Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

El Salvador will be especially hard-hit by the economic crisis in the United States. (Miami Herald video)

A series of stories in the Miami Herald has been following the effect the economic crisis is having on immigrants. Immigrants, especially those working in construction or service jobs, have been hard hit, and the impact is apparent on their home countries as well. Remittances, or monetary transfers, are down, and immigrants who can’t find work are returning home.

Officials predict that U.S. businesses, especially farms and nurseries, will see a labor shortage that will worsen after the economy regains its footing. The Pew Hispanic Center is already recording a decrease in the number of illegal immigrants arriving each year.

Meanwhile, Latin American towns that had depended for years on monetary transfers from immigrants in the United States are seeing that source of funding begin to dry up. The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank say that overall remittances have stayed flat this year. In some countries, remittances have fallen precipitously– in Mexico, the decline was 12 percent. This will effect Latin American economies, especially El Salvador, where remittances make up 18 percent of the GDP.

Even legal immigrants are feeling the effects of the economy. The Washington Post interviewed several local immigrants and found that an economic ripple effect was damaging immigrant-centered micro-economies. Ethiopian cab drivers, for example, are less likely to eat lunch at Ethiopian restaurants.

It all goes to show how connected the global economy is these days. What began with a subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S. is now affecting some of the least fortunate among us.