Thread: Study says Latin American migrants will send home record amo

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/n ... mit19.html

WASHINGTON — Latin American migrants in the United States this year will send a record $45 billion to support relatives back home, according to a study released Wednesday that sheds light on the powerful economic forces driving migrants — both legal and illegal — to America's labor-hungry regions.

With 12.6 million migrants born in Latin America now sending home an average of $300 every month, remittances from the United States will grow by 51 percent since 2004, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the biggest official lender to the region.

Based on interviews with hundreds of Latino migrants, the IDB survey also revealed a darker side of the phenomenon: Many Latin American nations are unable to create attractive jobs to keep their young populations from leaving. Most interview subjects said they were either unemployed or made little money in their home nations and that they quickly found jobs once they came to America.

California topped all states in remittances with $13.2 billion, a 37 percent increase over 2004, followed by Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and Georgia — the traditional seven states with large Hispanic populations. The IDB study also showed that states with the fastest-growing remittances were in places as diverse as Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Tennessee.
States with the highest growth rates were New Mexico with a 260 percent increase over 2004, to $370 million, and Louisiana with a 241 percent rise, to $208 million. The latter was related to Hurricane Katrina reconstruction.
The bulk of the money is coming from traditional immigrant gateway states such as Florida and California. But remittance growth is fastest in such divergent states as New Mexico, Louisiana and Virginia, underscoring the dynamic link between the U.S. economy and Latino immigrants, who tend to be younger and more mobile than the overall U.S. population.

Hispanics, IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno said, are "ready and willing" to move wherever the jobs are, "contributing to the U.S. strength."

The IDB commissioned the polling firm Bendixen and Associates to interview 2,511 adults about their economic realities in the United States and in Latin America. The results were cross-checked with data from the Federal Reserve and central banks in Latin America.

IDB officials noted that the immigration benefits weren't a one-way street: About 90 percent, or about $460 billion, of the income generated by Latin American-born migrants stays in the United States. Bendixen warned that if the United States shut its doors to Hispanic immigrants, as Congress is attempting to do, the U.S. economy would be "close to collapse."

About 20 million households in Latin America — or 80 million people — receive more than $60 billion annually from remittances worldwide, a number that dwarfs what countries receive in aid from the U.S. government and development institutions like the World Bank.

"You can see in these numbers the changing map of migration in the United States," said Donald Terry, who heads the Multilateral Investment Fund, the private-lending arm of the IDB that has been tracking remittance trends for seven years.

He noted that one in every 10 U.S. adults was born in Latin America or the Caribbean and that the trend is likely to continue in the future.

"Latin Americans need jobs, and Americans need workers," he said. "That's the reality of the future."

Latin American migrants tend to be poor by U.S. standards: Three out of every five earn annual incomes of less than $30,000.

But the economic magnet is still a powerful one. Migrants earned an average of $150 a month in Latin America. Their first jobs in the United States on average paid six times more.

Also, 56 percent of migrants didn't have full-time jobs before coming to America; slightly more than half had jobs less than a month after arriving.

The report also revealed that poorer and newer arrivals are more likely to send money home.

The report also revealed that poorer and newer arrivals are more likely to send money home.

A new arrival living in shared poverty conditions as they did at home could send something home. Anyone trying to finance an American lifestyle on the alien wage jobs would not have $300 to send home. I am aware of the dependence on taxpayer benefits, and if they are sufficient to result in a surplus then it is my taxpayer dollars being wired out of the country. Also, I think the report failed to identify that a lot of this is drug money going out. These transfers need to be scrutinized like Arizona is doing.

There is a powerful opportunity for cooperation across a wide political spectrum. Remittances need to be used wisely in order to produce the best outcome for both the immigrants whether they be legal or illegal and for the Americans. Rather than have the money go to buying manufactured consumer goods it needs to go into food self sufficiency and productive assets.

Their families at home need to continue raising as much food supply as possible and to avoid buying pre manufactured food. Instead of buying their clothes from stores they should as much as possible be making them.

Instead of using their monies to build a modern house first they should be building income from small warehouses, factory shells and barns. The more this happens the less their desire to come here.

Instead of consumption constant reinvestment at home is going to be what makes the difference.

Immigrants sending more money home
By GIL KLEIN
Media General News Service
Thursday, October 19, 2006


WASHINGTON - Latin American immigrants in Virginia are expected to send home more than $1.1 billion from their wages this year, nearly double what they sent just two years ago, according to a report released Wednesday by the Inter-American Development Bank.

That is part of the $45 billion that the estimated 17.2 million adult Latin American immigrants in the United States will be sending home this year, the study said, more than a 50 percent increase in two years.

"This is real money," said Donald Terry, manager of the bank's Multilateral Investment Fund. "It is important to the future development of Latin America."

Money sent by Caribbean and Latin American immigrants, both legal and undocumented, has reached an amount greater than all of the official development assistance and foreign direct investment in the region.

Researchers conducted a poll of 2,511 adult Latin American immigrants during May. The study included only immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries and did not include Cubans because new, restrictive U.S. laws makes it too difficult to track how much money is going there.

Before those laws went into effect, Cuban immigrants were sending more than $1 billion annually to relatives.

The study found that 88 percent of the adult immigrants in Virginia regularly send money home, one of the highest percentages in any state. That compares to 73 percent for these immigrants nationwide.

With a new and growing immigrant population, Virginia has become the 10th largest contributor, just behind North Carolina's $1.2 billion. California leads the nation with nearly $13.2 billion.

