- EL PASO, Texas (EFE) - Despite
the effects of a sluggish U.S. economy, Mexican immigrants who work north
of the border have continued sending remittances home at a record pace.
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- According to a Pew Hispanic Center and Inter-American
Development Bank report, Mexicans in the United States are expected to
send a record 13 billion dollars this year to relatives back home. Total
remittances by all Latin American immigrants, meanwhile, are expected to
exceed 18 billion dollars by the end of 2005.
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- "The figures are evidence of a kind of economic
activity that is resistant to the U.S. business cycle," the report
read. The skyrocketing figures are also the result of economic crises in
Latin America, the document continued.
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- Remittances benefit the border region because some of
the money sent to families in border cities - such as Ciudad Juarez and
Brownsville - is collected in Western Union outlets north of the border,
said Ernesto Portillo, president of Melek Corp. in El Paso.
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- By collecting the wire transfer at a U.S. outlet, Mexicans
can receive dollars and obtain a better exchange rate than they can at
outlets in Mexico, which pay in pesos.
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- "They receive the money here and spend it here,"
said Claudia Hernandez Burciaga, an elementary school teacher in Ciudad
Juarez who travels monthly to El Paso to collect her remittance money.
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- Hernandez's husband works as a cook in Atlanta and sends
her money each month. "He sends the money to the Western Union in
El Paso and I pick it up there," she said.
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- Hernandez added she spends almost all the money on food
and clothing for her and her children in El Paso, where she has found that
basic items are cheaper.
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- Prior to last year's terrorist attacks, Melek Corp. was
averaging 2,500 transactions per month in its three main branches, Portillo
told the El Paso Times. Following the attacks, this figure dropped to approximately
1,850.
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- Currently, the number of transactions is again on the
rise. An average of 2,030 transactions are carried out per month, with
each transaction averaging 345 dollars.
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- According to the report, which was released in Washington,
the remittances are a reflection of the "profound human bond between
people who come here to work for long hours at low wages and the families
they left behind."
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- The United States is home to 31 million foreign-born
residents, including 16 million from Latin America. Approximately 85 percent
of Latin American immigrants hail from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras and Nicaragua.
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- According to the report, the cheapest way to send money
to Mexico is through the U.S. Postal Service, which charges 8 dollars for
a 300-dollar transaction.
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- The money can be sent through the Postal Service's "Dinero
Seguro/Safe Money" program and picked up at any Bancomer bank in Mexico.
Wells Fargo Bank, meanwhile, is one of the more expensive options, charging
37 dollars to send the same amount.
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- The number of transactions tends to increase during the
Christmas holidays and on May 10, which is Mother's Day in Mexico.
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- http://www.thenewsmexico.com/noticia.asp?id=42213
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