally have grown for educated people and those who are bilingual," she said.

Vega-Cruz coordinated a job fair for Shamin Hotels last week, which was looking for 28 housekeepers. A number of those who arrived didn't have working papers and were turned away, she said.

Among those who were turned way was Angela Herrera, who has been looking for work for five months. She and her husband rent a room in a house in Richmond. They have a son who has special needs, she said. Of the five people staying at the house where she lives, only two have jobs, including her husband, she said.

"They're the ones who feed us and pay our rent," she said.

Herrera, a native of Mexico, said she used to make tamales to sell, but then her neighbors started doing the same thing and with the continuing recession fewer people bought them, so she has stopped doing that.

"I know that this country is in a critical situation, but it puts those of us who are undocumented in a greater crisis," she said. "I've thought about going back, but you think it over 10 times because things in my country are pretty bad."


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Herrera, a native of Mexico, said she used to make tamales to sell, but then her neighbors started doing the same thing and with the continuing recession fewer people bought them, so she has stopped doing that.

"I know that this country is in a critical situation, but it puts those of us who are undocumented in a greater crisis," she said. "I've thought about going back, but you think it over 10 times because things in my country are pretty bad."

Too bad, so sad, don't care, get out! Cost of living back home has got to be way less than in the US.

"They're desperate," she said. "They can't pay rent. They don't have food."

The people most affected are those who are in the country illegally, Vega-Cruz said.

Boo Hoo Hoo

Most of her clients come looking for construction, plumbing and electrical work, but those jobs have dried up, she said.

Those don't sound like jobs Americans won't do. They sound like jobs Americans would like to have back if our spineless government would enforce our laws.

As long as that "potential" amnesty is on the back burner, they won't go back. They would get too many benefits.
14.5 million Americans unemployed...

Originally Posted by mbrown

As long as that "potential" amnesty is on the back burner, they won't go back. They would get too many benefits.
14.5 million Americans unemployed...

Yep, potential amnesty and that ATM called anchor babies.

Those with anchor babies, which is most of them, don't ever intend to leave. Their children are settled in American schools, they know their kids have birthright citizenship, the benefits pay more than they would get back home; they believe they're entitled to stay.