Immigration & Migration

"Many families in Arizona, though "pillars of the community" are choosing the leave to escape a tough new state law whose stated intention is unambiguous: To drive illegal immigrants out of Arizona and to discourage them from coming here.  There is no official data tracking how many are leaving as a result. "It's something that's really tough to get a handle on numerically," said Bill Schooling, Arizona's state demographer. "It's not just the immigration bill. It's also employer sanctions and the economy. How do you separate out the motivating factors?"

Still, anecdotal evidence provided by schools and businesses in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods and by healthcare clinics suggests that sizable numbers are departing. Ignacio Rodriguez, associate director for the Phoenix Roman Catholic diocese's Office of Hispanic Ministries, said churches in the area are also seeing families leave.

The law requires police investigating another incident or crime to ask people about their immigration status if there's a "reasonable suspicion" they're in the country illegally. It also makes being in Arizona illegally a misdemeanor, and it prohibits seeking day-labor work along the state's streets.

Many parents are in a dilemma: to leave, they must pull their children from school, uproot their lives and look for new jobs and homes elsewhere. But to stay is to be under the scrutiny of the nation's most stringent immigration laws and the potentially greater threat of being caught, arrested and deported. They also perceive a growing hostility toward Hispanics, in general" 

Four women and one child--Celia Alejandra Alvarez, Silvia Rodríguez, Alma Mendoza, Silvia Herrera, and 10-year-old Katherine Figueroa were invited to testify at a special hearing on the impact of the new Arizona law SB 1070 by Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-Arizona). During their visit they also met with members of the Obama administration’s labor department.

The delegation’s concerns were not limited to the potential impact of the law that will take effect July 29. The women’s testimony also underscored concerns about civil rights violations and abuse by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office that have been taking place in Arizona since the federal government signed a 287(g) agreement with that agency. The agreement, which has been limited since then, allowed the sheriff’s office to train 160 of its deputies to enforce immigration laws."

"Every year thousands of Filipino women migrate to Canada under the nation's Live-in Caregiver Program. They come to look after children, the elderly and the disabled.   The federal program was created in the 1990s  and gives Canadian employers affordable, live-in help and a nation of college-educated, Englishspeaking Filipinos an entry point into a country with a stronger economy,

Academics are only now turning their attention to the broader implications of the program on Filipino society, where traditional gender roles are being reversed and family structures eroded by the absence of two generations of mothers and wives.  The years of separation that most endure before they can be reunited with their families takes a heavy toll on their marriages, alienates them from their children, and chips away at their mental health and sense of self."