An Economic Crisis: A Lose Lose Situation for Everyone

In a previous post, I examined the effects of illegal immigration and the outcomes it has on the United States economy. Currently, I would like to return to this topic in light of the recent financial situation and economic crises the United States is facing. Last year alone, about 500,000 undocumented immigrants entered the country, which is less than 1.8 million from the previous year, according to the United States Census Bureau (see left). That alone, along with the fact that thousands of immigrants are returning to native countries on their own, is dwindling the population of the United States. Efren Sanchez, a twenty-two year old construction worker from Phoenix, Arizona was interviewed by KVOA News and “states that because of the economic predicament the United States is in right now, there are no jobs, no chance of becoming legal, and he sees no point in staying the United States.” With broadcasts and reports being aired on the news with such information, anti-immigration crowds like the California Coalition for Immigration Reform are having a celebrated moment in time. This is due in part because, finally, one of their fondest aspirations is becoming a reality. After years of continued growth, immigration to the United States is slowing down dramatically. In other words, our nation’s sharp economic downturn and lack of obtainable employment, coupled with the human rights crisis and enforcement only immigration policy, have made migrating to the United States a less plausible road for people to travel. The symbol of hope for a generous and fruitful America where achievement and success can be obtained through hard work and believing in the future has dimmed significantly.

Another significant factor towards the decline of immigration, whether legal or illegal, to the United States is the collapse of the housing market. This along with the rippling effects of the current credit cataclysm and volatility of the United States markets has led to the diminution in the number of low skilled jobs in the construction division and other leading sectors in which immigrants usually tend to find work in. The statistics and facts provided by the Pew Hispanic Center have led to the first reliable substantiations and evidence that fewer and fewer immigrants are entering the United States. In previous eras the United States has been viewed as one of the most popular localities for migrants, marketed as land of the free and the home of opportunities. Mexican consulates in California and Chicago also report that around four thousand more Mexican immigrants than usual have already left for Mexico because of the economic crisis in the United States. With this in mind, Global Visas, a leading immigration consultancy that facilitates visas legally for those willing to migrate to the United States, “says the latest statistics definitely show that immigrants are keeping their eye on the economy and current crisis the United States is facing, and that the quandary that America is dealing with is a fundamental factor when people are making their decisions on whether to come and live or work in the United States.”

In spite of this, the United States is not the only country suffering from the economic crisis. Mexico also braces for a monetary setback, and with the lack of money illegal immigrants send from the United States to family members in Mexico, adds to a complexity of issues dealing with this problem. Mexico’s billion dollars a day reliance on the United States economy is only part of the problem that Mexico will face. The considerable predicament Mexico’s economy will deal with are the lack of remittances sent to family members by many migrant workers who are experiencing financial difficulties, such as losing their jobs and sometimes their homes (see right). According to Agustin Escobar, of the Center for Advanced Research and Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS), about eight percent of underprivileged families depend almost entirely on the cash flow sent from immigrant relatives in the United States to survive, and they will find themselves in a precarious situation with the drop in remittances. To complicate the financial problem Mexico will face with the United States economic crisis, Carlos Villanueva, president of the United States-based Asociacion Mundial de Mexicanos en el Exterior (AMME) (Worldwide Association of Mexicans Abroad), there is a conviction that Mexicans will return in a magnitude of numbers to Mexico, which is something that would unquestionably impair the local employment market. The Mexican government along with Mexico’s president Felipe Calderon has taken emergency financial measures to withstand the winds of crisis from the United States.

With the devastating economic downturn in the housing market, immigrant demand is slowly starting to decline and job opportunities are leisurely drying up. Owing to the effects of the economic crisis the United States is facing, immigrants are choosing to go back home rather than wait for an economic rebound. The construction labor that makes up most of the immigrant employment opportunities in the form of home remodeling, painting, and landscaping is no longer copious due to the fact that only the few well off Americans have the necessary funds to spend on developments. Small business owners are no longer taking risks in hiring illegal immigrants as the United States government has increased the fines for employing undocumented workers. With fewer and fewer immigrant workers sending less money home Mexico’s economy is also feeling the misfortune of our nation’s current slump. On the whole, both immigrants and the United States suffer because of the economic crisis. As immigrants migrate back to their home countries, the United States population gets smaller and smaller and low skilled jobs are being abandoned. The future of America and the people who migrate to it depends on how our nation will deal with the current economic crisis and how our government will prepare so something like this will not happen again.

