Region's Immigrants Building a Better Life -- Back Home



Region's Immigrants Building a Better Life -- Back Home.

By Mary Beth Sheridan

Washington Post Staff Writer.

It was a Saturday night charity bash in Fairfax County, and El Salvador's new economic elite was stepping out.

Maids. Gardeners. Truck drivers. They packed the Shriners hall on Arlington Boulevard, gyrating to pounding merengue, chugging beer and tossing crumpled bills

into a cardboard box to help earthquake victims in El Salvador.

These struggling Northern Virginia immigrants might have a lowly role in the U.S. labor force. But in El Salvador, they have become coveted foreign investors. Two

Salvadoran diplomats were assiduously courting the boogieing benefactors, some of whom barely finished eighth grade.

The immigrants who sponsored the dance have bestowed a string of gifts on their Salvadoran home town of Chinameca in the past few years: a new Red Cross

clinic, an ambulance, a public laundry center, restrooms for a school. Through Washington area parties, bake sales and business donations, the immigrant club

estimates it has raised more than $300,000 for the impoverished town.

"El Salvador survives thanks to the money they send home," said Sussy Quintanilla, the community affairs envoy at the Salvadoran Embassy, referring to her country's

1.5 million emigrants, most of whom left for the United States.

Indeed, as their numbers have soared, immigrants in the United States have become the leading source of development aid for many countries -- especially in Latin

America, the source of more than half of foreign-born U.S. residents. And the flood of "migra-dollars" now extends well beyond remittances wired to relatives for

medicine or tortillas. Increasingly, Latin American governments and international aid agencies are seeking to direct these billions of dollars into schools, roads and

other development projects.

The amount sent home by Salvadoran immigrants, a mere $10 million in 1980, will total about $2 billion this year, according to the Salvadoran Embassy in

Washington -- a sum equivalent to the annual world profits of McDonald's Corp.

Rene Leon, El Salvador's ambassador to the United States, estimates that 10 percent of the immigrant assistance to his country comes from Salvadoran groups

donating to community projects. Those groups are often "hometown associations" like the Chinameca club, composed of Salvadorans in a U.S. city who came from

the same town or state and are funding improvements there.

Mexican immigrants in the United States, who send home an estimated $7 billion a year, have formed at least 600 such associations -- including clubs in Alexandria,

Manassas and Riverdale -- and Mexico's government is encouraging the trend by matching many of the contributions.

The importance of this international money flow was underscored last month when the Salvadoran government persuaded President Bush to let Salvadorans who are

in the United States illegally apply for 18-month work permits so that their remittances would help their country recover from its two devastating earthquakes. The

Honduran foreign minister, Roberto Flores, was in Washington last week to seek an extension of a similar measure granted to his country in 1999.

Latinos in the Washington area, as in other parts of the United States, take pride in their status as coveted investors and in the impact their dollars are having.

"This is the number one help for our country," declared Carlos Robles, a Salvadoran immigrant who runs an Alexandria travel agency and helped organize the recent

benefit dance in Fairfax County. "There are rich people who have big estates and grow coffee [in El Salvador]. We're bigger than them."

But these money transfers also are feeding a debate that echoes from rural Salvadoran pueblos to emigre neighborhoods such as Mount Pleasant. Do the gifts breed

dependency in Latin America and encourage further migration? Do they come at too high a price, draining resources that could otherwise be invested in low-income

immigrant communities in this country?

Saul Solorzano, director of the Central American Resource Center in Columbia Heights, calls the remittances "a necessary loss, because people want to support their

relatives." But, he said, "in many cases, that means they will not be able to save enough money to provide a better education to their children here. It also means they will not be

able to have more money for housing and other basic necessities."

Alfredo Tolosa, 51, who lives in Falls Church and is a gardener at the Potomac School in McLean, sends home about $400 a month, up to 20 percent of his

paycheck. In addition to sending money to his mother, a brother's family and a nephew and niece orphaned by El Salvador's civil war, Tolosa, who emigrated in

1979, also contributes to hometown fundraisers.

"Since God gave us this opportunity, I want to help my family," said Tolosa, a silver-haired man who wore a starched, pinstriped shirt to the recent fundraising dance

in Fairfax. He also wants to help his country. And he said he trusts Salvadoran clubs more than the Salvadoran government. "Even if it's just a dollar, I know it will get there," he said.

Salvadoran diplomats in the United States often get involved in the clubs' work by mediating with officials back home, removing bureaucratic hurdles and identifying

potential donors here. Fostering closer ties with Salvadorans living abroad has become a top foreign-policy priority in El Salvador and is handled by the country's

vice president.

The development organizations acknowledge that remittances are now much bigger than their own aid. In Latin America, the migrant money has soared from $1.2

billion in 1980 to $14.1 billion in 1999, according to World Bank estimates. That growth is part of a worldwide trend reflecting increased migration, relatively cheap

travel and easier ways to send money home, experts say. Globally, the bank estimates that remittances to developing countries have ballooned nearly fourfold in the

last 20 years, to about $50 billion.

In countries such as El Salvador, some officials worry about the development of a culture of dependency, fearing that residents won't want to work because of the

cash arriving from abroad. In the United States, some analysts say the donations encourage further immigration.

Another issue is to what extent immigrant communities in the United States are being held back because their resources are flowing abroad. Some experts cite the

example of Cuban Americans, saying their communities have thrived in part because they were long unable to send money home and invested it instead in businesses

and education here.

Many of the Salvadoran immigrants at the Fairfax dance spoke of making heavy sacrifices to support relatives and neighbors back home.Francisco Hernandez, 43, a construction foreman, and his wife, Vilma, 39, a housecleaner, work four jobs between them, including their office-cleaning work at

night. They send up to $500 a month to family in El Salvador, in addition to participating in the fundraisers of the Chinameca club. "We feel the strain," she said. "But at least we are allowing others to live better."

Answer all the questions according to the article. Do not copy the article in your answer.

TRUE/FALSE: Write "true" or "false" next to each statement If the statement is false, explain why it is false.

1. « Salvadoran immigrants living in the U.S. send a lot of money to their home country's government in order to improve the standard of living there.

2. Immigrants from Latin America generally earn so much money that they can lead a good life and still send their extra cash to their home countries.

3. Immigrants started by sending money to their families back home. Now they also contribute to community projects.

4. McDonalds gives a substantial sum of money to poor countries.

5. The U.S. government has given some illegal immigrants from countries devastated by natural disasters the chance to become legal, so that they are able to work and send money to their homeland.

6. The quantity of money that the World Bank lends to developing countries is less than the quantity sent home by immigrants.

7. Latin American governments are trying to facilitate donations from immigrants.

SHORT ANSWER: Answer each question in about 1 to 5 sentences, as needed.

8. Many immigrants send money to their home countries from the U.S. What three possible negative effects of this practice are mentioned in the article? (One is related to circumstances in the U.S., and the others to El Salvador.)

9. How is money to send home raised by immigrants? Where/How is the money generated? List several ways.

10 What is different about Cuban Americans in comparison with other Latin American immigrants in the U.S.?

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