Posted on 03/23/2005 4:26:19 PM PST by El Conservador
It's a 20% increment with respect to 2003. The region is the first destination for these transfers, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).
According with the IADB, the 25 million Latin American and Caribbean emigrants, setled mainly in Europe and the United States, have made this region the first destination for money transfers in a global market that moves some $120 billions dollars a year.
These 45 billion dollars surpass the sum of all direct foreign investment and foreign aid received by the region.
Mexico was the main transfer receiver in the region, with more than 16 billion de dollars, followed by Brazil, con 5.6, and Colombia, which according with the AIDB received 3.85 billion, a very similar figure from the 3.89 billion reported by Conpes (Colombia's Council of Economic and Social Development).
The transfer growth has taken places throughout the region. Central America and the Dominican República combined surpassed los 10 billion dollars, the Andean countries more than 7 billion, while in Hait transfers surpassed the 1 billion-dollar-a-year mark for the first time.
These figures reflect both considerable increase in transfer volume and the improvement of the systems to track these flow, according to the multilateral financial institution.
The data is "a reflection of the important trends in the worldwide labor market. Its importance goes beyond the individuals who send 200 or 300 dollars to their families", said Donald Terry, director del of the IADB's multilateral investment fund, to Financial Times.
"Unlike foreign aid", underlines the IADB in a press release, "transfers usually arrive directly to beneficiaries in places where foreign aid hardly arrives."
"And while the international capital flow has fluctuated along market cycles, transfer have grown steadily, even during recessions," concludes the release.
(Translation provided by Yours Truly)
The correct title for this article should be:
Latin American and Caribbean emigrants suck $45.8 billion from the U.S. economy in 2004.
yep.....one giant sucking sound
Colombia Ping...
If you wish to be added/removed, just send me a PM...
Technically, still a positive side effect of people sending money home is that it helps their local economies.
The better their economies do, the fewer people that try to sneak into our country for jobs.
The biggest problems these third world countries, developing nations, and Mexico have are their governments. Rampant corruption ends up sucking up much of the positive side effects that this money can have on their localities. This slows down their progress, maintains a high level of poverty, and harms the economic health of those countries.
The main question we need to answer is if the money being sent home is propping up these plantation tyrants, rather than helping to set people free from the systematic oppression that keeps them poor, underprivileged, and yearning to find a better life in America.
Foreign Aid has exactly that same problem.
Maybe I am looking at this wrong but don't those dollars eventually have to be spent HERE IN THE USA.........and isn't that good news?
USually it is felt that money circulates through an economy several times, between 3 and 6 times. So $45B is between $135B and $250B in lost economic activity.
How in the heck can these folks afford to send all that money back home?
The American Taxpayer/Government hand-outs.
Besides, you think they don't SHOP in retail stores and EAT in our restaurants while they are here? Does their rent money go back to Jamaica or Colombia?
The "head in the sand" attitude towards economics on this board never ceases to amaze me.
Does this include the cash paid in the US for Presidente Fox's drugs and then sent back to him, carried mostly in the SUVs stolen in the US by his alien criminals and driven south across the border?
Of course, the local Russians exploitation of the food stamp program was legendary.
Blame your fellow Americans for the lucrative drug trade, not Vicente Fox. The SUVs on the other hand... ;-)
I would like to see a better analysis of this. There's a difference between an illegal immigrant working for cash and sending it home and a legal immigrant tax payer sending money back home. Every immigrant group does this though. You come to America and you've made the big leagues. This usually doesn't happen without the help of family and you don't forget family. Then there's the flip side... within three years remittance offices has sprung up all over Hempstead and we have a large illegal population too.
I disagree seriously with the idea that "graft" and "corruption" is inherent to their respective cultures.
I am Samoan. Perhaps you have read about us in the news recently.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1356744/posts
People like that don't represent me or my culture.
I see constantly how indigenous cultures are used to excuse behavior that would be inexcusable in your own house. The people using that as an excuse are those very same people who are stealing money left and right from those they were elected to shepherd, protect, or otherwise guard over.
There are no people who are culturally ingrained to accept criminal behavior. To believe that is to believe that Peace in the Middle East, and Democracy are impossible goals for Muslim Arabs. People are people, and fundamentally we are all the same. Our societies, primitive and otherwise, value service, honesty, integrity, and accountability. Only the dishonest and the criminal are opposed to such ideals.
Why has Bush been so successful in his efforts to reform the Middle East?
Because his policies have created the necessary examples by which the culture of the people who we liberated can start all over again and rebuild their countries. Will corruption and graft still exist? Of course it will, but not to the same extent it once did. We have the same problems with corruption and graft in the United States. It is endemic to the system, not to the cultures of the governed.
While I agree with you on most of what you said about the emphasizing of personal liberty and private property rights, but I took personal offense to your dismissal of the humanity of the people who must live under the corrupt regimes as being so radically different because of their respective cultures, that honest government would be impossible to them.
Give people a real chance at freedom, and they'll take it. That's really what the Bush doctrine boils down to.
That was my first thought also, how much of this money was earned 'tax free'....& how much the illegal employers saved, also in taxes.
You would think gov't *might* pay a little more attention to all these tax dollars they're losing. (since they enjoy collecting them so much)
Really ??? Mexico now *claims* to be the 7th largest economy, & this sure hasn't slowed down their illegals sneaking in.
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