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August 2012: A child protesting in front of a major U.S. financial institution as part of a Chicago-based coalition who say unfair foreclosure practices persist.
A 2010 report by the Migration Policy Insitute called "The Impact of Immigrants in Recession and Economic Expansion" states the benefits of immigration on a troubled economy are immense, yet are often not seen in the near future. The Economist agrees. In a 2011 piece called, "Let them come" adds that countries in the west must open their borders - ultimately it will save the economy, but the west often is reluctant to let immigrants in and does let go of current ones.
One example of this is the closed U.S. border to Mexico, and increasing hostility towards Algerians in France in order to try and save what they say the jobs for those with citizenship already, despite both countries' histories with both countries using cheap labour by these immigrants that ultimately helped save them in the 1950s after WWII.
Like every other aspect of immigrant life during the current and past U.S. recessions, foreclosures are hitting U.S. immigrants hardest as financial institutions loosely unregulated by the government, attempt to drive immigrants out in this way in its attempts to reserve jobs for citizens. However, historically speaking, it was only immigrants who were willing to do menial labor, as was the case with the Chinese who built the railroads and the Irish who took up domestic work in order to survive.
In 2012, as is seen here, immigrants and U.S. citizens, largely women and senior citizens are teaming up in order to save their homes.
Four million homes have already been seized by banks since 2007, and still these millions of Americans could lose their homes in 2012 due to unfair foreclosure practices by the financial institutions JP Morgan Chase, Freddie Mac, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Fannie Mae, as was exposed in a report by ProPublica.
Housing regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Ed DeMarco said no last month to principal reductions, a form of loan forgiveness, that could save homes across the country. The Chicago coalition present in these photos, composed of Centro Autónomo and the Anti Eviction Campaign, ascertains DeMarco could save homeowners but instead leaves them to fight on their own for their houses. They also state that banks who loaned to them continue to mislead and misinform them and are illegally foreclosing on their homes.