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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Migrants' families feel money pinch

    Migrants' families feel money pinch

    By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY

    When Renato Canlapan lost his job at a Taiwanese fiberglass plant last month, he didn't even have enough money for the bus fare home.
    That was a blow not just to him, but to family members back in his native Philippines — where he sent a good portion of the $500 he earned every month. The cash supported siblings, parents, grandparents, uncle, aunts and cousins.

    Without his help, Canlapan says, they must "minimize the money they spend on food."

    Canlapan's story illustrates one of the less-explored consequences of the global financial crisis: For every migrant worker who loses his job or gets a pay cut in wealthy cities such as Dubai, Singapore and Los Angeles, there are often family members and friends thousands of miles away who suffer as well.

    The money migrants send back to their countries — called remittances — could fall as much as 5.7% this year, according to the World Bank. That would break years of double-digit growth.

    The resulting economic chill could have negative consequences for political stability and security in many poorer countries, including the Philippines, where the government is fighting Muslim separatists and communist guerrillas.

    "The impact on poor people can be disproportionately high," says the World Bank's Dilip Ratha, a specialist in the economics of migration. "Remittances are used for food or clothing or helping the elderly."

    It's often impossible for families in developing countries to replace the money that remittances provided. For example, Canlapan is back in his village, 80 miles north of Manila, looking for work in a place where $80 a month is a good salary.

    The International Crisis Group, a think-tank, warned this month of rising political instability in Tajikistan, where remittances (mostly from migrants to Russia) are officially equal to nearly 46% of economic output, the highest figure in the world.

    Money sent home by Mexican migrants abroad, primarily those living in the USA, fell 3.6% last year — undermining the economy as the government battles drug gangs. A weakening economy poses a security threat to Pakistan also, where the Taliban insurgency is gaining strength.

    The globalization of the economy in the past two decades means Filipino families warily watch economic developments in the Middle East. Two million Filipinos work in the region — as maids in Saudi Arabia, drivers in Qatar and hotel clerks in the United Arab Emirates, among other jobs. That's why the plunge in oil prices and the collapse of Dubai's real estate market threaten living standards in faraway Manila.

    "The biggest predictor of how Filipino labor migrants will fare in the global slowdown hinges on how well the economies in the Middle East respond to the crisis," says Dovelyn Rannveig Agunias, associate policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington.

    Ratha sees some cause for hope. Even in tough times, he says, wealthy, oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are unlikely to replace migrant gardeners and day laborers with recruits from their pampered local citizenries. "The people there have deep pockets," he says. During the late 1980s, migration to Saudi Arabia rose steadily in the face of plummeting oil prices.

    Migrants will sacrifice to send steady amounts home, even if they take pay cuts and must trim their own expenses: "They try to absorb the income shocks themselves," Ratha says. "Every dollar they earn in a country like the United States or (the United Kingdom) or Hong Kong is a lot of money at home.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Dixie's Avatar
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    So what's the moral of this story? These people need money managers.

    They were living without the migrant's income before he/she was living in the US and sending it home. They must have been spending it like mad because when it's cut off they have no savings, including the migrant. I bet the quit growing the garden too and started buying produce in the market instead. That's what people do when they have disposible income, they spend it!

    All of that has nothing to do with loosing a job, and everything to do with being financially irresponsible.

    Dixie
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  3. #3
    Paidmytaxes's Avatar
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    Dixie I have to agree with you on this.


    THIS IS WHY is the US is so depleted. These people send their money home. They don't spend it here.

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