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Zentralabitur 2006 Englisch Schülermaterial
Aufgabe I LK Bearbeitungszeit: 300 min
Aufgabenstellung
1. Summarize the Valenzuelas’ story and explain how it became possible. (20%)
2. Point out in what ways the magazine cover illustrates their story and supports the information
given in the text. (20%)
3. Examine the journalist’s attitude towards people such as the Valenzuelas by analysing his
language. (20%)
4. Compare the Valenzuelas’ story to that of Cándido and América in T. C. Boyle’s novel The
Tortilla Curtain. Limit yourself to the most important details. (20%)
5. Explain in a letter to the editor of Business Week whether U.S. immigration policy should be
liberalized or whether the current restrictions should be maintained. (20%)
Material (Text und Bild): from Business Week, July 18, 2005
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Embracing Illegals
Companies are getting hooked on the buying power of 11 million
undocumented immigrants
Inez and Antonio Valenzuela are a marketer’s dream. Young, upwardly mobile, and ready to
spend on their growing family, the Los Angeles couple in many ways reflects the 42 million
Hispanics in the U.S. Age 30 and 29, respectively, with two daughters, Esmeralda, 8, and Maria
Luisa, 2 months, the duo puts in long hours, working 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., six days a week, at their
bustling streetside taco trailer. From a small sidewalk stand less than two years ago, they built the
business into a hot destination for hungry commuters. The Valenzuelas (not their real name) bring
in revenue well above the U.S. household average of $43,000, making them a solidly middle-class
family that any U.S. consumer-products company would love to reach.
But Inez and Antonio aren’t your typical American consumers. They’re undocumented
immigrants who live and work in the U.S. illegally. When the couple, along with Esmeralda,
crossed the Mexican border five years ago, they had little money, no jobs, and lacked basic
documents such as Social Security numbers. Guided by friends and family, the couple soon
discovered how to navigate the increasingly above-ground world of illegal residency. At the local
Mexican consulate, the Valenzuelas each signed up for an identification card known as a matrícula
consular, for which more than half the applicants are undocumented immigrants, according to the
Pew Hispanic center, a Washington think tank. Scores of financial institutions now accept it for
bank accounts, credit cards, and car loans. Next, they applied to the Internal Revenue Service for
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Zentralabitur 2006 Englisch Schülermaterial
Aufgabe I LK Bearbeitungszeit: 300 min
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individual tax identification numbers (ITINs), allowing them to pay taxes like any U.S. citizen – and
thereby to eventually get a home mortgage.
Today, companies large and small eagerly cater to the Valenzuelas – regardless of their status.
In 2003 they paid $11,000 for a used Ford Motor Co. van plus $70,000 more for a gleaming new
30-foot trailer that now serves as headquarters and kitchen for their restaurant. A local car dealer
gave them a loan for the van based only on Antonio’s matrícula card and his Mexican driver’s
license. Verizon Communications Inc. also accepted his matrícula when he signed up for cellphone
service. So did a Wells Fargo & Co. branch in the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in
northeast Los Angeles where they live. Having a bank account allows them to pay bills by check
and build up their savings. Their goal: to trade up from a one-bedroom rental to their own home.
Eventually, they also hope to expand their business by buying several more trailers. Matrícula
holders like the Valenzuelas are “bringing us all the money that has been under the mattress”, says
Wells Fargo branch manager Steven Contreraz.
Growth Engine
(…)
The corporate Establishment’s new hunger for the undocumenteds’ business could have farreaching
implications for America’s stance on immigration policy, which remains unresolved.
Corporations are helping, essentially, to bring a huge chunk of the underground economy into the
mainstream. By finding ways to treat illegals like any other consumers, companies are in effect
legalizing – and legitimizing – millions of people who technically have no right to be in the U.S. It’s
even happening in mirror image, with some Mexican companies setting up programs to follow
customers who move to the U.S. All this knits the U.S. and Mexico closer together, further blurring
the border and population distinctions.
The economic impact could be significant. While most analysts peg the number of illegal
immigrants at 10 million to 11 million, a recent study by Bear Stearns Asset Management
concluded that data on housing permits, school enrollment, and foreign remittances suggests there
could be as many as 20 million. Either way, experts agree that the undocumented, a majority of
whom are Hispanic, are one of the nation’s largest sources of population growth. They add
700,000 new consumers to the economy every year, more even than the 600,000 or so legal
immigrants, according to Pew’s new study. What’s more, 84% of illegals are 18-to-44-year-olds, in
their prime spending years, vs. 60% of legal residents.
from: Business Week, July 18, 2005, pp. 43/44.
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Zentralabitur 2006 Englisch Schülermaterial
Aufgabe I LK Bearbeitungszeit: 300 min
Annotations:
(1) marketer – s.o. who sells goods or services
(5) taco trailer – cheap mobile restaurant selling Mexican food
(7) revenue – income
(13) to navigate – to find one’s way; to understand or deal with something complicated
(19) home mortgage – a legal arrangement in which you borrow money from a bank in order to
buy a house
(27) to trade up – to replace sth. you have with sth. better
(34) stance on – attitude towards
(41) to peg – to set sth. at a particular level
(43) remittance – a sum of money that is sent to sb. (Geldüberweisung)
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Zentralabitur 2006 Englisch Schülermaterial
Aufgabe I LK Bearbeitungszeit: 300 min
Cover of Business Week, July 18, 2005
Hilfsmittel
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