ECUADOR: Migrants Uprooted Twice

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  • Inter Press Service

Ecuadorean immigrants have been put in an even more vulnerable position by the lingering economic crisis in the industrialised world, especially in Spain and the United States, the main destinations for migrants from Latin America.

This year will be decisive for Latin Americans living in those two countries, but not so much because of a massive return by migrants to their countries of origin or to the decline in remittances sent back to their families -- phenomena discussed by observers since the crisis broke out in the United States in 2008.

Experts who spoke to IPS said the crucial situation has to do with the increase in vulnerability of migrants, a greater loss of rights and more sacrifices demanded of them. In addition, the phenomenon of relatives joining other family members abroad will slow down, they said.

'The difficulties that (the Spanish and U.S.) economies are experiencing aggravate the vulnerability of Latin Americans living there, regardless of their immigration status, as well as that of the millions of Latin Americans who receive remittances back home,' Nelsy Lizarazo, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the World Social Forum on Migrations, told IPS.

Lizarazo also said that she perceives 'a more clear intention to return, on the part of immigrants abroad.' And that desire is even shared, she added, 'by members of young generations born overseas or who left very young, from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia or Central America. 'That wasn't the case until 2009, but over the last year, they have felt that doors have been closing on them,' she said.

For her part, Lorena Escudero, minister of the National Secretariat for Migrants (SENAMI), told IPS that 'the crisis of capitalism in the countries of the North has triggered a gradual and significant -- but not massive -- return of Ecuadoreans, especially from Spain. In 2011, we expect more to return, but it won't be an exodus.' SENAMI was created by the government of President Rafael Correa, a left-leaning economist who took office in January 2007 and promised during his election campaign to reach out to migrants abroad.

An estimated three million Ecuadoreans currently live overseas, out of a total population of 14 million. Although Ecuadoreans have been migrating to the United States and other countries since the 1970s, the numbers going abroad began to soar in the 1990s, a decade marked by economic and political turbulence in this South American country, and the proportion heading to Spain surged.

The remittances sent home by migrants have become a mainstay of the economy, and are second only to oil revenue as a source of foreign exchange for Ecuador. Escudero said the crisis in Europe will last a while longer. And whereas overall unemployment in Spain is 20 percent, it stands at 'more than 28 percent for Latin American immigrants, among whom the half a million Ecuadoreans form the largest group,' she said.

The industries hit hardest by the rise in unemployment, she noted, are the ones where the largest numbers of Ecuadorean workers are employed, like construction and services.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service