Immigrants Slow Rate Of Money Transfers

[Demeter]

Source: Washington Post

Immigrants Slow Rate Of Money Transfers
Remittances Crucial to Poor Nations

By Krissah Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 1, 2007; D01



The amount of money Latin American immigrants sent home from the United States grew at a slower rate during the first two months of the year than in the same period a year ago, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. The slowdown puzzled some experts who study such remittances, which contribute significantly to Latin American economies...Remittances rose in the single digits in January and February after rising as much as 20 percent year-over-year since analysts began tracking the transfers at the beginning of the decade, the Inter-American Development Bank said yesterday.

Many remittance-rich nations would fall into a recession if immigrants began sending home significantly less money, which could encourage more poor Latin Americans to find work in the United States, according to the study and Donald Terry, manager of the Multilateral Investment Fund at the Inter-American Development Bank....For all of last year, migrant workers sent $62.3 billion to their families, an increase of 14 percent from 2005. From 2004 to 2005, remittances increased 17 percent. Central American and Caribbean countries have come to rely on the money as a vital and growing source of income.

"For an economically volatile region known for its boom-and-bust cycles, remittance flows have been remarkably constant over many years and may be responsible, in part, for the recent economic stability of so many Latin American countries," said Manuel Orozco, author of a study to be released today by the Inter-American Dialogue, a Latin America think tank.

Questions are surfacing over whether political and economic changes in the United States may be affecting the way immigrant workers spend their money, Terry said. The bank is conducting a survey of immigrants to determine why they are sending less home. Anecdotal evidence suggests that raids on migrant communities by U.S. law enforcement officers and fear of deportation has prompted some to curb spending, Terry said. Others may be saving money to pay U.S. citizenship fees, wagering that a congressional debate over immigration law would result in allowing them to pay a penalty and legalize their immigration status. A downturn in the U.S. housing industry could also be trickling down to immigrants, who fill the majority of U.S. construction jobs....The poor Central American families who receive remittances spend about 80 percent of the money on essentials, such as food, housing and clothes, but the remaining 20 percent could be saved if financial services were more readily available, he said. If that money were in bank accounts, more small-business loans and mortgages would be available to the poor. About 95 percent of remittance money is spent for consumption and services.

Little of the money has been converted to wealth.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/30/AR2007043001698.html?referrer=email

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The slant of this article--insidious as it is--is how can Big Banks and Life Insurance companies get some of that dough!





Enticing immigrants and their family members back home to put their money in banks has been difficult. A measure of distrust of the financial system exists, said Amy Coughenour, deputy director of the Pan-American Development Foundation, which operates a project that helps Salvadoran immigrants invest money back home.

"You can construct a lot of interesting financial mechanisms, but trust and transparency are really important," Coughenour said. "Just by making a product or service available doesn't mean that the community is going to participate."

Gee, I wonder why? Could the World Bank and the IMF, not to mention US banking scandals, have something to do with it? Not to mention IRS antics and ties to La Migra? A pox on all their houses.

[VegasWolf]

1. No, its simply that there are only a few people left in Mexico! nt

[Rydz777]

10. You are right

There are indeed fewer people left in Mexico. Whole villages have been depopulated. The youth are gone, leaving only the elderly who can't make the trek "al Norte." Mexico is even experiencing an influx of "illegal aliens" from Central America who take the jobs that there are no longer any Mexicans available to do.

[Warpy]

2. I think they're talking as much about legal immigrants

as illegals. In fact, the illegals who have come here since Reagan stupidly tightened the laws against them have brought their families with them.

A better guess than the one in this badly slanted article would be that immigrants are getting squeezed just like the rest of us, thanks to escalating prices and stagnant or falling wages plus a loss of equity in their houses. They're not sending as much home because they don't have as much to send.

As for not trusting banks, perhaps they don't have much to bank after they pay bills here and in their home countries.

[happyslug]

5. Both legal and illegal immigrants send money back home.

It is done all the time and the agencies that do such transmissions don't care about the legal status of the person sending money south of the border (nor are such agencies REQUIRED to ask about status).

