This morning on NPRs Morning Edition I heard a fascinating story about schools in Tucson that are trying to address both the high rates of Latino student dropout from school, and the lack of bilingual interpreters in the city. The school is beginning to harness these children’s language skills by training them to be simultaneous interpreters in the hopes that this will provide the children with enough incentive to stay in school, allow them to have a good job upon graduation and supply enough interpreters to meet the city’s demand.

Some of the children interviewed for the show commented that they have been working as interpreters from a very young age, since many have family members who need help communicating.

How refreshing to see programs encouraging children to be multilingual and multicultural. This type of program is the perfect example of how all of us can greatly benefit by encouraging the assets that each cultural group brings with it. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new trend that helps these students achieve in any field, not just as interpreters.

You can listen to the program here.

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I just found a really interesting article recounting the experiences of two BBC correspondents who spent two weeks traveling the length of the USA speaking only Spanish. The aim of the project was to see what kind of experiences, stories and adventures they would encounter and to get a sense of just how prominent Spanish is in this country, even with all this talk of “English Only.”

To my delight they found Spanish speakers all along, although of course some were more fluent than others. Among the statistics they provide, 15% of people who label themselves “Hispanic” are monolingual English speakers; 25% of are monolingual Spanish speakers; the remaining, and largest portion were bilingual.

Still stereotypes abound. Along their journey they found a man with distinctly Latino name, who spoke no Spanish, and another who after 6 generations in this country, and a college degree is still ostracized and assumed to be an uneducated immigrant.

Just to put things in perspective for all those crying “English Only”; Spanish is the second most common language in the USA after English. The USA has the 5th largest Spanish speaking population in the world; Spanish is the most common language taken in schools as a second language; and besides, this country doesn’t have an official language.

I say whether Spanish is spoken by immigrants or those born and raised here, it benefits us all to know more than one language, and clearly we are going to need it as the Spanish speaking population continues to grow here, and this world continues to come closer together.

You can read the BBC article here, and take a look at the reporter’s blog here. You can also learn more about Spanish in the USA here.

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Today Cape Verdians outside the island outnumber those who live on the island, and this dynamic which has been forming for years, even decades has transformed a nation and continues to redefine family and social ties. And yet Cape Verde is far from being the lone example of this new world order. Countries like Mexico and the Philippines, just to name two, also have very large populations abroad.

World wide it is estimated that 200 million people live outside their country of birth, and last year they send back about $300 billion dollars back home, nearly three times the world’s foreign aid budgets combines. And while having relatives abroad can help those who stay behind escape poverty, it also destroys families. Having a relative abroad can mean having the means to build a home, buy groceries and school supplied, but it also means that increasingly children are growing up with other relatives and friends of the family, instead of their parents.

In a world where developed countries have growing elderly populations, and it is increasingly common for both parents to work outside the home, immigrants provide necessary labor to keep these economies running. In turn immigrants are able to work, and help their own back home. But being raised by others is not the only drawback of this system. Nations with large populations abroad also experience brain drain, thus almost guarantying that their own situation at home is not likely to improve.

Interestingly, nations who tend to export people and tend to be large recipients of immigrants from other nations who might be escaping even worse poverty, or other hardship.

You can read more about this through this article in the NYT.

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A new technology is emerging in Zimbabwe, one that uses cell phone messages to exchange currency for goods. Mukuru.com is a company that has set up a system by which you can order fuel for friends and family in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Today, as people immigrate in search for opportunities, and are often force to leave behind children and relatives, this new service allows those abroad to continue helping back home, while reducing the amount of red tape involved. The site allows you to buy gasoline (prices are British pounds), and the relative back home will receive a text message with a coupon to pick up it up.

Similar sites are also starting to emerge for other basic goods. Zimland.com allows you to buy groceries, while Zimbuyer.com goes even further, by offering groceries, as well as furniture and even generators for family members back home.

These sites seem to be catching on rather quickly in Zimbabwe, not only for their convenience, but also because they provide an alternative to costly money wires; an important issues, since the Zimbabwean government has been cracking down on the back market and unregulated foreign currency exchanges.

