- More than 40 per cent of adult Hispanic immigrants in
the US regularly send money to relatives in their native countries, a flow
of funds totalling nearly $30bn this year, a new study finds, AP reports
in Washington. That money goes towards food and shelter, education, savings
and investments. The amount far exceeds the total US foreign aid flowing
to all nations - $17.2bn this fiscal year.
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- "Migration is now not only an escape valve, it is
a fuel pump" to foreign economies, said a report released Monday by
the Pew Hispanic Center and the Inter-American Development Bank. The economic
downturn that began with the shortlived recession of 2001 did not halt
the flow of money, the report said. Foreign-born Hispanics in the US sent
$25bn in 2002 to relatives. The 2003 report said 42 per cent of adult Hispanic
immigrants - about 6m people - regularly sent money to their homelands.
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- The study found 28 per cent of adults in El Salvador,
24 per cent in Guatemala and 18 per cent in Mexico received money from
relatives in the US. Most of those receiving money are women. "It's
going to sustain a big swath of the working class and lower middle class,"
said Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center. "During economic
hard times, it's what keeps them from slipping into poverty.
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- Unlike foreign investment, remittances aren't driven
by business decisions. They're driven by very close emotional bonds."
Europeans immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century also sent money
home to family members, Suro noted, but it was a much more cumbersome process.
The study found people receiving money from US relatives are more likely
to think about emigrating. In Mexico, for example, 26 per cent of respondents
who received payments said they were thinking about moving to the US, compared
with 17 per cent of those who did not receive any financial help from relatives.
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- © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2003.
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