Thread: As U.S. Economy Recovers, Central American Migrants Get To Send Money Home Again

As U.S. Economy Recovers, Central American Migrants Get To Send Money Home Again

Published November 15, 2013Fox News Latino

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The amount of money U.S. immigrants sent to their families in Latin America returned to pre-recession levels – except in Mexico.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center released Friday, U.S. Latino immigrants sent an overall $53.8 billion to Latin American nations – more than double the amount sent in 2000 – but still below the $61.6 billion immigrants sent to their families in 2007 when the global recession began.

The U.S. is the most important source of remittances to Latin America, in fact, 17 Latin American countries receive more money from immigrants in the U.S. than they do in foreign aid. According to World Bank data cited by Pew, remittances accounted for a tenth or more of the gross domestic products of El Salvador (16.5%), Honduras (15.7%), Guatemala (10%), and Nicaragua (9.7%).

Latin nations received a total of just $6.2 billion in aid – eight times less – than the remittances pumped into the region's economies.
Despite all that, the amount of money sent home by immigrants to Mexico has decreased each year since 2011.

Remittances to Mexico account for 40 percent of all money sent to Latin America from the U.S.. $22 billion in 2013, according to Pew. That's 29 percent below the 2006 peak. At the same time, the other 17 Latin American countries saw remittances of $31.8 billion slightly surpass their 2008 peak.

The report suggests two possibilities as to why Mexican immigrants are not sending as much money back home as they used to.

One is the housing market crash of 2008, which had a direct impact on the number of Mexican migrants who could find work in construction. The second is the record number of deportations during President Barack Obama’s administration.

A 2008 Pew Research Center survey from 2008 found that 54 percent of foreign-born Hispanics and 17 percent of U.S.-born Latinos said they send money to their countries of origin.

The Latin American nations with the highest amount of remittance money from the U.S. also happen to be the four countries with the largest number of immigrants in the U.S.: Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/mon...not-to-mexico/

The United States has recently signed separate Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with El Salvadorand Honduras to assist them in securitizing their future remittance receipts to raise financing for infrastructure and development projects.

Under the Building Remittance Investment for Development, Growth, and Entrepreneurship (BRIDGE) initiative, banks in these countries will leverage their future remittance receipts to raise lower-cost and longer-term financing in international capital markets to fund infrastructure, public works, and commercial development initiatives (see press release).

In a speech in New York City on September 22, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explained how BRIDGE would work to raise critically needed development funding:

“…Now, if they [migrants] send these remittances through the formal financial system, they create huge funding flows that are orders of magnitude larger than any development assistance we can dream of. By harnessing the potential of remittances, BRIDGE will make it easier for communities in El Salvador and Honduras to get the financing they need to build roads and bridges, for example, to support entrepreneurs, to make loans, to bring more people into the financial system…..Through BRIDGE and its in-country partners, local banks will be able to leverage their remittance flows….With the leverage from remittances, the local banks will be able to get lower-cost, longer-term financing for investments in infrastructure projects and small businesses.”

The financing structure proposed under BRIDGE is similar to that used by banks in several remittance-receiving countries such as Brazil, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Peru and Turkey, to raise over $15 billion in international financing during the last decade (see previous work on this topic by my colleagues Dilip Ratha and Suhas Ketkar onsecuritization of future-flow receivables and new paths to funding).

The BRIDGE initiative provides an excellent application of innovative financing instruments leveraging on migration and remittances. The World Bank group has recently become involved in this area. The International Finance Corporation has recently provided up to $30 million debt financing for securitizing the significant remittances of El Salvadorans working abroad to raise financing for a credit cooperative Fedecredito. These additional resources will be used to increase lending to micro-entrepreneurs and low-income people in the country. Increasingly the Bank is receiving requests to assist countries to raise funds through diaspora bonds.

http://www.alipac.us/f12/us-signs-historic-deal-el-salvador-honduras-remittance-securitization-258348/

AMNESTY: LEGALIZING MEXICO'S LOOTING!

The danger, as Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson argues, is that of “importing poverty” in the form of a new underclass—a permanent group of working poor… AMNESTY IS ONLY ABOUT KEEPING WAGES FOR LEGALS DEPRESSED!

Heritage: Amnestied Illegals Will Get $9.4T in Benefits; Increase Debt $6.3T'
what is the REAL cost of all that “CHEAP” Mexican labor? Add it up and then factor in the MEXICAN CRIME TIDAL WAVE and the fact that the MEXICAN now operate in 2,500 American cities!



http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.co...nkrupt-us.html