"A commitment to family values is the driving force of the remittance flows linking these transnational families that live in two countries and contribute to two economies and two cultures," it said.

While the money being sent home is significant, it only amounts to about 10 percent of what the immigrants are making in the United States, the study said. The report said the 318,436 Latin American immigrants in the state contribute more than $11 billion to the state's economy.

With baby boomers heading to retirement, Terry said, the U.S. economy must have an influx of immigrants to keep it growing.

"In the United States, there are not enough young workers to fill the jobs that a dynamic economy requires," he said. "These people would not be coming here to be unemployed."

Immigration, the report said, is all about survival.

More than half of the Latin American immigrants arriving in the United States did not have a job when they left their home country. Those who were working before they left earned very little.

More than half of the new arrivals were able to find work within a month after arriving in the United States, the survey found. Only 11 percent said they did not have full-time employment.

The average pay for a Latin American immigrant's first job in the United States was $900 a month, about six times what they could have made at home - if they could have found a job.

"It is easy to understand what the magnet is," said Sergio Bendixen, who conducted the poll and met with groups of immigrants in Miami, New York and Los Angeles. "It will be difficult to reverse as long as the economic realities don't change."

Immigrants are sending home an average of $300 a month, up from $240 two years ago.

More than $20 billion went to Mexico in 2005, $6.4 billion to Brazil, $4.1 billion to Colombia and $2.5 billion to Peru, according to a bank report. Most of the money is being spent for food and consumer goods because families receiving it do not have access to banks, mortgages and loans.

Pressure is growing on immigrants to send money home, Bendixen said. Relatives back home see money arrive for neighbors and want to know why they aren't getting any. Advertising at remittance companies makes immigrants "feel like a bad person if they don't send money," he said.

Immigrants sending money home are getting younger, the report said. This year 54 percent were younger than 35, compared to 48 percent five years ago. More than three-fifths of the people sending money home have annual incomes of less than $30,000.

A majority of immigrants are still sending money, even 20 years after arriving in the United States, the survey found.

"These millions of families who are poor when they come here are sending back money to people who are even poorer," Terry said

This story can be found at: http://www.manassasjm.com/servlet/Satel ... 5469&path=

Report: N.C. Immigrants Will Send $1.2B To Latin America

http://www.wral.com/apncnews/10112010/detail.html

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Immigrants in North Carolina will send an estimated $1.2 billion back to Latin America this year that will be used to help reduce poverty in their homelands, according to a new study.

Migrants _ legal and illegal _ work on construction sites, in animal-processing plants and in the service industry around North Carolina. The availability of such jobs has made North Carolina a top destination for migrant workers.

On average, migrant workers are expected to send $300 a month to their native countries, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, which issued the report Wednesday.

"This is amazing, because the money goes into the pockets of poor people," said Luis Pastor, chief executive officer of the Latino Community Credit Union, a Durham-based agency with more than 50,000 members statewide. The credit union was not involved in the study.

Nationally, the amount of money migrants send home should increase 12 percent over 2005, the report said. The $45 billion that 12.6 million immigrants from Latin America will send home annually is more than the assistance their countries get from the U.S. government or other aid organizations, the study says, making it a major tool for reducing poverty in Latin America.

The study showed that 56 percent of Latin Americans sending money home from the U.S. did not have a job lined up when they migrated to the United States, but more than half found one in about 30 days. They earn on average $900 a month, six times what they were getting at home.

Three of every four send money home to invest in homes, startup businesses and education, the study said.

"My family needs it," Juan Gonzalez, 45, said in Raleigh. He sends $12,000 a year for food and school supplies to his wife and five children in Mexico.

"I can't do any more, or I would," Gonzalez said.

The cash transfers, called remittances, could boost the wealth of poor communities and eventually reduce the economic struggles that lead migrants to the United States, Pastor said.

"Leaving your country is not a fun experience. You do that based on desperation," he said. "The more money that goes there, the less incentive they have to come here."

Officials with Inter-American Development Bank said about 90 percent of the income generated by Latin American-born immigrants _ about $460 billion _ stays in the United States.

That amount is about $12.3 billion this year in North Carolina.

For the study, the bank commissioned the polling firm Bendixen and Associates to interview 2,511 adults in New York, Los Angeles and Miami about their economic realities in the United States and in Latin America.

The results, cross-checked with data from the Federal Reserve and Central Banks in Latin America, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 points.

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On the Net:

Inter-American Development Bank: http://www.iadb.org/

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Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com

Immigrants in North Carolina will send an estimated $1.2 billion back to Latin America this year that will be used to help reduce poverty in their homelands

OK, the money may do some good in their "homelands" but this is over a billion dollars sucked out of NC's economy. A billion that is not going to be spent at local stores, supporting local jobs, being taxed to support local governments, schools, etc.

On average, migrant workers are expected to send $300 a month to their native countries.....They earn on average $900 a month

WOW! That leaves $600 a month for beer and cigarettes!

Officials with Inter-American Development Bank said about 90 percent of the income generated by Latin American-born immigrants _ about $460 billion _ stays in the United States.

That doesn't match with the $300 - $900 averages cited earlier in the article.

Inter-American Development Bank

This is interesting:

Board of Govenors

United States of America Henry M. Paulson, Jr. Secretary of the Treasury Governor
United States of America Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Alternate

http://www.iadb.org/aboutus/IV/go_gover ... ge=English