The Republican strategy of ruining the economy and raising xenophobia to a virtue is working on Brazilians, who are going home in droves. Isn’t that great? Maybe not.
“You can’t spend your entire life waiting to be legal,” said Mr. [Jose Osvandir] Borges, 42, reflecting on a hard decision born of lost hopes, new fears and changing economies in both countries since he arrived in 1996…
Homeward-bound Brazilians point to a rising fear of deportation and a slumping American economy. Many cite the expiration of driver’s licenses that can no longer be renewed under tougher rulesThat decision – to give up on life in the United States – is being made by more and more Brazilians across the country, according to consular officials, travel agencies swamped by one-way ticket bookings, and community leaders in the neighborhoods that Brazilian immigrants have transformed, from Boston to Pompano Beach, Fla.
To explain an often wrenching decision to pull up stakes, homeward-bound Brazilians point to a rising fear of deportation and a slumping American economy. Many cite the expiration of driver’s licenses that can no longer be renewed under tougher rules, coupled with the steep drop in the value of the dollar against the currency of Brazil, where the economy has improved.
Good riddance! Get those welfare-sucking, American-job-taking foreigners out of here! Right?
Mr. Borges [recalled] the early weeks when the family slept in a friend’s basement and he worked in construction for the first time. They expected to return to Brazil after two years.
Instead, he found his inner entrepreneur. He started a plumbing and construction business that soon employed upward of seven compatriots, paid taxes and helped build name-brand hotels in three states…
As the housing market faltered, weekly earnings in his business shrank from a high of $6,000 to barely $2,000, he said. Expenses like gas and rent rose…
The dollar, which once bought four Brazilian reals, dropped to a historic low of 1.7 reals in May. Then in June came their personal tipping point: the collapse of the bipartisan bill in Congress that would have offered them, and millions of other illegal residents, a path to legal status…
In past years, he allowed, [Borges] spent $26,000 on dubious and doomed efforts to secure a green card. Now, he hopes to make a living by processing sugar cane for ethanol on his Brazilian farm. “If we had papers, we’d stay forever,” said Ms. Borges, 41, who has been active in their children’s public schools. “We love this community.”
Depending on what happens with the elections next year, a one-way ticket to Brazil might sound pretty good.
NOT a good sign; when lower class individuals return to their home countries because they can make a better living there, then the U.S. is no better (and perhaps worse)than a third world country.
Yes ,many Brazilians living here in the usa are considering moving back to brazil.In Brazil they say they work to live, in america you live to work .continually chasing the american dream, On the slippery tradmill of easy credit and falling wages. while our political leaders use the immigrants as the scapegoats and the cause of the problems.Simply put they live better in brazil . There is more to life than owning a bigger house and a new suv.
Born in the hills of Idaho three quarters of a century ago, I have always loved my country, and still do. My loyalty to my country remains as strong as ever, and I spent eight years and three days in HONORABLE SERVICE in the US Army during the Cold War years to prove it!
That said, were I a foreign national at this point in time, I would not even CINSIDER entering the USA, even for a visit!
The destruction of that which was the GREATEST REPUBLIC the world has ever know, has now reached the point where not even us old hill billy types can excuse the rape, pillage, torture, and yes, outright MURDER committed, enabled, an/or condoned by the “political leadership” of both “colluding parties” now entrenched in Washington, D.C.
Now I can only say to the “fleeing Brazilians” and other “foreigners”, “Go now, while you still may, and best wishes!”
!Que vajan ustedes todos con Dios!
My wife is from the Philippines, although now she is a naturalized U.S. citizen. I have been SERIOUSLY thinking of moving to the Philippines when I retire. There are about 5,000 expats (mostly military retirees like me) living around the former Clark Air Base.
There was a small town in NJ once. It was quiet, and had many Second-Third generation Irish/Polish people (whom had forgotten they too came from immigrants).
This town in 2003ish had a light-rail extended to it giving it 40 minute mass transit to NYC.
Mass transit + Cheap rent = Better economy? Right? The town and it’s mayor excitedly signed away to build the light-rail expecting an influx of young professionals to come and live in their town.
What they got instead was an influx of Brazilian people. Soon Brazilian shops, restaurants, and other Brazilian small businesses came in. Construction workers, house cleaners, and other entrepeneurs came to the town for the cheap rent and awesome Jersey living that Brazilians have learned to love.
This did indeed boost the economy. The townspeople however protested. They could not accept the new culture and they did not like the new people.
This is a clear case of the Xenophobia Brazilians face, but the facts do not lie. Wherever we have gone in this country prosperity has followed. We build small businesses, we reduce crime just by being there, we make your country BETTER.
Now we are leaving. Gather up your staticians, economists, anthropologists, and sociologists. Ask them how Brazilian populations effect the area’s they have come in to. I’m sure the answer will shock many of you.
Remember, most of us are here from a time where our country did not let us prosper. We are here to be American and prosper. If we prosper, so do you. Right now I would wager to say you need us more than we need you. We know how to go away, live elsewhere, live happily. Do you?