Brazilians Go Back Where They Came From

Tue04Dec2007

Brazilians Go Back Where They Came From

All to often anti-immigration advocates will shout, "Go back where you came from," to immigrants challenged by the growing wave of anti-immigrant sentiment. A very interesting article today in the New York Times reveals that many undocumented Brazilian immigrants are taking that advice to heart. Many feel hopeless after the U.S's failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Many have expired driver's licenses that can't be renewed thanks to tougher laws. The value of the dollar against the Brazilian real is dropping and the economy in their home country is improving.

“You put it all together, and why should you stay in an environment like that if you have a place like Brazil, where there’s hope, a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not a train to run you over?” said Pedro Coelho, a businessman in Mount Vernon, N.Y., who is known as the mayor of Brazilians in Westchester County. “Are they leaving? Yes, by the hundreds.”

In Massachusetts, says Fausto da Rocha, the founder of the Boston-area Brazilian Immigrant Center, his compatriots — many here illegally — are leaving by the thousands, some after losing homes in the subprime mortgage crisis. In New York and New Jersey, travel agents and others who sell airline seats say that one-way bookings to Brazil have more than doubled since last year, to about 150 daily from Kennedy International Airport, and that flights are sold out through February.

What's really interesting is that those who are leaving are Brazilians who have established roots in the U.S. Many of these immigrants have children born and raised in the U.S.. Others spent years creating businesses and paying taxes from their earnings. But for many, living in fear just isn't worth the trouble.

Norma dos Santos, a former house cleaner, said she felt she had no choice. Seven years after overstaying her visa, she said, she does not drive to work or pick up her children at school for fear that a traffic stop could put her in immigration detention.

“It’s just getting harder and harder to stay here without documents,” she said.

Still, she is uncertain that she is doing right by her American-born children, a newborn and a 2-year old boy.

“I’m worried they’ll grow up and ask me, ‘How could you have left America?’“ she said.

Via / The New York Times

Constitutional Protections Not Applied to Ana Romero: Mujer, Madre, Trabajadora, Muerta (Wednesday, Sep 17 2008)
Immigrant Bodies as Guinea Pigs for Vaccines (Wednesday, Sep 17 2008)

Maegan la Mala

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1. Jennifer Woodard Maderazo ~ Tuesday, Dec 04 2007 | 10:50H:

I read this article last night and was also fascinated. I wonder how long it will take for this to happen in other immigrant communities. A really interesting thing in the piece is that they point out the various small businesses that cater to large Brazilian communities which will now suffer from the exodus of these immigrants.

2. Maegan la Mala Ortiz ~ Tuesday, Dec 04 2007 | 13:20H:

I think this is the first time we are seeing it in such a huge urban center like the NYC metro area but it's been happening in smaller towns with other Latinos especially with some of the heavy anti-immigrant ordinances.

I think people who think that the anti-immigrant sentiments have no negative economic effect are fooling themselves.

3. Carney ~ Tuesday, Dec 04 2007 | 14:31H:

Looks like attrition works as a strategy. We're not helpless after all in the face of illegal immigration; increased pressure on them from all fronts helps encourage them to return home.

4. Julia ~ Wednesday, Dec 05 2007 | 13:50H:

Maybe all the aboriginal peoples of the country will take up this "noble cause" & free themselves of the scourge of the illegal europeans who have long overstayed their welcome.

Oh, but ,"that's different" right?

5. Ramón ~ Thursday, Dec 06 2007 | 19:29H:

Odd how the Carneys of this world neglect to mention how Latin America opened its arms to receive their forebears who were on the brink of starvation in 19th century Ireland. Their English masters were prepared to let them die.

Carney, do you think that we live in some historical vacuum? Then again, I guess you can't find that kind of information in the slanted history books of North America, huh?

6. Carney ~ Tuesday, Dec 11 2007 | 09:38H:

Ramón, did the Irish impose their uninvited presence illegally on those Latin American countries?

No. Instead, the countries involved took them in because the authorities decided it was in the national interest to have them. If the countries involved had decided not to permit Irish entry, that was their prerogative.

Even if millions of Irish had stormed Latin American countries against the will of the locals, showing a complete lack of respect for their borders and sovereignty, how would that oblige me to support anyone doing the same to the United States now? How does the centuries old past of whites and American Indians oblige me to support, TODAY, the United States of America having to acquiesce helplessly as millions of foreigners cross our borders without our permission and impose their presence on us?

It doesn't. Thanks, I knew.

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