Immigrants suffer in economic crisis

CAMDEN — Eleven years ago, Maria Teresa Reyes and her family left their impoverished pueblo in Guatemala hoping to find decent paying jobs in the United States.

Her husband and two daughters found work in Camden. They joined a church. Reyes stayed home to help care for her six small grandchildren, four of whom were born here.

But about a year ago, it started becoming difficult to cover the monthly $875 rent and upwards of $900 in power, water and health care bills, she said. One daughter lost her job a month ago; the other's hours were cut.

Asking relatives to send money was out of the question.

"My God, no," Reyes said. "They depend on us."

Reyes said she saw no choice but to move back home. It's even harder to find work in her small town, she said, "but what do we do here?"

South Jersey agencies and churches that work with immigrants say they're hearing more of these stories as the economy continues its downward spiral.

Estela Fuentes, a counselor at the Hispanic Family Center of Southern New Jersey, said the economic downturn has made it practically impossible for undocumented workers to function. Without papers, they don't qualify for unemployment benefits and there's not much that job counselors can do to help them either, Fuentes said.

"They have so many limits, they can't just say tomorrow it's going to be better," she said. "Every day is getting worse and worse."

It's not clear how many immigrants, like Reyes, have felt forced to move home. But it is clear that immigrants can't afford to send money home like they used to.

Altogether, immigrants working in the U.S. sent more than $45 billion back to their native countries last year. The World Bank predicts that amount will drop 5 percent to 8 percent this year. Remittances to Mexico were down a record 20 percent in May compared with the year before, according to the country's central bank.

Migdalia Datil, who manages three check cashing stores in Camden and Mount Holly, said her employees have noticed a huge drop in the number of customers wiring money home. At one time, she said, their stores were loaded with immigrants, many of them bearing multiple checks they'd held in order to send a large amount of money at once.

Jonaton Dominguez, who oversees money transfers at Ritmo Records in East Camden, said last year his customers would send about $300 to relatives in their native countries every week. Now, he said, they'll send $150, maybe $100. On rare occasions, he said, someone will even ask a family member abroad to wire money back.

Jessica Culley, a community organizer for the Comite de Apoyo a Los Trabajadores Agricolas (The Farmworkers' Support Committee) in Glassboro said she's heard of immigrants drawing down bank accounts in their native countries as they waited out the winter in hopes that work would pick up this spring.

Migrant farm workers haven't been hit as hard because farms seem to be employing about the same amount of labor or just slightly less, Culley said. But it's a different story for those who are more settled in the community, whether they make their living from construction, at a local business, or in a factory. Some packing plants still employ the same number of people but have eliminated or downsized shifts so everyone gets fewer hours, Culley said.

"They want to work 50 to 70 hours a week, so when you're only getting 32 and making close to minimum wage, it's not the same," Culley said.

Up until four months ago, Teresa Reyes, associate director of The Romero Center, a social justice program operated by St. Joseph's Catholic Church, said she'd never seen Latino immigrants seeking assistance at homeless shelters or soup kitchens. One group of about six Central American laborers began coming by the center for free sandwiches because they couldn't find any work, she said.

"Seeing how they were affected made me realize how bad the economy was," she said.

Thousands of people from foreign countries moved to the tri-county area between 2000 and 2007, according to the latest available Census survey data. During that time, the number of foreign-born residents increased roughly 25 percent in Camden County, 38 percent in Gloucester County and 55 percent in Burlington County.

By contrast, the overall population in each of those counties only increased 1 percent, 12 percent and 6 percent respectively.

Last fall, St. Anthony of Padua church in Cramer Hill was welcoming new members, most of them from Central America, every week, said social outreach coordinator Vicky Walters.

That's slowed now, she said, and in recent months about 10 families, including the Reyes family, have come in to say goodbye.

"To go back with nothing, it's terrible," she said. "They don't have money to pay the rent, they don't have anything."

Undocumented workers already face discrimination and fear of deportation on a daily basis, Walters said, so it's not surprising that the added hurdle would drive some to head home.

Joel Arciga-Camarillo, a priest at St. Joseph's, said many of his congregants have plans to return to Mexico in the near future, but he's been trying to discourage them because the economic crisis could be harder on them there.

Reyes said she'd stay if she could. In spite of the economy, there's still more opportunities to work and save money here, she said. When she gets back to Guatemala, she said she'll try to cobble together a shop to sell beans, rice, sugar and other necessities. It will take a lot more effort and sacrifice to be able to have small luxuries like television, she said.

But, she said, she won't miss living in the shadows in the middle of such a dangerous city. Her husband and son-in-law were both robbed and beaten.

"We couldn't do anything here," Reyes said. "We couldn't drive, we stayed in without work."

"The kids go to school and then they come back and that's it," added her daughter, Azucena Reyes, 26. "They're always bored, sad, mad."

Azucena Reyes said they tried to find another place outside Camden but it was either too expensive or the owners refused to rent to them because they were immigrants or had too many small children.

At least in Guatemala, Reyes said, they won't have to pay rent at her mother's house and it will be safe for the children to play outside.

Boxes and suitcases already line the walls of their narrow rowhouse, ready to be shipped once the family flies home on July 25.

"To always be here with fear, enough," Reyes said. "Better to go."

Reach Deborah Hirsch at (856) 486-2476 or dhirsch@...