Another Note on Immigration

This morning Adam Clevenger (of the Timmy Foundation, for those of you who do not know him) sent me an interesting New York Times article regarding the migration of people to poor countries from even poorer countries. The article is very well done and looks primarily at the case of Haitian immigrants to the Dominican Republic, an issue I believe Timmy Brigades in the DR have witnessed first-hand.

While Ecuador is not mentioned in article, this is a phenomenon that definitely occurs there as well. After the transition to the dollar as their currency, many Ecuadorians left for countries like the US and Spain, but also a large number of Colombians and Peruvians entered Ecuador. The salaries (now in dollars) were stronger in terms of purchasing power than what they could typically earn in their own countries.

This immigration led to anti-Colombian and especially anti-Peruvian sentiments in the country that are strikingly similar to (if not stronger than) the anti-Mexican/Latino sentiments one can find in the US. I was actually told (on a couple of occasions) that Ecuadorians do not use drugs, it is the Peruvians that do and therefore the entire drug problem in the country (not that drug usage is all too high) is the fault of Peruvians. Once after being robbed (one of five occurrences during my time there) the owners of the restaurant said that they did not see who did, but assured me it was a couple of Peruvians. After a few break-ins in the neighborhood where I lived, a neighborhood security guard whom I befriended told me that I should be careful because the Colombians where now starting to target the area. I asked him what evidence he had that they were Colombians and not simply Ecuadorians, and he told me that Colombians were desperate people and therefore they broke into houses.

With a high unemployment rate and such a high poverty rate, people entering Ecuador and competing for jobs that are already scarce is likely to spark controversy. I do find it interesting (and this is the idea behind this post) that immigration is not as simple as a one-way street from developing countries to developed countries. It is actually something quite complex and dynamic and I think the New York Times article linked at the top does a good job of further explaining some of the issues. So, I encourage all of you to read it.

Spain's Perspective on Immigration

Here is an interesting article on immigration in Spain from Robert Duncan. I was struck by the parallels between Spain and the US regarding their views and issues with immigration, both legal and illegal. Spain is especially interesting in this case for the concentration of Ecuadorian immigrants living there. The article states that there are 420,000 Ecuadorians living legally in Spain with up to another 330,000 (estimated) Ecuadorians living illegally.

I encourage everyone the check out the article. Ignore the embedded links, though, as they just take you to items on Amazon.com.

Mixed Messages on Poverty in Latin America

If you are at all like me, you read most articles regarding politics, economics, health and natural resource issues in Latin America that happen to come across your path. I must admit that the majority of Economist/Newsweek/Time/New York Times and other mainstream national/international media have painted a very optimistic picture of poverty in Latin America citing declining poverty rates across the board.

That is why I was interested in a working paper by the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University that I stumbled upon this afternoon. It is titled, "Declining Poverty in Latin America? A Critical Analysis of New Estimates by International Institutions."

I encourage all of you interested in the topic of poverty in Latin America (and in the developing world in general) to read it. It is fairly readable and it also asks some excellent questions with regards to how we measure poverty and poverty reduction in a particular region.

The article analyzes the data for a few different international organizations; the World Bank, CEPAL and CEDLAS. It finds drastically different poverty measures from organization to organization. For example, in 2004 the World Bank cites that 35.2% of Ecuador's population falls under "moderate poverty" while CEPAL finds that 51.2% of Ecuador's population qualifies for the same category. The same trend appears with the numbers for "extreme poverty" with the World Bank citing 14.7% and CEPAL citing 22.3%.

While this refers to "Point In Time" data, the authors also point to many larger problems in measuring trends over time. First of all, many comparison studies use 1990 as their benchmark year to measure improvements. Using 1990, as the authors state, sets the bar quite low as Latin America had just emerged from the Debt Crisis of the 1980s and some of the improvements in economic performance may be part of a natural recovery from the crisis rather than effective macroeconomic and social policies. For example, the category of the Poorest Six Countries (wherein falls Ecuador) shows a slight decrease in aggregate poverty ratios from 1990 to 2004 from 26.8 to 25.7. However, the aggregate poverty ratio in 1980 was actually 24, which means that, after 24 years, there was actually an increase in the aggregate poverty ratio.

