Bogota (Colombia) and the city of Mexico - with a regular salary as a beauty salon Manager, Edgar Ladino supports her two children, rent a compact car and is able to make rent payments on time.
"It is not my dream job, but it's OK," he said with a shrug of the shoulders, sipping a latte at a shopping mall in Bogotá.
Mr. Ladino cannot love his work, but it landed him a place in the nascent bourgeoisie of Latin America. Millions throughout the region are finally in place new companies, buy houses and cars and helping to stabilize more democracies. In the region of the world more unequal, their ascent has dominated policy, academic documents and articles in press documents.
Fifty-six million households have joined the middle class American in the last decade and a half, according to the new analysis by the Economic Commission of the United Nations for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which studies the 10 countries of the region that represents 80% of the population. The growth reflects the trends in the rest of the world, the group said, with 1.3 billion people who today ranks average.
But behind the good news is a troubling reality. While the new members of the middle class in Latin America could be better than their parents, often taken benefits acquired by their Western counterparts remain far from understanding. Many are barely holding their new status, with precarious employment and access to a quality education for their children. In most cases, they are more likely to fall into poverty again that the rise in wealth.
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Situation of ladino, for example, is far from stable. As of the millions of Colombians, it has only a one year contract. It expires at the end of May. It belongs entirely to his employer whether to renew the contract or not. "What kills me is the uncertainty," he said. If his boss decides not to sign him once more, not some Ladino from which will come from the next payment of the car.
"This is not a European or us middle class", explains Christopher Sabatini, editor-in-Chief of the journal political quarterly Americas in New York, which is published by the Council of the Americas. "I think we are at risk of overstating the stability and the type of middle class has increased." … "It is very, very fragile."
Several factors are increasing economic status, including increased access to education and credit and macroeconomic policies that have kept inflation in check.
Throughout the region, GDP increased by an average of 2.6% between 2000 and 2008, according to the World Bank. Many countries have reduced poverty by paying families who keep their children at school. Demographic data were a boon, as the population of people of working age is superior to these not - giving families a supplementary income.
Growth of the informal economy
But are more considered poor, many in the region are that they survive on the margins, without a basis in place to ensure their. One of the reasons is the growth of the informal economy.
According in the Latin American Economic Outlook 2011 of the OECD, which focused on the heterogeneity of the middle class, more than half of the "middle sector" workers 72 million in Bolivia, the Brazil, the Chile and the Mexico - those whose income of the household by capital between 50 and 150% of the national median - operate informallywhich means that they have no safety net in the case of illness, retirement or job loss. The coverage of the schemes of social protection in Latin America remains well below 50 percent of the workers, said the group.
Colombia, according to official figures from the Government, only half of the active population works in the formal sector, with access to benefits, credit consumption and subsequently a pension. Economist Alejandro Gaviria according to rigid labor laws contribute to the situation. The cost for employers of benefits compulsory nonsalary, such as severance pay, health insurance and pension payments, has led many companies to find ways to circumvent the costs.
"They paralyse the creation of jobs and lead to a trap of informality," explains Mr. Gaviria, Dean of Economics at the University de Los Andes in Bogota.
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Despite a rate of healthy economic growth of 4.3% last year - it should increase by 5% in 2011 - the size of the middle class of Colombia remained stagnant, according to the study of ECLAC. In fact it remains one of the most unequal countries in the world, behind Haiti, according to the human development report 2010 UN.
New status less benefits
While States have managed to reduce poverty, they have failed to create significant, bringing together social programs such as unemployment or social security to protect those that at the bottom of the class averagesaid Mr. Sabatini. Mexico has experienced more robust growth of its sector average, households in the middle class that double to 14 million dollars in the last over decade and a half, according to ECLAC.
But the numbers often painted a rosier picture of reality, explains Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid, the Deputy Director for the Mexico Office for the ECLAC and author of "' development and growth of the Mexican economy: A Historical Perspective." "
"The middle class in this country, unlike us, has no unemployment benefits, and our retirement system is extremely poor," said. "Many are in a very vulnerable position."
Javier Malagón takes into account that it is on the lower end of what is considered to be middle class is Colombia, but he is proud to be distinguished from poor.
"I'm not hungry," he said. He and his brother jointly have a food basket where they sell hot dogs, hamburgers, chorizo and arepas, a Colombian cornmeal patty. They borrowed $1000 he cost of informal lenders, three years ago and are still making payments. "Banks would never even look at us," he said. When it is not manning the stand, m. Malagón tries to find shifts to the restaurants and grills.
But with its current configuration, Malagón can think about upcoming sentence. "At any time, the police can come and carry further the cart and where we will be then?" he asked. "It is very unstable."
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