In Venezuela, a New Wave of Foreigners
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CARACAS, Venezuela -- On this booming continent, oil-rich Venezuela is the exception: South America's only shrinking economy this year. Officials are rationing hard currency. Government takeovers of private businesses are increasing. One prominent financial analyst recently had just two words of advice for investors here: "Run away."
Many middle-class and wealthy Venezuelans have done exactly that, creating a slow-burning exodus of scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs and engineers. But wander into the bazaar in the shadow of Santa Teresa Basilica in this city's old center, and the opposite seems to be happening as well.
Merchants murmur in Arabic, Urdu and Hindi. Haitians pushing ice cream carts chatter in Creole. Street vendors selling DVDs call out in Colombian-accented Spanish. Sip coffee in Naji Hammoud's clothing shop, where photos of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley grace the walls, and the outlook is downright bullish.
"There's money in the street, whether the price of oil is $8 a barrel or $80," said Mr. Hammoud, 36, who came here from Lebanon a decade ago and has no plans to leave. "I could have moved to Europe, Germany, someplace, and done fine, but I would have been someone's employee. Here, I'm my own boss."
Venezuela is in the throes of an immigration puzzle. While large numbers of the middle class head for the exits, hundreds of thousands of foreign merchants and laborers have put down stakes here in recent years, complicating the portrait of how a brain drain unfolds.
The opposing tides reflect the increasingly polarized nature of the country. The government of President Hugo Chávez, who recently declared an "economic war" against the "bourgeoisie," has expropriated 207 private businesses this year -- including banks, cattle ranches and housing developments, according to Conindustria, a Venezuelan industrial association -- prompting many to seek safer havens elsewhere.
First Published November 7, 2010 2:01 am
