Enlaces News #9 (May 2005)

Last January 23–25, the Global Forum on Immigration was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The event took place prior to the World Social Forum (WSF), which has become the principal gathering place for social forces and civil society organizations who believe in and are working to create a more just, inclusive, and sustainable world— in short, a better world for the majority of the planet. The forum demonstrated an acknowledgement by the gathered civil society organizations of the political, socioeconomic, and cultural impact of migration in recent decades. It also highlighted the importance of immigrants—both men and women— as social protagonists of the immigration phenomenon. Key issues discussed at the meeting included immigrants’ rights to self-determination and the need to support immigrant organizing. The following article is a summary of a presentation made in Porto Alegre by Oscar Chacón, director of Enlaces América.

Latin American Immigrants Abroad
By Oscar chacón

The vast and complex topic of “Latin American Immigrants Abroad” has multiple implications for the Latin American/Caribbean region. We, Latin American and Caribbean immigrants have transformed life in both our adopted countries and in our countries of origin. In order to understand the issues raised by immigration and to facilitate the search for long-term solutions, we need to consider patterns and trends that have prevailed throughout the Americas in recent decades.

Demographic and social patterns:

• At the end of 2000, there were approximately 20 million Latin Americans living and working abroad. This figure has continued to grow at an accelerated rate.

• While the United States, Spain, Canada, Australia, Italy, and other European countries have been the principal destinations for Latin American immigrants, there are very few countries in the so-called first world where there is not at least a small presence of people originally from the region of Latin America. The percentage of Latin American immigrants in the United States is particularly significant; seven of every ten people who migrate from Latin America settle in the United States.

• In addition to the movement of Latin American immigrants to the globe’s industrialized countries, there has also been an upsurge in migration within the region of Latin America; hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans live and work in a Latin American country other than their country of origin.

• There is no “one-size-fits-all” description of immigrants from countries in Latin America. In countries such as Mexico, Central America, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, most migrants have little formal education. However, as a result of a long-standing history of migration flows, they benefit from access to strong transnational family support networks that provide assistance and ease the costs associated with migration.

• In contrast, in South America, the pattern in recent years indicates increased emigration by those with higher academic attainment levels. So while the region continues to experience a net out-flow of poor people, there is also the increasing risk of “brain-drain” as educated professionals also find the need to emigrate.

• The social impact of immigration on social groupings and family relationships is something that has not been rigorously studied. However, there is little doubt that social problems, including the increase in youth violence—most often gang-related—correspond to increasing levels of migration.

• Another matter that hasn’t been fully studied is the poor treatment and abuses committed against immigrants by national authorities in countries throughout the Americas—a phenomenon that exposes the hypocrisy of our societies: We advocate for the rights of our fellow citizens abroad but simultaneously violate the rights of our own foreign residents and those who are in transit.

• Yet another topic deserving closer examination is the longterm social impact of migration on Latin America itself. Specifically, what will happen if the social welfare systems of host countries—like the United States, Canada, and a large part of Europe—become incapable of guaranteeing the social welfare of immigrants in those countries, especially when they reach retirement age?

Socioeconomic patterns:

In their official rhetoric, the governments of the Latin American and Caribbean countries that provide immigrant labor power choose to emphasize the positive repercussions of immigration— specifically the immense influx of money sent by those who work abroad to their families. The truth behind the numbers exposes the weakness in these arguments. The governments of the region have proved incapable of fighting poverty or bringing down exorbitantly high rates of unemployment. As a result, the governments south of the Río Grande pay lip service to their “appreciation of the hard work of immigrants,” and tacitly accept their countries’ reliance on foreign currencies, particularly the U.S. dollar.

Other macroeconomic impacts of immigration include:

• Immigration has resulted in a massive transfer of economic resources. It is calculated that in 2004 alone, remittances to Latin America topped $45 billion. For the sake of comparison, total direct private investment in Latin America in 2004 was about $50 billion. In other words, family remittances nearly equal the entire amount of direct private investment to the region.

• The countries most affected by remittance transfers have been Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, Cuba, Jamaica, and Ecuador. Mexico is the undisputed leader, receiving more than $16 billion in 2004.

• Migration and the influx of remittances has had an enormously palliative effect on Latin American poverty rates. Each person who migrates represents one fewer person in poverty for the home country’s statistics. The United States and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are locked into a dynamic relationship of mutual economic dependence in which the transnationalization of the labor force plays a central role, but this relationship is one that the U.S. government and those of Latin America and the Caribbean prefer to ignore.

• Our status as immigrants results, in a large part from firstworld economic policies that have failed to generate a fair and just distribution of wealth and social and economic welfare for the great majority of people in the hemisphere. Paradoxically, massive remittances have contributed to promote the belief that these economic policies have been successful. An obvious conclusion is that immigration is an indispensable component of the current economic model.