Unconstitutional Resettlement: A Concise Look of the Online Society’s Views on Illegal Immigration

This week, I enthusiastically explored the Web once again in search of prominent, effervescent resources that will enhance the content I address in my previous blogs as well as provide my readers with additional links of importance pertaining to illegal immigration, issues and events in America(see left). Using the Webby and IMSA criteria for evaluating websites and blogs, I have found what I feel are twenty additional exceptional immigration blogs and magazines, new sites and online newspapers, and organizations based on their subject matter, structure, visual design, functionality, and profundity. These links have been added to my linkroll (right), but I will also evaluate each of them in this blog. The first two sites I analyze are closely related to my first blog on illegal exodus and the effects of illegal immigration on the economy. The Immigration Chronicles blog is the first blog that I examined, and this site helps readers understand some of the views Americans have on illegal immigration and has helpful sites to address immigration reform. With its useful links to issues on illegal immigration, the Chronicles blog has really good resources that deal with many subjects pertaining to illegal immigration. Another site that deals with immigration is the “Immigration Equality” blog. Although it is frequently updated with each entry featuring a new issue on illegal immigration, this blog simply is all over the place with two many issues differing from AIDS to Legislation bills. Following up on my last post on illegal immigration education, the Vanderbilt Torch is a conservative and libertarian magazine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee. This online magazine is visually pleasing with catchy side bars and letters from the editor of the magazine. However it presents itself as a bit of a critic when it comes to the issues America faces with illegal immigration and how it affects our school systems. The Public Policy Institute of California, on the other hand, presents immigration issues with education on a more balanced manner, with its “Just the Facts” section. This site examines both sides of the spectrum, providing its own opinions on illegal immigration and backing it up with real statistics and graphs to show there results. This site also provides there articles in Spanish and it has the RSS Feed function for people who can not read. Regrettably, some of the links are very slow due to the fact that once opened they are all converted to an Adobe Acrobat file. Following closely, is our own countries U.S. Department of Education website. This site allows readers to look up different Acts, especially the no Child Left Behind act that I discuss in my previous post. It offers many features as well, like the video feeds that address the issues pertaining to specific subjects like illegal immigration. Unfortunately there are no real graphics in this site, and can sometimes be hard to navigate if key words are not used in the search sachet. One step ahead of the United States Department of Education website, visually pleasant though perhaps simplistic the Council on Foreign Relations news page covers all aspects of illegal immigration from the 2008 presidential election to Canada’s immigration policy. However, it does lack the use of pictures and graphics to help illustrate some of its key articles. With this in mind it could be some what overwhelming to the reader to see so much text and no diagrammatic in the website. White House News, conversely, is a website that is visually appealing and easy to navigate, with catchy graphics displaying American patriotism. With its extensive news feeds and podcasts that are offered in Spanish it’s a great website to with reputable information gathered through extensive research and analysis. However, it does house personal motives with its attention leading toward the Iraq war at times by including links to in the “In Focus” tabs with Afghanistan leading the list of topics to choose from.

