Usa, immigrati, Sud America
Nyt 061019
Forte crescita del flusso verso l’America Latina delle
rimesse degli emigrati negli Usa
EDUARDO PORTER
[Da uno studio sponsorizzato dal Multilateral Investment Fund della Inter-American Development Bank]
L’ammontare delle
rimesse degli immigrati latino-americani (l-a)in USA è calcolato per il 2006 a
$45MD, +51% su 2004.
20 anni fa le rimesse degli immigrati provenivano da 4-5 Stati
USA, ora provengono da 48/50 Stati (tranne Montana e West Virginia).
Circa i ¾ dei l-a
inviano regolarmente denaro, contro il 60% del 2004, forse a causa del forte
aumento degli immigrati illegali, che inviano più denaro degli altri, e contano
per il 40% delle rimesse contro 1/3 precedente.
Dal Census Bureau
(Ufficio federale per il censimento), nel 2005 i l-a erano il 6,6% delle
famiglie USA, e oltre la ½ della popolazione totale.
% famiglie
provenienti da L-A e rimesse in 3 Stati senza immigrati fino a 5 anni fa’:
Pennsylvania: 1,2%
delle famiglie provenivano dalla A-L, $500; Ohio, lo 0,7%, $214 ; Indiana 2%, $400mn.
Rimesse dalla Louisiana
per 2006 $200mn, + 2240% su 2004.
I l-a sono stati la ½ della forza lavoro per la
ricostruzione di New Orleans, e per il 54% erano immigrati illegali.
Nyt 061019
Flow of Immigrants’ Money to Latin America Surges
By EDUARDO
PORTER
There is a common cycle to immigration from Latin America. Immigrants arrive in the United States and quickly find
work. Several months later —
in the case of illegal migrants, as soon as they have finished paying off the
smuggler who brought them across the border — they start sending money home.
– According to a new report
about immigrants’ money transfers to Latin America,
the remittances flow from almost every state. Even in states that had virtually no
Latin American immigrants only a few years ago, like Mississippi
and Pennsylvania, a growing trickle of money
is making its way south to places like Tlalchapa,
Mexico, or
Panajachel, in the Guatemalan highlands.
– “Twenty years ago the money was coming from four or five states; now
it’s coming from every corner of the country,” said
Sergio Bendixen, a Miami pollster who surveyed some 2,500 immigrants, legal and
illegal, for the survey on which the report was based.For the nation as a
whole, the flow of money has become a torrent. According to the study,
sponsored by the Multilateral Investment Fund of the 47-nation Inter-American
Development Bank, remittances
from the United States to Latin America this year will total more than $45 billion.
That is 51 percent higher than they were only two years ago.
– About three-quarters of
Latino immigrants who were surveyed send money home regularly, up from some 60
percent in a similar survey in 2004. This may largely reflect growth in the population of illegal
immigrants, who tend to send money home more often than others. They accounted
for about 40 percent of remitters in the survey, up from a third in 2004.
Moreover, with immigration to the United States a regular part of the life cycle
for large numbers of men and women in many parts of Latin
America, sending money back to relatives at home has developed
into a moral obligation.
“If you don’t send money to your mother, you
are a bad son,” Mr. Bendixen said. “Remittances companies say this in their TV
ads.”
– The study’s estimates on remittances are in line with population
figures from the Census Bureau, which found last year that Latin American immigrants
made up 6.6 percent of the nation’s household population (that is, excluding
people in jail, on military bases and such), more than half the total immigrant population.
The bureau also found that 1.2 percent of the household
population of Pennsylvania was born in
Latin America, as were 0.7 percent of the population of Ohio
and 2 percent of the population of Indiana.
These were states with virtually no Latino immigrants five years ago.
– According to the data from the Inter-American Development Bank,
money transfers from Indiana should approach $400 million this year,
with the total from Pennsylvania above $500 million and from Ohio more than $214 million.
Indeed, the study found Latino immigrants
sending money from 48 of the 50 states — excluding only Montana and
West Virginia,
where, Mr. Bendixen said, he did not survey because he expected very few
remitters.
In addition to those two states, the survey
suffers from very small samples in some with the most recent immigrant
populations. But Mr. Bendixen said that in these states, the remittance figures
should be off by no more than 10 percent.
The data are consistent with a known pattern
in which Latino migrants move
from immigrant-heavy states like Illinois to
new frontiers like Pennsylvania
in search of jobs.
“Somebody who is already here hears about a
new plant opening and goes there,” observed Jeffrey S. Passel, a demographer at
the Pew Hispanic Institute. “After a while, the word gets back to Mexico, and the migrant stream is no longer from
California to a meatpacking plant in Iowa. It’s Mexico to a plant in Iowa.”
The reconstruction of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina provides
an example of how immigrant populations coalesce around jobs. Latino immigrants
have flocked to New Orleans, where another study
has found that by this summer,
they accounted for half the reconstruction force, with 54 percent of them working
in the United States
illegally.
They too have begun to send money back. According to the bank’s survey, remittances
to Latin America from Louisiana
should top $200 million this year, a 240 percent increase since 2004. New York Times