Immigration Laws: February, 2002 - Number #8

Dominican Republic. Dominican migrants in the US have ordinarily been blue-collar workers, but a new wave of Dominican migrants with college degrees is settling in south Florida. The share of south Florida Dominicans in the blue-collar Allapattah district of Miami fell in the 1990s; the professionals have spread out. Dominican professionals emigrate "because we want to expand our monetary needs and make a better life for families," not "because of persecution."

The Dominican Republic's Instituto Azucarero Dominicano (Inazucar) forecast a 2001-2002 sugar harvest of 665,540 metric tons, up 26 percent compared to 2000-01. Tourism has replaced sugar as the main source of foreign exchange.

Haiti. Haitians continue to leave in boats, setting out directly for the US, or traveling via the Bahamas. In January 2002, the Bahamas Defense Force intercepted two boats, one with 237 and another with 107 Haitians aboard. Tensions in Haiti have escalated as forces opposed to President Jean Bertrand Aristide have stepped up their struggle for power amid threats to journalists and an apparent coup attempt in December 2001.

Another 187 Haitians were found near Miami on December 3, 2002 and, because of their poor condition, they were brought on shore rather than repatriated immediately. They applied for asylum, and are being detained in what critics say is an effort to discourage more Haitians from fleeing. The INS says that: "Release from detention is a discretionary issue on behalf of the district and we are not going to discuss how we make our decisions."

Honduras. The US deported 4,584 Hondurans in 2001; some 100,000 Hondurans have been granted TPS until July 5, 2002. Some 600,000 legal and illegal Hondurans live in the United States.

Argentina. Buenos Aires, the "Paris of Latin America," became the scene of Argentineans lining up outside Italian and Spanish consulates in January 2002, trying to return to the countries of their immigrant parents and grandparents. Argentina's new president said the country was "broken and penniless;" many would-be emigrants said they had to leave because they saw little hope for an economic rebound in Argentina.

About 10 million of the 36 million Argentines are at least half Italian, and Italy allows them to claim Italian citizenship and live in Italy. Many others have the right to immigrate to Spain or Israel. Many of the aspiring emigrants are white-collar professionals and unemployment rates for such workers are high in Italy and Spain.

Italian regions like Venice are recruiting blue-collar workers of Italian heritage for jobs in factories. Under Italian law, people can claim Italian nationality based on ancestry on one side going back a number of generations, and then apply for a passport. However, a consultant noted that "A lot of people don't speak Italian and don't really intend to stay in Italy. The idea is to get European citizenship so as to be able to go to Spain or some other country, or even to go to the United States."

A poll by Buenos Aries-based Equis research group found that one-third of Argentineans would leave if they could, with those most likely to go between the ages of 30 and 42 with a high-school education or better. Argentina is one of 29 countries in the US visa-waiver pilot program, meaning that Argentineans do not need visas to enter the US for a temporary stay.

Argentina had hyperinflation in the 1980s, which ended when the country "dollarized" in 1991, fixing the exchange rate at 1 peso to $1. However, Argentina did not force uncompetitive industries to restructure, and borrowed to pay the salaries of government employees and to provide social services, accumulating a $142 billion foreign debt on which the country defaulted January 5, 2002. The peso soon fell from 1 peso to $1 to 2 pesos to $1. The government announced that $45 billion in dollar-denominated bank accounts held by Argentines probably would be changed to pesos; $7 billion was withdrawn before access to dollar accounts was blocked in December 2001.

During the 1990s, Argentina drew in Bolivians, Peruvians and Paraguayans to fill service and construction jobs. However, economic conditions deteriorated so much that many of the migrants from these nearby countries are leaving-- 40 percent of Argentineans are living in poverty and the unemployment is almost 20 percent.

Guyana. The Guyana government is threatening to deport more than 1,600 Brazilian gold miners who are illegally in the country. Of the estimated 2,000 Brazilians in the mining industry, only 337 had regularized their immigration status. The deportation threat came less than a week after a two-month amnesty ended on December 31, 2002.