Bank Says Latin American Remittances to Soar over $100B

Source: baynews9

Latin Americans working outside their countries are expected to send home more than $100 billion annually by 2010, despite efforts by the U.S. to slow illegal immigration, an Inter-American Development Bank official said Sunday.

Donald F. Terry, general manager of the bank's Multilateral Investment Fund, said remittances will increase by about 15 percent a year over the next four years.

What else did Terry have to say about remittances?

Latin America leads the world in remittances, something Terry said was worrisome.

"If you're No. 1 in remittances that means your economy is not generating enough jobs. ... What that really means is we have too much unemployment and underemployment," he said.

Still, Terry called remittances a "very effective poverty reduction program" that keeps 8 to 10 million Latin American families above the poverty line.

Yeah. And every dollar that is earned by working here illegally could be going to raise an American family above the poverty line.

Terry's take on the recent -- and meager, might I add -- immigration raids:

"The raids have made people so fearful they not only are not going to banks, they are not going to money transfer companies," said Terry, adding that officials fear migrants may return to the days of sending money back through friends and family members and drop out completely from the system.

Good. If illegals stop using banks and money transfer companies, eroding the financial benefit to those companies of keeping them here, maybe they'll quit lobbying for amnesty. Hell, they might even remember that they're Americans again, and that this is a nation, not an economy.

I am SUCH an optimist.

Technorati Tags: Illegal Immigration, Remittances, Latin America, Mexico