The other major issue that the paper raises is the importance of de-aggregating data before analyzing a region. While it may be tempting to lump all of the Latin American countries together to assess the performance of the region, this is intrinsically problematic. For example, improvements in countries like Mexico, Chile and Argentina can mask declines in other countries like Ecuador and Bolivia especially with the discrepancies in populations and size of the respective economies. It is important that we look at individual countries to get a better idea of what is going on in the region especially if we are to make policy proposals.

Again, I recommend that if you are interested in these issues that you read the article. While its intention is not to paint an ever-hopeless picture of the region, it does raise some very valid questions in how we examine poverty. So, when you come across articles in Newsweek and Time about across-the-board improvements in Latin America, you will know to take their information with a grain of salt.

The Itchimbía Park

The park is over a sacred hill for Quitus, this was offered to the moon and the sun and it was an observatory and andean wisdom center. People called the Itchimbia as "Quito´s drugstore” due to the great variaty of medicinal herbs and plants .

It was an Hacienda Piedrahita too, and later it was the headquarters for the first quitenian tv channel "TV Quito channel 6", and sadly it was a trash dump. However the Fonsal recovered this place and transformed it into a public space where people can go to concerts, artistic presentations,educative activities, etc..

You can get the park by the Yaguachi st or sodiro st from 10 de Agosto Ave. (map in this galery).

Every year there is a nice concert called "Quito Fest" with alternative music and good bands from Ecuador and abroad. The concert is for young people in the city mainly.

To the west there is a great view of Quito dowtown, The Cima de la Libertad monument, The Panecillo, The Teleferico, etc. Even in a bright day you can see the Cayambe volcano to the south.

Inside the park there is the Itchimbia Cultural Center, that was inagurated on July 31st, 2004. The metalic structure of the Center was originally the first market in Quito named "Santa Clara" which was located at downtown. That structure was brought from Belgium in 1899.

The Cultural center now hosts artistic expositions and cultural activities in general. The center is known as "The Cristal Palace" because of its big windows and its spectacular view of Quito downtown.

The park has sports fields, children games, paths, a sun dial, and information center and other atractions to enjoy with your family.

For more informationa about events and services visit the Park website:

www.parqueitchimbia.org.ec

Quito: a place to go

Recently the New York Times has published an article by Danny Lee with the 53 recommended places to go in 2008. Quito is in the place 15 of the list.

After the recovering process of the historical center Quito has been receiving more visitors every year. Because of the political instability it was not permanent. But it looks that there will be more people coming to visit our beautiful city. Welcome!

San Francisco plaza, check it on the map on the right side of the blog

LIGA won the championship

Liga Deportiva Universitaria has been the best soccer team this year, and for the nineth time the Ecuadorian Cup went to Liga´s House.

The campaign was amazing, during the last stage Liga didn´t lose any game, and 2 weeks before the end of the championship LIGA got enough points to get the Champion title.

This new crown was gotten just in Quito´s festivities, so all the fans had 2 excuses to celebrate. Liga has shown excelent players such as Enrique Vera (paraguayan), Lara, Dominguez, Obregón, Escalada, Manso, etc.

Liga will have to face 3 championships the next year, Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana and the ecuadorian championship.

Quito festivities

Quito is going to celebrate his bigger party in the year: the Spanish foundation. Actually the 6^th of December of 1534 was the first time when the Municipality of the village of San Francisco de Quito had a meeting. It was headed by Sebastián de Benalcázar. The foundation had occurred August the 28^th the same year. The founder was Diego de Almagro.

The environment at that time was of conquest, ambition of richness and gold. Because of that, there were war and death. Now, these are some people against the celebration, which is very recent.

However, the city is going to have lots of parties today. Almost every neighborhood in the city will have a party, concert or event. We had also the “40” world championship. (I found an on-line version of the game in the internet! http://www.40enlinea.com/)

There is a festive mood everywhere. You can see a picture about the festivities I took in a concert last Sunday during the QuitoFest.

If you are in Quito now you will be interested in check this link.