SouthAmerica: I mentioned a number of times on this forum that thousands of Brazilians are returning to Brazil – legal and illegal immigrants. And that is also happening to other groups of foreigners who were living in the United States.
The Exodus is going on…..
Another example and also a clue to this trend you can find out by looking the figures related to cash transfer businesses in the US such as Western Union that many of these foreign workers use their services to send money home to their families. (We are talking about billions and billions of US dollars here.)
In 2007 many of these cash transfer businesses were saying that the amount of these money transfers had declined drastically when compared with prior years and some were saying that the amounts of transfer had declined by 30 to 40 percent from the prior year.
These declines are a combination of two things: first, many illegal immigrants are returning home, and second, the ones who still living in the United States are having a problem earning money as in prior years – many of these people work in the housing construction business.
These are people who have initiative, they want to prosper at any cost, they are hard workers, these are the people who took a chance and moved to a foreign land on their pursuit of a better life, these are people who would find any type of work and they are not afraid of getting their hands dirty – these are the type of people who serve as engines that help the economic pie to grow.
When this type of people starts giving up on a country such as the US, and they start moving to a better pasture some place else - then you know your economic system has a real problem.
Here is an article that someone send me via email in August of 2007 – Bu the way, it is estimated that there are around 200,000 Brazilians immigrants, half legal and half illegal, living in Massachusetts around the Boston area.
***
“Leaving Massachusetts”
By Bianca Vazquez Toness
WBUR – Boston News Station - NPR
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. - August 13, 2007 - In the midst of the debate about immigrants coming to America, something unusual is happening in Massachusetts: Brazilian immigrants are quietly packing up and leaving.
The falling dollar has made it less attractive for them to work in the United States, and tightened immigration laws are making it uncomfortable to stay.
The departures are already having an effect on the labor supply and on businesses in some immigrant neighborhoods in the city and the suburbs. W-B-U-R's Bianca Vazquez Toness reports.
BIANCA VAZQUEZ TONESS: Eduardo Filho is standing on a ladder painting the ceiling of an apartment in Roxbury. He paints and works in construction around Boston and planned to do it longer, but says he wants to go back to Brazil. That's because he's not making as much money here as he used to.
EDUARDO FILHO: PORTUGUESE
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: I'm going back sometime in the next two months. I can see the situation here in America is pretty bad. The economy is in free fall and I can't see a way it will get better in the next five years.
TONESS: Like Filho, Brazilian immigrants around the state - both legal and illegal - are going back. And some industries that depend on Brazilian labor are suffering. Gilvan da Silva runs a house- cleaning company. This is the most important month for housecleaners, when they can earn about 20 percent of the years profits cleaning apartments before September first move-in dates. Typically, his company cleans about 140 houses during that time.
DA SILVA: In 2007, I can't take more than 50 units, that's my limit.
TONESS: Because you don't have enough labor?
DA SILVA: That's correct. Because we don't have enough labor. Most people are leaving Massachusetts.
TONESS: Just as it's hard to know how many Brazilians live in Massachusetts, it's also hard to know how many are leaving. But one way to get a sense is by talking to travel agents.
Marcia Carvalho manages a Brazilian agency in Somerville.
CARVALHO: PORTUGUESE
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: Out of every 100 tickets we sell, about 70 are one-way, so a lot of people are returning. It's because of the U.S. economy. It's really weak now and the dollar is really low in Brazil.
TONESS: A similar turnabout occurred among Irish immigrants in Boston, as they've returned to that country because of Ireland's economic boom.
While Carvalho thinks it's the economy, others think Brazilians are leaving because of the political climate around illegal immigration.
FAUSTO DA ROCHA: Because the climate's not good. We're starting to feel the oppression. The sentiment against immigrants keeps growing and growing and it doesn't just affect undocumented. It affects others. For example, myself, I have my greencard, and I feel the same pain. Because this is my people, this is my community.
TED WELTE: This was a Woolworth store and now is Pablo Maia group, real estate and mortgages.
TONESS: Ted Welte is president of the Metrowest Chamber of Commerce. He says Brazilians have remade Framingham's downtown.
WELTE: We have been blessed. The folks who have decided to pick Framingham to come from other countries. They are entrepreneurs; they don't want to be on welfare, they don't want to take from society. They want to give.
TONESS: But Welte's worried that the exodus of Brazilians from Framingham will force shop owners here to shut down.
WELTE: I was here when downtown was pretty empty and I don't think anyone wants to see that again.
TONESS: There are already a handful of empty stores in downtown Framingham abandoned by Brazilian businesses. But there is one new shop just opening up. Problem is it's a shipping company. A shipping company that helps people send their belongings back to Brazil.
SouthAmerica: Thanks for the support to the people who appreciated the information that I posted on this thread.
One person mentioned in one of the threads temporary work.
Last Thanksgiving a met a friend of mine who works for Becton Dickinson (BD) and he told me an interesting story. He told me that BD had just announced the layoff of a number of long time permanent employees. He told me that BD was going to rehire most of these people back as temporary workers for much lower wages and without benefits.
He also told me that today BD has a lot of temporary workers working on its headquarter - so many people that a temporary employment agency called “Addeco Employment Agency” has a permanent office inside the headquarters of BD.
Becton Dickinson and Company is a global medical technology company that manufactures medical supplies, devices, laboratory equipment and diagnostic products – the company headquarters is located in Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA.
If BD decides to layoff hundreds of workers they don’t have to announce such a layoff since most of these people are working for them on a temporary basis. (No benefits, no vacation, no health plan, no pension plan, no sick days and so on.)
I wonder how many corporations in the United States are operating today regarding its work force in the same way as Becton Dickinson.
The US government will not even be able to find out how many people are losing their job and are being laid off in this new temporary job market environment.
Eventually, all these job trends that we have been discussing on this thread it will have major consequences to the United States economy.
You wrote: �I don't think its fair to label Elaine Chao because she is of Chinese descent; its like labeling a Brazilian pro-Chavez just because his ancestors are from Brazil.�
Your example doesn�t make sense since Hugo Chavez is president of Venezuela, and he speaks Spanish and has a native Indian ancestry.
The president of Brazil his name is Lula. By the way the language of Brazil is Portuguese. At least you got the right neighborhood since Venezuela and Brazil are both located in South America.