[Warpy]

6. Not just south of the border, it goes worldwide

It's doubly cruel that they aren't able to send as much as in previous years because the decline of the dollar is also against most of the world's currencies (with the exception of the yuan) and that money doesn't go as far as it used to.

Some of the extended families are in truly desperate poverty. Money sent from relatives who emigrated to the US is literally the difference between life and death.

[happyslug]

7. I agree, but given the increase in the price of Corn, it is less crucial

I first noted this reduction in the NUMBER of immigrants when Farmers out west complain they could NOT get any workers to harvest their crops in 2006. The farmers were claiming that the Feds had been to strict on illegal immigrants, but Bush has been more noise then action when it comes to immigration (Bush and his friends WANT immigration for with migration the US native population has been on less than replacement levels since the 1960s and thus without immigration people would be in a better positron to demand higher wages).

Note, I make no difference between legal and illegal immigrants, for the problem is NOT illegal immigrants but the demand from Business to permit ALL AND ANY IMMIGRATION SO TO KEEP LABOR COSTS DOWN. Thus you hear the refrain, "Immigrants do jobs no America will" yes, if you only want to pay them minimum wage, if you up the wage level Americans will take ANY job that exist in the US today. The issue is WAGES, immigration has always been used to keep US Wages low.

Now, you are starting to see immigration pattern change. The US economy is NOT as hot as it use to be, the Corn crop is up so immigration will DECLINE. You will still have immigrants, but you will see a gradual decline in Numbers and people complaining about the lack of immigrants. We are just seeing the start of this decline and like any start it looks minor, just like the increase in illegal immigration in the 1960s looked minor.

[liberal N proud]

3. Little of the money has been converted to wealth because these people

are living a subsistence life.
It takes every bit of what they take home to survive.

Putting away for retirement is not an option for most of the immigrants from south of the border. They live paycheck to paycheck and deal in cash. These people are not getting into credit problems like those sitting in the mc-mansions in suburbia. They are lucky enough to have the cash to pay rent and feed the kids

[happyslug]

4. Notice the issue is the drop IN THE GROWTH of such remittances.

Such remittances having been growing regularly as the number of people born south of the Border go to work north of the Border.

What this mean is that somehow the number of NEW IMMIGRANTS (both legal and illegal) to the US has dropped. The immigrants already in the US continue to send money home (which is traditionally what immigrants do going back to the 1800s) BUT somehow the NUMBER of NEW Immigrants have dropped.

The best explanation is that the price of Corn is up, and thus the big push to go North to earn a living has disappeared. As part of NAFTA, Mexico and Central American opened up its borders to cheap US Corn. Many Small farmers could NOT compete with such Corn and were forced to quit farming and head North to look for Work. Now with the price of Corn up do to ethanol production these same Farmers are staying home and growing corn.

Remember while the US may be a draw for Workers, you also need a push, with the price of Corn up there is NO push for Small Farmers to go North to search for work.

[superconnected]

8. Propagada. Now hate immigrants. they're robbing america of it's wealth.

Don't even consider how american companies rape other countries of their resources.

Be good little hitler youths and hate imigrants.

[Bridget Burke]

11. It's not a new story.

Between 1847 and 1867 ... it was estimated that Irish immigrants had sent more than $120 million home to Ireland, with most of that amount coming from domestic servants.

www.tenement.org/encyclopedia/irish_immigrants.htm

And many worried that the Irish would not "assimilate."


www.victoriana.com/Irish/IrishPoliticalCartoons.htm

[youngdem]

9. This is due to the rising cost of living in the US

It takes more to get groceries, gas and shelter here. All have sharply risen in price in recent years, while wages are not keeping up. Also, there is a downturn in construction, so many of the higher paying jobs available to the immigrant community are beginning to contract, a lot in some markets.

Also, there is a budding trend for some illegal immigrants to pay income tax in order to qualify for any potential amnesty. That money obviously stays here.

Also, I guess more and more are just staying here and bringing the whole family. There are entire communities hidden in the woods around Central Louisiana that staff the nation's landscaping farms, and they simply did NOT exist fifteen years ago.