I guess they don't know about Bank of America and their new slogan; "Bank of Opprotunity".

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... 5677.story

$72 billion for back home


Immigrants' support tops federal aid and investment

By Vanessa Bauz–
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted March 22 2007


In Port Maria, a village nestled between Jamaica's north coast and the Blue Mountains, the Western Union is a bustling hot spot. That's where Simone Roper picks up between $100 and $200 her aunt in Miramar wires monthly.

"The offices are packed. Sometimes the lines come way outside," Roper, 32, said. "It takes hours."

Money transfers connecting families across the region are projected to increase 15 percent each year over the next four years, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. By 2010, Latin American and Caribbean immigrants working outside their countries are expected to send home more than $100 billion a year, said Donald F. Terry, general manager of the bank's Multilateral Investment Fund at the IDB's annual meeting in Guatemala City this week.

This year, Latin American and Caribbean immigrants living in the United States, Europe and Asia will send home about $72 billion, up from $62 billion last year, Terry said. That's more than all the foreign aid and investment combined in Latin America, he added.

For Roper, the money is a lifeline. The single mother holds a full-time job as a clerk in the town hall while taking accounting courses at a local university. She uses the money for tuition, bus fare and groceries. Recently she splurged, allowing her 15-year-old son to use some of the money to buy a deeply discounted Blackberry.

"Auntie never says no," Roper said. "I, honest to God, don't know what I'd do without her."

Roper's aunt, Maria Kong, who came 20 years ago to South Florida and now owns a real estate company, said she is happy to help.

"I'm just sorry I can't do more," Kong said. "To help your own people where you grew, well, they are so grateful."

Last year, Jamaican immigrants sent about $1.7 billion in remittances -- money transfers for friends and family -- to their homeland, according to the IDB. The figure is just shy of the U.S. government's $1.9 billion budget for aid to all of Latin America.

The IDB's Terry called remittances a "very effective poverty reduction program" that keeps 8 to 10 million Latin American families above the poverty line. However, rising cash transfers also reflect a lack of opportunities at home.

"If you're No. 1 in remittances, that means your economy is not generating enough jobs. ... What that really means is ... too much unemployment and underemployment," he said.

Much of the money never enters the formal banking system and is instead wired through agencies like Western Union.

The recent U.S. crackdown on illegal immigration has hindered efforts to get immigrants to use banks to send their earnings back to their homelands, Terry said.

The banking system would allow immigrants to open savings accounts, qualify for small business loans, mortgages and other services that could stretch their cash and help to bring families out of poverty.