Many Migrant Families Send Pay To Families(Part 6 of 6)
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... /505270361
Published Friday, May 27, 2005
TAKING CARE OF THOSE LEFT BEHIND
Many Immigrant Workers Send Pay to Families
By YESENIA MOJARRO
The Ledger
Last of six parts
WAHNETA
At Placita Mexico, a store and restaurant that caters to this East Polk community's large Spanish-speaking population, signs proclaim: "Envio de Dinero a Mexico, Centro y Sur America" (Send Money to Mexico, Central and South America).
And so they do. Approximately $100,000 flows each week from the store to Mexico and other Latin American countries, said Antonio Reynoso, the store manager.
"Sometimes people hand over their whole checks," he said.
Approximately 65 percent of Latin American immigrant workers send money home on a regular basis, according to a 2004
Inter-American Development Bank study. These money transfers are widely recognized as critical to the survival of millions of families and the health of many national economies throughout Latin America, the study found.
From Placita Mexico, Felipe Lopez sends money to his wife and two young sons in Guanajuato, Mexico. Lopez, who picks oranges in several Polk County groves, said the bus he rides to work stops at the store daily.
"I can cash my check, send money to my wife and then call her from the pay phone outside," he said.
Lopez said he came to the United States in 2003 hoping to earn more money than he could as a construction worker in Mexico. "I only made 120 pesos a day or 600 pesos a week (about $11 a day or $55 a week) working construction in Mexico, and it was barely enough to stay afloat," Lopez said.
He now makes about $280 to $300 a week picking oranges. Much of it goes back to his wife and boys, ages 5 and 8. He wires them $200 to $300 every other week. "My wife sends the kids to school and buys groceries with the money," Lopez said. In Mexico, children must purchase their schoolbooks and supplies.
Millions of other immigrants can tell similar stories of sending their hard-earned pay to families left behind.
Mexico's central bank reports that the country received $16.6 billion in money transfers in 2004, almost twice the $8.8 billion of just four years earlier. About 95 percent of that money was sent from the United States.
Much of this money came from immigrants who have come to the United States with one main goal: to better the economic status of their families.
Such was Guillermina Maya's hope when she left Guerrero, Mexico, and joined her husband in Florida 12 years ago. Both picked oranges in Polk County groves each winter and supplemented their summer income by working in restaurants or hotels.
Some weeks their paychecks were no more than $250. Yet, Maya has never failed to send at least $100 to Mexico every 15 days.
"We are a poor family, and I know my parents need the money," Maya said.
Her parents, now 60 and 57, make their livelihood by planting corn in strangers' fields in Mexico and could not afford to buy the seeds they plant without help, Maya added.
She now works at a citrus processing plant and her husband has a factory job, but they continue to send money home.
In 2003, Mexico was second to China in the amount of money received from its workers abroad, according to Aite Group LLC, a Boston research firm.
The money transfers usually take place at supermarkets and convenience stores patronized by the Mexican-American community.
At Placita Mexico, it costs $10 for a transfer of up to $500 through Sigue Corp., the money-transfer service used at the store, said Reynosa, the store manager.
The process is simple. When a customer walks in the store, a Sigue Corp. phone awaits him near the cash register. The customer picks up the phone and a Sigue operator asks the customer a series of questions.
After all questions regarding the transaction are answered, the company sends two confirmation faxes to the store. The customer signs them, pays and keeps a copy.
Family members with a valid photo ID in Mexico can immediately pick up the money in pesos, the Mexican currency, at a designated Sigue Corp. location such as a bank, grocery store or pharmacy.
Sigue isn't the only way to send money. Wahneta Supermarket provides a 10-minute transfer of $500 through Western Union for $15 to most locations in Mexico, according to the store clerk.
The U.S. Postal Service charges $10 for a wire transfer up to $750.
But not all post offices offer the Dinero Seguro (Safe Money) money-transfer service to Mexico. The only post offices in Polk County to offer the service are in Auburndale and Eloise.
Maya and Lopez said they will continue to send money to their families in Mexico through Sigue Corp. at Placita Mexico.
"I shop here often and it is convenient," Lopez said.
