Luis Toapanta wants to move back to Ecuador to be with his two
children, his wife and his parents. Unfortunately, if he were to
leave New York, Luis would no longer be able to afford to send
his children to school.  “I want to give them the best that I
can, I want to give them the things that I didn’t have,” he
says, but adds: “I am starting to think that the love of a
father can be much more valuable to them than material things.”
Luis’s situation is not at all uncommon in the migrant worker
community.  Workers like Luis leave their families behind in
their home countries and come to the United States to work and
send home money for education and necessities.  Many of these
migrants work seven days per week to maximize the amount that
they can send back through remittance agencies.  The price that
they pay to send the money varies greatly depending on the
amount of competition among agencies that serve a particular
country.  In many cases, the immigrants themselves pay more than
necessary because they are u