I think this is a very ingenious alternative, and I can see if catching on in other developing countries that have large communities abroad.

Read more about this in a BBC article.

Image info here.

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Today, Michael Pollan (author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “The Botany of Desire”) had a fascinating article in the New York Times Magazine about how the agribusiness is who determines what we eat, and how the farm bill, which passes Congress every 5 years, affect almost every aspect of our lives and in turn affects people all over the globe.

For a nation that is increasingly more and more concerned about obesity, it is incredible to realize that dollar for dollar you can get more calories/more food from highly processed foods than you can from more natural foods. A study by Adam Drewnowski from the University of Washington found that a dollar can get you 1,200 calories from cookies or potato chips, but only 250 worth of calories from carrots. This set up hardly makes sense, “junk food” is highly processed and should therefore cost much more, but this is where the farm bill comes into play.

The USA farm bill, among other things, determined which crops will be subsidized, and the five favored crops are corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton, the first three being the main ingredients of “junk food.” These subsidies have created a saturation in the market place for these products at the expense of denying us a more balanced diet at an affordable price. It also means that these products can compete in the international market place at an unfair advantage, and thereby have the ability of being sold in foreign markets at lower prices than locally grown food. The hypocrisy of it hits when you realize that the USA lobbies as much as they can in the world market to prevent other countries from subsidizing their products, but yet that is exactly what happens here. This unfair marketing approach has created a situation in which USA grown corn can sell cheaper in Mexico, than locally grown corn. This also means that Mexicans are eating corn that has a lot more chemical than the local crop. Given the situation it is only obvious that Mexican farmers, and others around the world who have been put out of business by this set up try to make a living elsewhere, in many cases that means immigrating to the USA in search of a better life.

The light at the end of the tunnel here is that more and more groups are starting to realize just how this farm bill affects us. Public health groups are realizing that issues like obesity and diabetes cannot be fully addressed without talking about this bill. Environmentalists see that this bill means massive agribusiness initiatives, which in turn mean more polluted land, air, and water due to the high use of chemicals. Even the huge world organizations seem to be speaking out about this unfair bill. In 2004 the World Trade Organization ruled that USA cotton subsidies were illegal; hopefully they will continue speaking up.

On a related note, a great documentary on this and similar issues is Life and Debt, by Stephanie Black.

06.07.07 – A recent article on thruthout.com continues this discussion around the USA Farm bill. The article explains the dynamics of how big agribusiness benefit from this bill. Large poultry producers benefit from receiving highly subsidized chicken feed (corn). These discrepancies continue when the USA exports the chicken parts that aren’t liked as much here to developing countries, at rock bottom prices, and in doing so they help destroy local production. Ironically a number of peasants in other countries affected by these global economic dynamics end up immigrating to the USA to work at the very plants that helped destroy their initial livelihood.

Image information here.

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Today, The New York Times has an article about the rise in undocumented immigrants in the USA who are filing taxes. Since 1996 undocumented immigrants can legally file taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). ITINs were created to allow both undocumented immigrants as well as foreign investors file returns, although it’s generally assumed that most of the 11 million numbers issues since then have been used by undocumented immigrants.

The IRS wants to encourage people to file taxes, and for the most part view their job as that of collecting taxes, not managing immigrations issues, although since 9/11 there have been a few exceptions, specially in relation to the Department of Homeland Security.

Some critics of ITINs and issues that generally relate to undocumented immigrants argue that, undocumented immigrants are only filing taxes because they expect a refund, but actually about two-thirds of those filing taxes with an ITIN will actually own the IRS money. On average these undocumented immigrants filing taxes earn less than $10,000 a year and will owe about $600 worth of taxes.

This trend has also been noticed by taxes businesses which do not want to pass of the opportunities available with this new market. Companies like Liberty Tax Services and H&R Block are learning to navigate the complications with this portion of tax filers, and are reaping the economic benefit.

