Economic Crisis Puts a Strain on Immigrants

By: Amy Crawford 3:12 pm

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.

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This entry was written by Amy Crawford, posted on November 30, 2008 at 3:12 pm, filed under Immigration: New Voters, Old Fears and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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    I am an american missionary working in Sonora, Mexico and have personally seen several friends come back to live in Mexico - some because they were deported, others because there was no longer any work in the north.

    The remitances (money from the north) is drying up. Some men, who are now living without work, would rather live without work here at home that be separated from their families.
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    Immigrants on foreign countries are the worst being hit by the global economic crisis,
    Besides the high impact on product prices, impact on remittance is one of the amjor cause of job loss in some countries.
    Nowadays, It's best to have your own business rather than being employed.
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    It is really true that the immigrants take the big hit during recessions, not only for the big impact in product prices but also in job because they are the one who has the big possibility to loss job. Even for those who are applying, this situation is also hard for them because there is a job shortage since the other companies are shutting down, unable to pay their workers. Of course the impact is not only for immigrants because when the recession attacks some businesses close and everybody suffers financial challenge. The only way to cope up from these problem is the payday lending establishments that offer quick cash or or cash advance.
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    well situation you are describing isn't a direct effect of the economic crisis. And what is described here has been happening even before the crisis. I'm talking about Europe now, but the immigrant problems are the same all over the world. Of course economic crisis fueled the situation, and actually made people look in the numbers, which didn't change much from the last year for example. It's all about the mechanics of immigration, first father decides to leave for the foreign country, works hard, 3 jobs a day, and sends some money home - family thinks that life in that country is amazing and they immigrate too, putting strain on the finance of the 1 working male of the family - to the extent that it becomes unbearable, it's harder to find job for females and they immigrate back... this has been going on for a while now here in Italy. I'm a digital photography master, and I've photographed several places this people live, work...it's fantastic how they can survive with just a minimum. As a photographer it's my duty to report....
 
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