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Luring Ecuador’s emigrants back home

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Ecuador is trying to lure its ex-pats back home with a “Welcome Home Plan.” The program features breaks on customs, grants, and other financial assistance. But some Ecuadorian immigrants are suspicious of the government’s motives. Jelena Kopanja has the story. Her report was prepared with the help of “Feet in Two Worlds.” It’s a project of the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School in New York.

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KATY CLARK: The hard times are providing a motivation for some immigrants to the U.S. to return to their native countries.  The South American nation of Ecuador is providing other reasons in the form of economic incentives. Jelena Kopanja as been speaking with Ecuadorean immigrants in New York who are responding to the call to come back home.

DIEGO MACHUCA: [In Spanish]

JELENA KOPANJA: Diego Machuca drives his men around New York City collecting boxes from Ecuadorian migrants. In the past, these were mainly gifts the families were shipping home. But now, more and more of his shipping business comes from people moving back to Ecuador.  Today, Machuca is picking up a washing machine, carpentry tools and an inflatable pool. They belong to an immigrant named Washington. He’s planning to go home soon.  He says he can’t make enough driving a cab in New York City any more.

WASHINGTON: [Voiceover] The taxi is not enough for living or for supporting the family, only for daily expenses, nothing more.

KOPANJA: Washington hopes to buy a truck and start a business back in Ecuador. He’ll join more than 10,000 Ecuadorians who have gone back since the beginning of the year with the help of the government.  Ecuador’s Department of Migrants or Tsunami offers a welcome home plan. It gives [INDISCERNIBLE] business subsidies; low interest loans and breaks some customs for tools, vehicles and more.  Again, Diego Machuca.

MACHUCA: I had a guy that owned a car wash. He took the whole store.  I mean, the whole, the whole machinery. He said that if he could pay, he had a lot of Mexicans working with him.   He said if I could bring my Mexicans it would be better.

KOPANJA: Ecuador’s economy relies heavily on remittances from its citizens abroad. Still, officials say bringing migrants home makes economy sense.  Pablo Carne [PH] is with Tsunami’s New York Office.

PABLO CARNE: We see them as people with a lot of potentials.  Even if they didn’t go to school here, they learn how to do things in different ways.  So we want them to go back and put all those new skills to serve their families, their friends and the country.

KOPANJA: The government hopes to attract migrants like [PH] Andre Cervallos.  He’s a parking attendants who’s worked two jobs to save enough to start a small business. He’s applied for a grant. He’s applied for a grant through the Welcome Home Plan.

ANDRE CERVALLOS: [Voiceover]  I was thinking of opening a guest house and promoting water sports, these kinds of sports or power gliding.

KOPANJA: The government is only funding 300 such projects this year. So it’s not certain Cervallos will get the grant this time around.  The immigrant named Washington is getting some tax breaks to move back home, but he’s still skeptical about the government program and so are his neighbors who’ve come to lend a hand with the packing.  They say the reason they migrated to the U.S. in the first place is that their own country failed to provide a decent living. Back in 1999, when Ecuador’s economy collapsed, Ecuadorians immigrated en masse. The current president, Dofel Correra has called the exodus a national shame. He’s reached out to the Diaspera [PH].  He’s established migration offices overseas and back a constitutional amendment that gives migrants representation in parliament.  Then, there’s the welcome home plan.  Hugo Benavides is an Eucadorian Anthropologist at Fordham University. He welcomes the government’s gestures, but he’s still not sure what they mean.

BENAVIDES: It’s not very obvious what the government seems to be getting out of it, right?  There’s this plan that seems to benefit us, but it doesn’t benefit the state. And that to me is a whole new narrative, and I think it takes a lot to get over that initial I guess mistrust.

KOPANJA: He adds that a question for many is whether things in Ecuador will be different from what they used to be.  On a chilly morning, Tsunami is getting out packages to immigrants waiting at a day labor site in Queens, New York. The packages contain toiletries, blankets, and information about the welcome home plan.  [PH] Luis Espana, a father of eight is thinking of going home.

LUIS ESPANA: [Voiceover]  I think about returning because we can’t endure any more. If it weren’t for the economic crisis, I would stay another three years. I wanted to put my children through school here.  In Ecuador, I won’t be able to.

KOPANJA: But the decision to stay or go isn’t just about money.  Many Ecuadorians here are undocumented, and are still hoping Congress will pass immigration reform that offers a path to citizenship. And so many find themselves torn. The immigrant named Washington is a legal resident, but his daughter is not.  He’d like to see her status resolved before he goes home. Still, at this point he’s committed to going.

WASHINGTON: [In Spanish]

KOPANJA: Washington says what I’ve learned here, I’ll put into practice over there, and that’s what Ecuador’s government is hoping for.  For The World, I’m Jelena Kopanja in New York.

CLARK: That report was prepared with the help of “Feet in Two Worlds.”   The program brings the work of immigrant journalists to public radio.  It’s a project of the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School in New York.

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