USA Green Card Immigration Blog

US Immigration Service Grants Reprieve to Haitian Immigrants | Americas | English.

A new immigration program for Haitian citizens living in the United States:

Haitian nationals will be able to remain in the U.S. legally, be able to obtain authorization to work legally in the United States, and be eligible to obtain permission to travel outside the United  States.

Being able to travel home to help without fear of being denied re-entry to the U.S. is key.

Only Haitians already in the U.S. are eligible for temporary protected status.

‘Virtual’ Immigration Continued Rising During Recession – Real Time Economics – WSJ.

The global economic downturn spurred declines in physical immigration — the movement of people across borders — in 2008 and 2009. But a new Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas report says “virtual” immigration — moving the work rather than the workers — continued to grow.

“Most likely, the difference stems from the jobs the two types of immigrants typically do,” authors Michael Cox, Richard Alm and Justyna Dymerska write in the Dallas Fed’s Economic Letter. “Physical immigrants work in construction and other highly cyclical industries. Virtual immigrants are more likely to work in the services economy. It has traditionally been less sensitive than goods to cyclical fluctuations, largely because services aren’t subject to the kind of inventory bulges that make goods production unstable.”

Still, virtual immigration increased at a slower pace during the downturn. “Hard times might pressure companies to cut costs, quickening offshoring’s pace,” they write. “At the same time, companies might pull back on offshoring because of cuts in IT budgets and plentiful labor close to home.”   For instance, India’s exports in software and IT services are forecast to continue expanding. But the projected growth rate of 17% for 2009 is less than half the pace of the prior four years.