RALEIGH, North Carolina Migrant workers in the United States are expected to send $300 ( 239) a month on average to their native countries, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, which issued a report Wednesday.
Nationally, the amount of money migrants send home should increase 12 percent over 2005, the report said. The $45 billion ( 36 billion) that 12.6 million immigrants from Latin America will send home annually is more than the assistance their countries get from the U.S. government or other aid organizations, the study says, making it a major tool for reducing poverty in Latin America.
The study showed that 56 percent of Latin Americans sending money home from the U.S. did not have a job lined up when they migrated to the United States, but more than half found one in about 30 days.They earn on average $900 ( 716) a month, six times what they were getting at home.
Three of every four send money home to invest in homes, startup businesses and education, the study said. "My family needs it," Juan Gonzalez, 45, said in Raleigh.He sends $12,000 ( 9,553) a year for food and school supplies to his wife and five children in Mexico.
The cash transfers, called remittances, could boost the wealth of poor communities and eventually reduce the economic struggles that lead migrants to the United States.
News RSS