Posted on 05/30/2007 9:48:16 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SALCAJA, Guatemala -- Working and going to school have become optional in this highland Guatemalan town, thanks to a flood of U.S. dollars sent home by migrants living in the United States.
The family-run mills that produce brightly colored, hand-woven traditional fabrics have fallen quiet as their potential work force -- mostly young men -- hang out at the town's pool halls or video game salons, living off remittances and waiting to make their own journeys north.
"Kids have easy money, and the only thing they know how to do is spend it on video games," complained Salcaja Mayor Miguel Ovalle. "In this town, school attendance has fallen in part because many go to the U.S., and also because those who stay don't want to go to school."
Some 48,000 Guatemalans left between 2005-2006, almost all to the U.S., according to the Geneva-based International Immigration Organization, which also found that more than 1 million Guatemalans between the ages of 10 and 20 years old were getting U.S. remittances last year.
Last year, Guatemalans in the U.S. sent home more than $3.6 billion, of which $300 million went to some 300,000 people in the province of Quetzaltenango, home to Salcaja. That's a substantial cash flow in a $35 billion economy with an industrial output of just $6.7 billion last year as measured by gross domestic product.
Similar challenges are evident in other parts of Latin America, where remittances have made low-wage labor increasingly undesirable. In some places, local employers are being forced to raise salaries. In others, traditional industries are simply being abandoned.
"In many communities in Mexico and Central America, remittances have prompted a healthy competition among employers who offer better salaries because of the scarce work force, but dependence on remittances has also slowed local economic growth," said Eliseo Diaz, a researcher with the Tijuana, Mexico-based Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
In many Mexican communities, small businesses like auto and tire repair shops and plumbing services are disappearing. "For many people, it's much easier to spend the money they receive than go look for it, and when this happens, productivity is reduced, affecting their local economy," Diaz said.
During the 1980s and part of the 90s, almost every household in Salcaja had at least one loom, and weaving the fabric used for traditional Mayan skirts was the first way young men earned their own money.
Now, some mill owners have moved their looms to remote, rural villages with little or no migration, where people will work for a salary of 900 quetzales, or about $120 a month.
"The thing is that this work is really hard, and you earn very little," said Secundino Taracena, the owner of one mill. "It's easier for a young person to sit back and receive money" from the United States.
About 1,000 families in this town of 12,000 people receive their remittances through a finance and credit cooperative called Salcaja, R.L., which encourages the development of small businesses under its "More than Remittances" program.
"We want to foster investment, instead of consumption," said the cooperative's general manager, Romualdo Pizabaj.
But for many, like Franklin Robles, 32, who lived in Chicago and Trenton, N.J., for 10 years, wages will always be too low in Guatemala.
"None of the young guys are going to work for the 1,400 quetzales ($200) that you earn in a month," said Robles, currently unemployed. "And why would they study when someone who goes to school doesn't earn any more than that?"
Many simply bide their time until they can head north themselves, paying smugglers as much as $7,000 to guide them into the United States. Most migrants from Salcaja end up in Trenton or Chicago. Some are lucky enough to have parents who can bring them in legally.
"I don't want to study. It's boring," said Nery Raul Rodas, 14. "I'm just waiting for my dad to fix my papers so that I can go to the U.S. to work."
Guatemalan Deputy Foreign Relations Secretary, Marta Altolaguirre, acknowledged that many towns struggle to compete with remittances, but the government isn't overly worried about it.
"It's the least of our problems," she said. "The positive outweighs the negative."
Associated Press writer Olga R. Rodriguez contributed to this report from Mexico City.
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
If the illegals found out whats going on back home, they might vote Republican after all !
Makes me wonder how many of the immigrants on federal assistance are “poor” simply becuase they send the bulk of their paycheck HOME.
Yup. All’s ya gotta do is get knocked up USA side. Who cares if the only one bringing a check is in diapers? We gots billions of ‘em! Talk abouts our “jobs” no American will do!
This can’t be true. Everyone (specially the prez) KNOWS Latinos work harder than Americans.
paying smugglers as much as $7,000 to guide them into the United States... then they can afford a $5,000 fine and should pay their own hospital bills.
Interesting that this is causing problems in the home countries too, and not just here. Seems like a lose/lose for everyone.
CALL! CALL! CALL! CALL! AND KEEP CALLING TILL THE LINES FRY!
WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! TILL YOU RUN OUT OF INK IN YOUR PEN!
Bombard the Democrats as well, especially the ones that ran on an anti illegal immigration plank and the ones in marginal districts who could be vulnerable. keep pounding on them. This is a bipartisan issue not a Conservative or Liberal issue BUT AN AMERICAN issue.
I see the U.S. as a pinata, getting the stuffing beat out of it.
Nice graphic Potlatch. Breezing thru and have seen several creative graphics from you in FR today....
Luv ya’ and luv yer stuff Kiddo!
Thank you antceecee, I appreciate that very much!!
B U M P
Last month I had to go to Lake Worth Florida. The part of town I went to looked like an Indian village in Guatemala
>>”I don’t want to study. It’s boring,” said Nery Raul Rodas, 14. “I’m just waiting for my dad to fix my papers so that I can go to the U.S. to work.” <<<
There’s the kind of immigrant we want to take it! Let’s legalize this guy!
It’s true, isn’t it? Studying is boring. Why study when I can be illiterate, show up at the US, and have American sell-outs throwing themselves at my dirty feet?
I’d like to know where they get the $7000 for the smuggler in the first place. Something just doesn’t add up here.
They are not the penniless urchins that Dems want you to believe that they are. Those stay home.
A thousand a week.
Enforce the border.
Former Congressman Henry Bonilla wrote a book, and one thing he brought out was that his hispanic community was so bad about impressing education on their children. He took a lot of flack for it, but he was right.
Here’s another article:
Hispanic boys have lowest grad rate in DPS (Denver - 19%)
[snip]Fewer than one in five Hispanic boys enrolled in Denver middle schools graduates from a city high school five years after starting eighth grade, an analysis by the Rocky Mountain News has found. Only 19 percent of Hispanic male eighth-graders enrolled in Denver Public Schools in fall 2001 graduated from a DPS high school in spring 2006, the lowest rate of any student group analyzed in the study.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_5561672,00.html
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