Moving from one country to another is not something that can be done easily. There are many considerations a family must evaluate before taking the decision.
During a protest last year in Ciudad Juárez, I met a doctor who was deliberating if he should move to another place. He owned a clinic and had a good reputation and a fair number of patients earned in 20 years in the practice of medicine. However, he was a victim of extortion and he knew that he won’t be able to sustain his clinic if he agreed on paying the protection fees.
A move to El Paso would seem natural. But he knew that he wouldn’t be allowed to practice medicine in the U.S. Furthermore, he couldn’t picture himself doing anything else for a living.
What choices do you have,? I asked him. Not many,
he said. He could shut down his clinic and try to work in the public sector,
where the salary won’t be enough to sustain his family. He could also give
medical attention from his house, where he would be also exposed to extortion. He
could move to another state inside Mexico and try a new beginning.
Whatever choices he would take, his lifelong achievements
in medicine could possibly be at stake and he may need to re-start from zero.
Any other professional, such as an accountant, a dentist, an architect, an
engineer or a teacher, face a similar dilemma.
In the case of businesses the story is not
different.
To get an investor visa is not an easy procedure.
According to the State Department, some of the requirements to obtain an E visa
include to have a “substantial” amount of money to be invested in the U.S. The
applicant should demonstrate that he/she have already invested some of the
money in the U.S. either having renting a space or hiring people. Uncommitted funds in a bank account are
not considered an investment.
Besides that, opening a business in the U.S. could be a very difficult process, as some of the owners of restaurants and bars that have moved to El Paso told me recently in interviews. The regulations to operate in the U.S., the tax system and the hiring process are absolutely different from the procedures in Mexico and they can challenge anybody's initiative.
Before writing this entry, I was listening a
Spanish AM radio station from Cd. Juárez to which people call to report incidents
of violence. A woman was describing that her elderly sister, who is retired and makes $76 a
month, was victim of extortion.
She said that some people have the choice of leaving the city, but a big number don’t have that opportunity. Besides that, she said, this is our city, we were born here… why should we leave?
The big exodus documented yesterday by reporter Adriana Gomez Licón shows that
the Juarenses are eager to move away from the violence, but unfortunately not
all them are able to escape the new reality of their city.
Estimada Lourdes :
Que tanto la extendida violencia en el Norte del país no será un fenómeno que trasciende en su entorno, que ahora se ha acuñado el término de " quitero", a las personas que tienen que emigrar de su lugar de origen dejando todo?...El término es usado en los medios y surgió de los protagonistas de este grave y repetido fenómeno.
Es de preocupar, cuando el lenguaje acuña términos para describir situaciones que antes no tenían nombre, y que ahora evocan este recurrente fenómeno, de ¨auto exilio forzoso¨ en la población civil.
att.Carolina Solís
México D,F.
Posted by: Carolina Solís | 02/27/2010 at 03:19 AM