A dream deferred in San Francisco

A Hispanic man stands outside a money-transfer office on a street corner in San Francisco. It's a popular meeting place for "undocumented workers". The illegal immigrant population of the United States is now estimated to be about 11 million people, down from a historic peak of 12.5 million people in 2007, according to the Pew Research Center. Undocumented workers have been hard hit by the recession, with many choosing to return home to Mexico, Central and South America.

"Fewer people are coming, and significantly more people are going home," Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington told BusinessWeek. Their American Dream has been deferred.

"A dream deferred" is a dream that might come true later than you expected or hoped. It is the title of a famous poem by Langston Hughes.