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The Herald-Sun (Durham, North Carolina)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

September 10, 2007 Monday

Some immigrants say they want to go back

BYLINE: Remy Scalza, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS

LENGTH: 1332 words

Sep. 10--DURHAM -- His life has all the makings of an American success story. Twelve years
ago, "Max" left his home in Mexico and set out for the U.S., lured by stories of easy money in the
Carolinas. Though one of his first jobs was in the fields -- picking tobacco for 11 hours a day --
Max's fortunes improved.
Today, at 40, he holds down a good job on an assembly line in Durham. He has made enough
money to enroll his daughters in college back in Mexico. And, after years of night classes, his Eng-
lish is finally coming around.
From humble beginnings, Max seems poised to reach out and grab his share of the American
dream. There's only one problem. He doesn't want it.
"I consider myself Mexican," he explained. "My priority is that my kids finish school.
"After that, I'll be going home."
The story of Max -- some immigrants agreed to be interviewed for this story only if they were
not fully identified -- is hardly unusual. In contrast to earlier waves of immigration to the U.S. --
those great turn-of-the-century exoduses from Europe -- today's immigration is often a temporary
affair. An estimate from the Pew Hispanic Center reports that more than a quarter of new Hispanic
immigrants expect to leave the U.S. in less than five years.
Conversations with recent Hispanic immigrants in the area -- construction workers, office clean-
ers and landscapers -- suggest that locally this figure may be even higher. Among area immigrants,
ties to the homeland often remain strong. Some send money to family back home. Others visit
whenever they can.
And many -- just like Max -- dream of one day going back for good.
While it is mainly economics that draws people from Latin America to North Carolina -- the
steady jobs and good pay -- the forces that pull immigrants back home are varied and more com-
plex.
Adapting to life here is rarely easy. Hispanics face constant discrimination in North Carolina,
both subtle and overt, says Marisol Jimenez-McGee, advocacy director at El Pueblo, Inc., a Hispan-
ic-rights group in Raleigh. Born in the U.S. of Mexican and Irish parents, Jimenez-McGee recalls
one instance when a local official questioned her own background.
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"He asked me, 'Did you crawl over the border or come here in the back of a truck?' I don't even
think the guy realized he was offending me."
Survey data echo her assessment. In a 2006 poll conducted by UNC, 40 percent of respondents
said Hispanic migrants are bad for the state, and only 6 percent wanted Hispanics in their neighbor-
hoods.
Apart from hostility here, new immigrants also struggle with being apart from friends and fam-
ily. The flow of Hispanic immigrants to the U.S. consists disproportionately of single adult males,
according to a 2006 Pew Hispanic Center report. Many of these men are forced to leave behind
wives and children in Mexico in search of better opportunities. Max, the assembly line worker from
Durham, left a wife and two daughters in Mexico when he came to North Carolina in 1995. Though
willing to make the sacrifice to fund his children's education, he said being apart has taken a toll.
"My one daughter is a teacher and the other one is still in school, but I hardly know them," he
said.
While homesickness dampens many American dreams, a significant subset of the immigrant
population never intends to put down roots. For these immigrants, time spent in the U.S. represents
an investment in a future elsewhere.
"They see themselves as temporary," explains Ben Balderas, executive director of El Centro
Latino in Carrboro. "They want to save up enough money and then move back home."
"Felix," a 27-year-old construction worker living in Durham, falls squarely into this category.
Broad-shouldered and soft-spoken, Felix came to North Carolina from Mexico in 2003, joining two
brothers who had already made the trip. He met his wife, also a recent immigrant from Mexico,
shortly after arriving. They have a baby boy, born here and already speaking bits of English. Despite
all this -- and a job that provides a good, steady income -- Felix says he has no plans to build a life
in North Carolina.
"I would like to go back to Mexico," he said. "I don't know exactly when ... I would like to stay
here for maybe another two years."
With only short-term plans in the U.S., immigrants such as Felix work hard to stay connected
with family back home. For many, the most important residual bond with the home country is mon-
etary: remittances sent to loved ones left behind. Last year alone North Carolina immigrants sent
home more than $1.2 billion, or roughly $3,200 per adult, according to the Inter-American Develop-
ment Bank.
Felix estimates he sends about 25 percent of his wages home every month. In his case, the
money not only supports family but also helps lay the foundations -- literally -- for his own future in
Mexico.
"I already had two houses built in Mexico during the time I've been working here," he said. "I'm
building another one now."
Among immigration critics, concerns have been raised that immigrants are using public services
here while exporting the financial benefit from their work back home.
These criticisms are largely misplaced, says Stephen Appold, a senior research associate at the
Kenan Institute at UNC.
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"The people who are the heavy repatrioters of their savings tend to be alone and relatively
young. That crowd is among the lowest users of public services," he said.
Claims that immigrants are spending their money outside the country miss the bigger picture,
Appold added.
"Their primary economic impact is their labor power and not their consumption," he said. "His-
panic migrants have provided a tremendous economic boost."
For some migrants, sending money is not enough. In spite of the expense and difficulty in-
volved, many immigrants -- including some in the U.S. illegally -- make regular trips back home.
"A lot of the people I know go home for Christmas," said Diego Torres, a counselor at El Centro
Latino.
"There's a direct bus from Durham to Mexico City," he said, pulling out a bus schedule from his
desk. "It costs $254."
This nomadic lifestyle often comes at a high cost, however. Frequent travel back and forth cre-
ates a sense of rootlessness, and nostalgia for home frustrates integration into U.S. society. Felix,
bent on returning to Mexico, admits he's reluctant to adapt to life here.
"One day I will go back to my country," he said, "so it's important to keep my culture."
At the same time, daily realities of life in the U.S. -- jobs, relationships and children -- complic-
ate going back. Plans to return after just a few years often end up postponed or abandoned altogeth-
er.
"The principal idea is to work for a short time, save money and go home," Torres said. "Some-
times this short time becomes a long time."
During his 12 years here, Max -- the assembly line worker -- has started a new family. Though
he sends money to Mexico to support his daughters, he also has children who were born and grew
up in North Carolina. For Max, and many like him, immigration has led to a split existence, a
transnational limbo with no easy exit.
"Julia," a 24-year-old office cleaner from Mexico who lives in Durham, remains optimistic.
With a new baby boy, she's committed to making life work in the U.S. Her investment, however, is
pragmatic, not emotional.
"I want to return to my country, but I can adapt here for the time I want to stay here," she said.
Still, life on the border -- halfway between two worlds -- seems to frustrate even the clearest of
intentions.
"I wanted to come here for a year-and-a-half," Julia said with a laugh. "I've been here for four
years now."
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LOAD-DATE: September 10, 2007

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