The Center for Immigration Studies organization website is a wide-ranging immigration site and preferred choice of mine among the mentioned sites with comprehensively researched columns such as the costs of immigration found on the left hand side of the site. The “blog” section also includes interesting pieces of how illegal immigration is affecting the United States when immigrants come to this America(see right). The site is not that visually appealing, but is easily navigable, with extensive news feeds, and up to date email alerts. However, in my opinion it houses personal financial motives, presenting itself as an organization that depends on donations to continue its studies and research before any information is offered to the public. Similarly, The Hispanic Institutes’ substandard graphics makes the site less attractive. With its blank blue column taking up the right side of the site page with nothing on it makes it very dull and bland to look at. While it does provide great information on immigrant labor polices and reforms, it lacks sufficient links to in its own linkroll section to help the reader navigate easier through the website. Closely related in content to these last two websites, is the Pew Hispanic Center. With more than half of the population of United States immigrants being Hispanic, this site offers wonderful reports and fact sheets that deal with diverse experiences in a changing America. In addition to being a pro Hispanic website, it does not offer biased information but does provide real facts through its extensive research and survey reports. I was a little disappointed when it comes to the graphics of this site as there really isn’t any. I was relatively impressed along with the other two sites that there are is no marketing of any kind in the websites, which is a big plus for a reader who is interested in getting to the information quicker and not be bothered by advertisements. Choices Magazine, the magazine of food, farming, and resource issues is a relatively small magazine featuring only a few articles on immigration and its effects on the labor force in the United States. Although it is a small online magazine with few articles it does offer great information on the issues America is dealing with in regards to its agricultural employment section. This site is easy on the eyes for a reader and provides great graphs and tables with statistical information to back up its claims and arguments. Some of the disadvantages of the magazine are lack of articles and very little information for the reader to enjoy. The site also lacks the ability to link to it articles page, so the reader will have to put in a key word, in this case "immigration" in order to find articles. CNN’s Political Ticker page is on the contrary is very inclusive, highlighting news from every variety of immigration reports as well as the views of some of the United States top government officials, while allowing users the chance to participate in generating their own views and thoughts to the most popular and most e-mailed stories. In spite of this, the hot topics headline at the forefront of the page may change almost too frequently to encourage interest in posts dealing with illegal immigration.

Moving along with my research of prominent, effervescent resources, I examined three popular online newspapers that match the criteria I was looking for in a website. The first newspaper I examined was my local Los Angeles Times Newspaper online. The Los Angeles Times offers a “blog” section that examines immigration updates along with local immigration news affecting not only Los Angeles but also other parts of the country. While the LA Times constantly tries to update its blogs on illegal immigration it is comparatively difficult to look up past blogs due to the contents of the website. It features too many other sections of the paper not relating to the specific blog of immigration, and I was bothered by the flashy advertisements along the top of each page which distracts the reader from examine the information provided. Another online newspaper dealing with immigration is the New York Times. Although the online newspaper tries to update it current events on immigration in the “Times Topics” section it moderately deals less with immigration issues than the LA Times, but I think this is due to Los Angeles’s location and close proximity with the Mexican border only three hours away. Nonetheless, the New York Times provides tidbits of information on illegal exodus issues affecting America. The site is visually appealing and easily navigable, with catchy graphics spread throughout its extensive news feeds, multimedia headlines, and global information. However, its many advertisements throughout the entire newspaper can be somewhat distracting at times. The Wall Street Journal’s Resource Center, on the other hand, presents many articles and blogs pertaining to many different issues of illegal immigration. The articles range from border threats to immigrant and the GOP. Unfortunately, some of the links are slow to load or link to dead pages with the articles themselves. The AFL-CIO Now Blog deals with some of the information dealing with my first blog post on how illegal immigration affects our economy. The title of the post says it all. This site deals with the views of unions on the effects of immigration in general. This blog offers great information on immigration law put forth by the United States government dealing with employment. The blog offer extensive knowledge on the Employee Free Choice Act along with other links within the blog that take you to other relevant articles dealing with the economy of the United States and immigration. The site is visually engaging, but it does have too many links that take away from the original blog. Alternatively, The Issue Blog from the OC Register provides key articles looking into edification and immigration. The site is visually appealing and easily traversable, with appealing news feeds. The graphics are concentrated mostly to the right hand side of the webpage; however they are still a little overpowering at times which takes away from some of the articles located on the left side of the webpage. The Federation for American Immigration Reform also highlights news from every genre dealing with immigration. This site is easy to navigate with a quick links bar and it offers a zip code finder to help the reader find information quicker for the areas that they live in or would like to research. The second to last website I included in my linkroll is the Library of Congress website. This website serves as a great tool for reader to download previous bills passed by the United States government on immigration reform. The graphics of the site are soft and give you the feeling of being in a library, but like a library this site can be hard to navigate if you do not chose correct key words to help you find document on illegal immigration. Finally, the Homeland Security website serves as a great tool to compare statistical information against some of the information provided by some of the other websites mentioned. The site is colorfully decorated with our nation’s colors of red, white, and blue and it also provides the reader with related resources where alternative information can be found. Overall, my explorations this week in search of prominent, effervescent resources has lent me great insight into the reflections and opinions of how the rest of America and the online cultural manifestations feel about immigration.