November 6, 2007

More immigrants choosing Europe over U.S.

A growing percentage of the billions of dollars Central America receives from émigrés abroad is coming from Europe, illustrating a dramatic new shift in migration away from the United States, a new study released Tuesday shows.

Central Americans around the world send some $12 billion back home each year, according to an Inter-American Development Bank study. Historically, that money came almost entirely from the United States, but experts say a sluggish construction sector and anti-immigrant backlash here appears to have pushed some of that migration -- and money -- elsewhere.

An IDB survey of 3,403 Central Americans showed 81 percent of the remittances they got came from the United States, down from 96 percent just four years ago.

The shift underscores the immigration boom in Spain, which in 2005 legalized some 800,000 undocumented immigrants.

The shift is most dramatic in Honduras, where 16 percent of those surveyed said their remittances came from Europe, according to the study, which was presented on the concluding day of the 41st Annual Assembly of the Latin American Federation of Banks in Miami.

''Many immigrants are now going to Spain, Portugal and Italy, where they treat them much better, don't abuse them and treat them with more respect,'' said pollster Sergio Bendixen, who conducted the survey for the IDB. ''One of the things we have seen in our study is the United States is losing the battle in attracting Latin Americans to the United States,'' Bendixen said.

Sooner or later, the United States will suffer the consequences of a deficit of low-skilled labor, he said. ''It could be that lettuce will become more expensive than caviar,'' Bendixen added.

While experts said the shift is significant, its effect on the U.S. economy is difficult to determine. If more remittances are coming from Europe, presumably more low-skilled workers are headed there as well, experts said.

''If you are pro-growth for the U.S. economy, you must be pro-immigration, because we need the workers,'' said Donald F. Terry, of the Inter-American Development Bank.