Comment: Financing Undocumented Migration and the Limits of Solidarity
2010; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 37; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1177/0094582x09355434
ISSN1552-678X
Autores Tópico(s)Migration and Labor Dynamics
ResumoJan Rus Associate Managing Editor, LAP One of the cruel pardoxes of undocumented migration is that for some time now the greatest exploitation migrants suffer may well be in their home villages and barrios. In order to pay smugglers to get them to the U.S., migrants – and potential migrants – in David Stoll’s Nebaj have for the last several years been borrowing up to 5000 dollars from neighborhood lenders. As Stoll writes, the interest rate on such loans in rural Guatemala is ten percent a month. Think about what it means to borrow 5000 dollars at a simple (that is, not compound) interest of ten percent a month. The borrower has to come up with 500 dollars a month just to stay even; to retire the debt, he or she hopes to be able to pay the lender a few hundred dollars a month more. But full-time, pre-tax take home pay at the minimum wage in the US runs only about 1000 dollars a month, and out of that migrants also have to eat, pay for a place to stay, pay transportation costs, and hopefully have some money left over to call their families every now and then on Sunday. It is not hard to see why the undocumented are such motivated workers, why they hold two or three jobs; why they do not take sick days; why they are willing to endure abuse rather than lose a
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