Latin-American Immigrants in the United States:

The United State’s population is calculated to be about 290 million people. Of this total, it is estimated that approximately 12 percent—or roughly 35 million people—are immigrants. Of this total, approximately 65 percent, —about 23 million people—are of Latin-American or Caribbean origin. Approximately 10 million of these immigrants work, pay taxes, and support the U.S. economy without enjoying any immigrant status at all. This situation denies these human beings the possibility of living a normal life in a society that depends on their labor.

The United States prides itself on being a nation of immigrants; nevertheless, the life of an immigrant has never been easy. Fear of outsiders/foreigners and racial segregation has been present throughout the history of the United States and sadly, continues today to be a serious problem. In the United States, where the cornerstone of racism largely lies in the belief in the superiority of the white race, foreigners/immigrants continue to deal with the pervasive effects of racism. The social evils of xenophobia and racism are mutually reinforcing and continue to have latent effects in the U.S.

Challenges facing new Americans:

Given the aforementioned trends, I believe that we, immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean face at least two major challenges as we integrate ourselves into the social, political, economic, and cultural life of the U.S.:

The first challenge is the concept of national identity within the U.S. Certain influential sectors in the U.S. consider the enormous and growing presence Latin Americans to be threat to their notion of national and cultural identity. These groups consider it imperative to strengthen the US Anglo-Saxon and European roots.

Secondly, we Latin American immigrants in the U.S.—regardless of our immigrant status—also represent a perceived threat to the prevailing notions of citizenship. In the U.S., and many other nations in the world, membership in society is often based on the notion of rights based on place of birth; i.e., citizenship derives from having been born in a particular place. For Latin American immigrants, however, the concept of citizenship takes on a more transnational nature, particularly in view of the continuing ties we maintain with our countries of origin.

Another factor complicating the process of integration of Latin American and Caribbean immigrant communities in the U.S. is that our arrival in such great numbers has coincided with the general deterioration of the social and economic situation of the majority of U.S. citizens over the past 25–30 years. The quality of public education has suffered greatly, and there is shrinking access to medical care (currently more than 45 million people have no health care benefits) and goodpaying jobs. This situation has led many U.S.-born citizens to view immigrants as the scapegoats responsible for the decline in their standard of living. Nevertheless, immigrant communities often continue to pay for the damage wreaked by the failing economic and social policies of the U.S.

Immigration remains a very controversial topic in the U.S., but the issues it raises are so salien t that not even the most adroit politician can avoid them. On January 7, 2004, President Bush made a statement that marked an important turning point in the debate. Surprising even members of his own party, President Bush spoke eloquently about the positive contributions made by immigrants. He also criticized, however perfunctorily, the inefficiency and obsolescence of current immigration law. Still, the president’s statement lacked any concrete solutions. His proposal was the creation of a temporary employment program for foreign workers—addressing only one of the areas of immigration law urgently needing reform. President Bush’s proposal represented only a partial solution to a problem of major proportions.

Recently, Latin American and Caribbean immigrant-led organizations in the U.S. have initiated a process of convergence under the auspices of the newly-formed National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC). NALACC considers it urgent to foster a new climate of public opinion regarding immigrants and immigration policies that recognizes the net positive value that immigrants represent, both for the U.S. and their respective countries of origin. The new organization has created a list of proposed changes to current immigration law and related public policy. The list includes calls for the following:

1. Reduce the waiting period for immigration visas or citizenship requests to no more than six months.

2. A legalization program that would allow immigrants who live in the United States to become legal permanent residents and eventually have the option to become U.S. citizens.

3. Create a national immigrant communities integration initiative to help immigrants become full participants in the political, social, economic, and cultural fabric of the United States.

4. Establish policies that manage future migration flows into the United States in a way that is legal, secure, and respects human rights.

Many of these demands cannot be effectively addressed without first recognizing the injustice and inadequacy of the immigration law passed by Congress in 1996, which at its core considered foreigners to be an essentially negative factor in our society. The law needs to be deeply reformed or wholly abolished; in particular, the right to due process for foreigners should be completely restored.

Aside from demands strictly focused on current immigration policy, the organizations under NALACC’s umbrella also call for a new international economic policy that favors real economic opportunities for Latin American and Caribbean citizens. A new policy of economic development that fosters Latin American cultural identity and responds positively to the most basic aspirations of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean would bring with it a gradual decline in the numbers of those choosing immigration as the only way to escape poverty and to find better opportunities.

We Latin American and Caribbean immigrants deserve these changes and aspire to make them a reality. However, convincing politicians that the results will be mutually beneficial is a big challenge, as is the equally daunting work of building the alliances and inter-institutional relationships that are necessary to achieve these ends. If that weren’t enough, organizational work in the current political climate demands a dual focus: we must work effectively with the governments of our original countries and participate politically on the local and national level in the U.S. as well. We immigrants are well equipped to understand the transnational political connections that exist between our countries and the places in which we now live and work.

Organized immigrants in the U.S. and the rest of the world can make themselves powerful proponents of a new policy of economic, social, and cultural development. In the final analysis, our active participation in the immigration debate and the development of transnational policy gives us an historic opportunity to help make possible a worthy, sustainable, and equitable life for everyone across the Americas.