Sunday, November 18, 2007

Migrant Money Flow: A $300 Billion Current


From the NY Times on the effect of migrant workers sending money to their families in their country of origin:

"Globally, the tally is huge: migrants from poor countries send home about $300 billion a year. That is more than three times the global total in foreign aid, making “remittances” the main source of outside money flowing to the developing world."

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

i thought this article was pretty interesting. i sort of already new that billions were being sent back to home countries, but i didn't really know on what scale. i really didn't know that over 60 countries recieve 1 billion or more. that's amazing.

i think that this article also makes you look at american culture. all of these immigrants are working extremely hard so they can send most of their money back home. how much do american's send to impoverished relatives? my family doesn't send much to our florida relatives. we help out in certain ways, but usually for some sort of payment, like somewhere to stay when we go to visit. i think the immigrant families definetely have closer family bonds.

Anonymous said...

i always knew that what hispanic immigrants in our town were doing was more beneficial than working back in their countries, but i didn't realize the benefits are SO massive...$300 billion, woah

and this is 3 TIMES the foreign aid given to other countries...if more were given to poor countires so that they could jump start THEIR economies would the migrant-worker cycle dissolve and then eventually benefit richer countries bc the global consumer base is larger and can purchase our goods?? maybe that could be an incentive for investment in those countries..if only they could get their political-shit together first

Anonymous said...

I didnt know that about $300 billion was coming from migrants, taken back to there countries. I knew that many migrants work in the United States then took their money back to there country, but $300 billion in the money flow is a lot of money. I have a friend that works in the United States and he save his money then when he has a lot goes back to Jamaica and is like a millionaire there. He also send money to his family. Doing this can cause it to be easier on the people that the money is going to from United States because in most places the value of an american dollar is more valuable then its currency.

Anonymous said...

it seemed to be noticeable that migrant workers were jus tryin to better themselves and their families. but now that their efforts are tagged at $300 billion sent to their home country each year is incredible. i know guys from the virgin islands who have come out here and picked up quick jobs in the summer and can live throughout the winter in their home country. it jus goes to show how powerful our american dollar is outside of the US and it seems we are definitely participating to better these poorer countries by offering immigrants jobs.

so the question is, why do we live here in such a competitive economy when we could take what money we have now and live easily on the beach in the caribbean?

Anonymous said...

i didnt know alot of information the article discussed. it was astonishing to read that $300 billion dollars was going from the immigrants back to their home countries. they work hard, and i think its great that they are bringing the money back to their families to help them live better lives. outside of the untied states, the ameerican dollar reallly goes a long way

Anonymous said...

I've always known that migrant workers send money back to their families, but didn't realize that about $300 billion a year were sent home to other countries. I have family that live in Costa Rica, and are doctors and lawyers, but instead they come here for a couple months of the year and work in delis and clean houses. When they go back they can afford to live pretty good lives, but I never understood if they had good jobs as lawyers and doctors why would they come here and work blue collar jobs instead. I guess never realized how powerful the american dollar really was.

Anonymous said...

I never knew that the such a large amount of money was sent back to other countries. When I drive down the street and see the latin express stores (the place where you send money back) i never actually thought it had good business. Apparently i was wrong.

It's good that people can do this. Most people get the wrong image that these migrant workers take all the money and jobs from the true americans. If true Americans went through what these foreign workers do every day, then they would have a good case here. However, they dont have a case at all.

Anonymous said...

I believe that a migrant worker should be entitled to work and send money back to their country. they are just trying to better themselves and the their families. $300 billion is an insane amount of money and it helps out the poorer nations by having immigration for jobs be more appealing. I have always known that they were making a lot of money but $300 billion is far more than i expected.

Anonymous said...

The amount of cash being sent out of the country is enormous. The families that obtain the money will invest in the market, which will increase their countries economic standards. Some can see this as hurtful by devaluing our dollar, but professions Americans don’t want to do are getting done. Allowing more people to spend time in occupations they want to do.

Anonymous said...

I had no idea that so much of a migrant workers earnings are sent back home to their families. This makes a lot worse when a migrant worker loses his or her job because not only him or her not recieving money, but his or her family is not recieving money as well, which in a lot cases is the familie's main source. It makes you have a different impression of a migrant that their money is sent home to support their family, and they should be comended for their efforts.

Anonymous said...

i new that immagrants were being sent out of our country every day but that same amount of immigrants were entering our country also. 300 million dollars is a huge amount of money being sent out of the US. the immigants send the money they earn back to there families so they can get visas and come here legally.
also these workers are doing the jobs that a mojority of us wouldnt do. so the work that wasnt geting done before is now being finished.
i never realized how competitive the american dollar is.

Anonymous said...

I never realized that migrant workers were sending so much money back home. It's amazing how a couple hundred dollars at a time can add up; $300 billion dollars is a huge sum of money. I'm surprised that with all of this money going back to their home countries that the economies there aren't growing. I can't imagine living so desperately that you are willing to leave your family and your home behind for some extra cash. It's amazing what some of the immigrant workers go through.