Latin America

The definition of countries in poverty has needed to open up to a wider lexicon of terms in order to explain the various ways in which a country could be in poverty, and the stages in which it might be able to get out of it. In financial circles, the term BRIC, referring to Brazil, Russia, India and China have created their own investment category, known in common speak as “Emerging Economies”, places like Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia and Thailand have joined the BRICs as potential gold mines for investors, win or lose, it has been an exciting ride.

Since the 1990s, emerging economies have been seen as the instigators of global economic collapse as well as the drivers of future untold fortunes. Economic collapse often followed early regulatory changes in many of these countries. Reading like a villain in the latest Batman movie, The Asian Tigers, a collection of smaller Asian economies was hit by financial crisis in the late 1990s. Russia, Turkey, Brazil also collapsed since then on more than one occasion. Mexico was one of the first to collapse in 1993, complemented by Argentina as one of the last, which had a number of severe collapses, leading to a major one in 2001. All these economies seem to be doing relatively well now, especially larger ones like China and India, who this week were strong enough and had enough clout to stop the Doha Round of the WTO, based to a great degree on India’s disapproval of the agricultural limitations in the agreement, a source of income in which emerging economies often have as one of their staples of national revenue.

With India now being able to determine the course of future international trade treaties and China being seen by many as the next economic power and rightful host of the Olympics, what will countries like Russia and Brazil do to place themselves in such a position in the future? Russia, earning massive revenue from its oil reserves has spent the last twenty years trying to reassert itself amongst oligarchs and conflicts, economically and militarily. While Russia has had many opportunities in reality, cities like Moscow and St.Petersburg have taken much of the benefits and have left rural Russia in neglect. Much of the country’s wealth is only now being re-absorbed and stability in government reasserted while rights of protest have been curbed to a great degree. Recently, military exercises in the North Atlantic and with China have put NATO on alert, showing that which Russia might not become the next economic giant, it certainly wishes to be heard in some manner.

While large yearly GDP revenue is considered an economic miracle in most of the world, 9-15% GDP growth was often common in Latin America throughout the 90s, and resulted in spectacular economic collapse in Brazil, Argentina and throughout the region many times over through 2001. Brazil, with its former labour leader and President has not taken the populist approach to economics, adopting policies of centrists past Presidents to form a step-by-step approach to growth for the world’s next big emerging economy. With a slow and stable growth rate of 5%-6%, Brazil is moving slowly out of economic instability to become the next stable global economic power. While Brazil has a population of over 170 million people, the Brazilian economy is about the same size as Canada, which has a population of 32 million. Brazil, with its stable progressive growth rate and poverty reduction strategies spends much of its time acquiring an economic future while trying to reduce its poverty rate and reduce inequality in the process. Avoiding heavy IMF measures to slash inflation, and avoiding Chavez like populism in reducing poverty in exchange for its business class, Brazil may stand out as the model for Emerging Market development if high GDP rates in India and China cannot manage its plus 10%-15% GDP and the changes and attention it brings in the long run. While time will tell which development strategies are successful in the long run, it is evident that the BRICs of the world are all different and all successful in their own unique achievements.

The European Union and Latin America have always had amicable ties, via trade, culture and administrative and legal traditions. Immigration from Latin America to the EU has often been able to avoid the conflict and debate that are common in the United States, where millions of immigrants from Latin America are more of a campaign issue than a sociological blessing. The European Union may have angered some of their Latin American friends however, with the new EU Immigration Policy creating a collective grumble throughout immigrant communities in Europe and among Latin American leaders themselves.

It is not common to have so many Latin American leaders, often with varying political stripes, to have complete agreement on an issue or a set of issues. Ironically, the past two weeks have produced not only new relations between Hugo Chavez and Alvaro Uribe, but produced a collective grumble by all leaders during the Mercosur regional summit and other policy discussions against the new EU Immigration measures. It is not secret that Spain and the EU have become the new destination for many legal and some illegal immigration from Latin America. The new EU policy seeks to detain possible illegal immigrants for a period of up to 18 months before deporting them, leading many Latin American leaders to perceive the EU as placing issues of immigration on the immigrants themselves, allowing policymakers to avoid the responsibility in dealing with immigration in the EU on a proper legal and equitable level. This led Latin American leaders to sign a joint declaration against the new EU immigration policies during Mercosur summit. In addition, some leaders threatened restrictions of Venezuelan oil, and possible restrictions of grain and other agricultural products leaving the rich fields on Brazil, Argentina and other countries that have been hit by the recent food crisis. While Latin America is not the only region to be angered by the new EU policy, it is one of the regions that are considering a collective reaction against Europe on behalf of the hundreds of thousands living there illegally which originate from Latin America.

The question that remains is whether the new EU policies are a just approach in dealing with illegal immigration or whether they warrant a strong reaction from Latin America and other countries around the globe? While the 27 member EU nations did pass the new Immigration Policy to be implemented in 2010, many have varied time restrictions regarding detentions of illegal immigrants. In reality, the EU policy is not only addressing illegal immigration coming from Latin America, but is greatly focused on the 51,000 illegal boat people coming into Spain, Italy, Greece and Malta that arrived in 2007 alone. Many of these illegal migrants end up drowning on their voyage to Europe, presenting the EU with a diverse humanitarian problem in dealing with illegal immigration. The new policy awards voluntary deportations, but also penalizes migrants who attempt to frustrate officials in dealing with their deportations as well. Families and children also have some rights extended, but as a whole the new policies are a lot stricter than previous laws protecting the EU from illegal migration.

After the EU Policy is implemented in the long run, the true effectiveness of the EU Immigration Policy will show its true colours. Protests from Latin America will likely not lead into true economic sanctions however, unless there are massive abuses against their citizens in the EU. In the end, many still will enter the EU illegally, and this is unlikely to change. The effectiveness of the new policy will come when people are actually caught and deported, which is still the fate of the minority of illegal immigrants in most countries in the world. Morality and immigration policy is still to be debated in Latin America and the EU, but it is certain that a solution to these issues is far from an absolute success in immigration policy in any region of the world.

For Video on the Mercosur Summit and Latin American leaders and EU Immigration, click here.