The article suggests that the other main reason undocumented immigrants are filing taxes is because this will create a paper trail of their residency in the USA, and that this will eventually help them establish legal residency here. While this might be partially true, consider that many of these immigrants are paying taxes for public services which they are not likely to benefit from. They are also contributing to our Medicare and Social Security funds, and this they are almost guaranteed not to ever see. A New York Times article from 2005 places the subsidy by undocumented immigrants to Social Security at about 7 billion a year!

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This week I got to visit the Framingham Public Library to see their Newcomer & Neighbors Center. The city has seen a large growth in their immigrant populations, and currently about 20% of the city’s residents are foreign born. Because the local library saw a need in these new communities, and because it wanted to continue its outreach program to the entire community, a Newcomers & Neighbors Center was established. This center is open for a few hours a day, but during these hours it helps people new to the city, the state, or the country in things like finding housing, schools, jobs, health care, and places to meet other people. Part of the programs success has been their ability to find volunteers that come from the same communities they are helping.

While trying to welcome newcomers to the community, the public library currently prints out all of their material in three languages (English, Spanish and Portuguese). Along with the Newcomers & Neighbors Center, the library also has one of the larges literacy centers in the area, and teaches a number of ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes.

You can read a bit more about Framingham here.

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A couple of days ago, the UK’s Guardian published a story about record breaking remittances going to Latin America. The high numbers involved shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone who regularly interacts with immigrants. Immigrants, especially those who come alone often work well over full time and live in crowded homes in order to save as much as possible, and in this way help their families back home.

The article mentioned that Latin Americans abroad send as much as £32 billion annually, a number that makes direct foreign investment look pale by comparison. While foreign investment can be beneficial, it often creates investment in urban areas, and therefore limits the amount of people it benefits. In contrast, remittances are sent directly to families, many living in rural areas, and thus helping with vital needs, such as paying for food, education and utilities.

Currently the groups of Latinos abroad sending the largest amount of money back are Mexicans, followed by Brazilians, and then Colombians.

That emigrants can make such a dent in world finances, working as nannies, migrant workers, and all kinds of other very low wages employments in absolutely admirable.

08.23.07 – Today the BBC has an article about the rise in money transfer shops in the UK. The current growth of these businesses points to the increasing number of immigrants that live there, and the trend of moving abroad to work intensely for a free months or years while trying to make as much money as possible, and then returning to one’s native country and family.

(Image by Marissa; Openphoto.net)

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I just read an article about proposed legislation making English the official language in Oklahoma, and how American Indians are opposing this move. American Indians point out that their languages are disappearing fast enough, and that legislation of this type could make matters worse. Proponents to the bill mention the same arguments always used for this type of bill; immigrants to this country must assimilate, and that means learning English, and adapting to the social structure here. I think that in a world that becomes smaller everyday, the USA has an incredible opportunity to its advantage. The world is coming here, why not take advantage of the situation and learn about the world? Today global commerce and education are common practices, more people are traveling than ever before, and situations like Global Warming (or Global Warning as my friend’s mom likes to call it) are forcing us to communicate and engage people all around the globe, this requires fluency in various languages, and cultures. The USA should take advantage of the situation here; immigrants are providing this country with a free education about the world and languages, lets learn from it!

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I just read an article on a new theme park in Mexico; a park that for about US$20 lets you live what undocumented immigrants trying to enter the USA experience during their travel. I can’t help but be fascinated by the clever business person who even thought up such a concept, as disturbing as this concept may be. I’m curious as to who goes to this park, but the article did not mention this. Being as cynical as I can be, it wouldn’t surprise me to soon hear some politician here in the USA claim that this park can be used as a training ground for those who will actually attempt to cross.

As long as people are poor, they will keep trying to find a better life, no matter the hardship involved in the process. Besides, lots of the large trade programs that the USA likes to promote as being the hope for the Third World, are what are actually further screwing people over. NAFTA, FTAA, and the likes are only making the rich richer and the poor, poorer.

You can read the article for yourself in English here, and in Spanish here.

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