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the fifth estate: Run For Your Life
Facts & Stats> Printer Version
Broadcast
February 11 & 18, 2004
FACTS AND STATS:
- 78% of Central Americans live below
the poverty line which, according to the World Bank, is less than $2
a day.
- The average Central American worker makes about $900
a year.
- The U.S. government employs 9,000
people and spends 1.2 billion-a-year to hold back
the tide of people crossing it's borders illegally. The Border Patrol
estimates that they catch only 1 in 3 or 1 in 4
of illegal immigrants.
- A television ad in Mexico meant to deter illegal immigration
to the U.S. stated that at least 1 person dies every
day trying to enter Mexico from Central America.
- A 1997 study found that during the journey from
Central American to the U.S., an immigrant faces, on average 3
traumatic events ranging from problems with police to beatings
by bandits to starvation.
- Sending Central Americans home from
the U.S. costs $1,700 per person compared to $22
from Mexico.
- Each year 400,000 people cross
the border into the U.S. Most are from Mexico and Central America. One
fifth of these are under the age of 18. About one quarter are women.
- There are 200,000 illegal immigrants
living in Canada. Many of them live in southern Ontario and are an integral
part of the construction trade.
- There are 9 million illegals in
the U.S. 50% come from Mexico. The rest are from
South and Central America and China.
- The International Monetary Fund reported in 2002 that
underground work amounted to 10% of the entire
U.S. economy.
- More than 40% of Hispanic immigrants
in the United States regularly send money to relatives in their native
countries, a flow of funds totaling nearly $30 billion.
This amount is almost double the entire U.S. foreign aid budget for
all nations.
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the fifth estate: Run for Your Life
Broadcast on the
fifth estate Sunday, June 1 & June 8, 2008 at 7pm ET on CBC Newsworld
The Boys - The
Journey - The Destination
Filmmaker's Notes - Facts
& Stats - Resources
Update - Discussion - Watch Video
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