Monday, May 21, 2007
Immigration: How to win over Latin America
By Ben Bain
ˇ Bush is under pressure to produce immigrant-friendly
legislation before the 2008 presidential campaign heats up in order to improve ties with Latin America.
US lawmakers can send a powerful
message to Latin Americans by reaching a compromise on immigration reform before the US Senate votes on the issue —
a vote originally scheduled for last week but postponed.
Hispanics make up three quarters
of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the US, and many of them send large sums of money home to their families.
Legal and illegal Latin American migrant workers living in the US send home US$45 billion per year, according to the Inter-American
Development Bank. This money represents almost 30 times the amount of annual US bilateral aid to the region. Furthermore,
unlike official bilateral aid or free trade packages, remittances sent back to Latin America by migrants living in the US
have an immediate, grassroots economic impact on millions of people throughout the region.
During US President George W.
Bush's March trip to Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, Latin American leaders emphasized the important role
that immigrants living in the US played in their home countries' economies and encouraged the US president to broker a deal
with lawmakers.
"They bettered themselves there
[in the US], they have their own families, their work, they have studied, they have health and education for their children,"
Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez told Bush on a stop during the trip.
He added: "Undoubtedly, there
are many Uruguayans who are waiting, pending legalization of the situation in this country, but I believe your solidarity
will help our citizens to be able to live legally in your country."
Bush supported a reform bill that
passed the Senate last year but was tabled by the House of Representatives, with many Republican congressmen favoring a tougher
approach. That measure would have stepped up border security, established a guest worker program, toughened workplace enforcement
and created a scheme through which illegal immigrants could become US citizens.
Worried that without an immediate
agreement the Senate leadership may force a vote on last year's bill, unlikely to pass even the Senate this time, the White
House has been pressing Democratic and Republican senators to broker a new deal.
"I am optimistic we can pass a
comprehensive immigration bill and get this problem solved for the American people this year," Bush said a week ago during
his weekly radio address.
But the bitter partisan divisions
over immigration reform on Capitol Hill have continued to foment as each party looks to use the issue to court voters in the
upcoming 2008 elections.
A compromise would be a huge victory
for the White House with far-reaching geopolitical reverberations for US standing in Latin America. Bush, with approval ratings
of 30 percent in the region, so far has failed to impress Latin Americans by not making good on his promise to make their
region a foreign policy priority, with US resources and attention increasingly focused on Iraq.
At almost every stop during his
March tour Bush was met with large protests. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took the occasion of Bush's travels to organize
his own "counter-Bush" tour of the region, antagonizing the US president and promoting Venezuela's brand of socialism.
The Bush administration's foreign
and energy policies have proved easy targets for Chavez as he seeks to bolster Venezuela's profile as an alternative to the
US' regional hegemony.
However, successful US immigration
policy reform would likely improve US standing in the region by welcoming millions of Latin Americans into the mainstream
US economy and allowing money earned in the US to legally reach families throughout the hemisphere.
Once they arrive in the US, legal
and illegal Latin American migrants can look forward to earning six times what they would earn at home within a month of their
arrival, according to data published by the Inter-American Development Bank. Furthermore, over 70 percent of Latin American
migrants in the US will send home remittances worth an average of 10 percent of their US earnings. This money represents a
huge grassroots transfer, far greater and more powerful than Venezuelan or US-backed social, military and economic aid programs
in the region.
After decades of US aid and development
programs often tied to controversial US foreign policy, Latin Americans are increasingly vocal about their frustrations with
US engagement in the region.
Allowing migrant workers and their
families to legally benefit from the US market can go a long way in convincing cynical Latin Americans that they are wrong
about the nature of US intentions.
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This article was originally published at ISN Security Watch (05/16/07).
The International Relations and Security Network (ISN) is a free public service that provides a wide range of high-quality
and comprehensive products and resources to encourage the exchange of information among international relations and security
professionals worldwide.
Ben
Bain is a freelance journalist based in Washington DC. He reports on economics, trade, security and cultural issues. He holds
a Masters degree in international relations, and has earned a specialization in international law and international economics
from The Johns Hopkins University of Advanced International Studies.
Reprinted with permission from ISN.
