Downturn Strands Illegals (airport, suburban, land, money)

[SarahSal]

Although this Washington Post article (link below) describes the plight of illegal Guatemalan immigrants, the same applies to those from Mexico. We just met a young waiter here in Bucerias, originally from a town outside Mexico City who went to the US to find work. Quite obviously, this is/was a very smart guy who spoke very good English. In the US he had an excellent job running crews and did very well financially. A traffic stop somewhere near DC changed his life and after 3 months of being sent from one holding prison to another, he found himself back in Mexico with no job nor money. So, here he is now trying to survive in a struggling tourist economy in greatly reduced circumstances than those he left in the states. We told him we hoped his US learned skills would help him land a better job here in Mexico once the economy rebounds.

The economic downturn has affected so many all over the world but I think in some cases may result in those returning to their home countries rediscovering the unique qualities of what they once left behind in the struggle for and pursuit of money.

Part of the WP article...
Outlaws in the U.S., Strangers at Home
Downturn Strands Illegal Latino Immigrants Between Cultures

"Sanchez still remembers the day he left home: saying goodbye to his parents; leaving his friends; that last tear-stained glimpse of his sweet mountain village in western Guatemala as the bus carried him over the ridge to an uncertain life in "the north." Painful, anxious times.

But not as hard as the return trip. When Sanchez, 36, arrived back in Central America recently, after living a third of his life as an illegal immigrant in suburban Washington, he stepped off the flight from Dulles International Airport into a cultural no man's land. He had been an outlaw migrant in one country; now he was a native-born stranger in the other."

washingtonpost.com