Immigrants boost U.S. economy, too

Latin American immigrants contribute an estimated $450 billion to the U.S. economy.

Posted: Sunday, May 23, 2004

Gilberto Rodriguez has worked at Los Rancheros, a Mexican restaurant in the Panhandle for almost three years.

And, during that time, he has sent a large portion of his wages back home to his family in Oaxaca, which is in the southern part of Mexico.

"I send all I can each month," the tall, slender young man of 28, said in halted, but engaging English.

"My family depends on me. My help - that's all they have."

Rodriguez works in Panama City in the FLORIDA Panhandle.

But he could just as well be living in the Texas Panhandle. Guest workers can be found in nearly every region of the United States.

Immigrants in the top six states - Texas, Florida, California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey - remit more than $1 billion annually from each location.

Those numbers are based on a study released Monday by Inter-American Development Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund entitled "Sending Money Home."

Along with the top six states, the study said that two other states, North Carolina and Georgia, both with high concentrations of guest workers, remit nearly $1 billion annually. Virginia, which borders Washington, D.C., remits more than a half billion each year.

This isn't exactly breaking news.

Immigrant workers have been sending money home since the trend to guest workers in the U.S. began to steamroll in the early 1980s.

But what the new study disclosed that caught most economists and analysts off guard was a little-known fact: more than 90 cents out of every dollar earned by guest workers in their adopted community stays there.

On average, the guest workers send money home once a month, typically in amounts ranging from $150 to $250. Unlike previous surveys among remittance senders, this one found a great number of people who make money transfers more than once a month. That probably reflects the services becoming cheaper over the years. The going rate has been cut in half to about $7.50 per unit.

At the same time as billions of dollars flow south of U.S. borders, Latin American immigrants contribute an estimated $450 billion to the U.S. economy, often doing jobs spurned by others.

Donald Terry, who manages the MIF for the Inter-American Development Bank, said, "Taken as a whole, this population's output would rank as the third-biggest economy in Latin America, behind Brazil and Mexico.

"The dramatic growth of international remittances is testimony to the hard work and commitment of migrant workers seeking better lives for themselves and their families," Terry said.

"It also reflects the increasing integration of labor markets across national borders, as the economies of developed countries require the skills and dedication of workers from other countries."

The survey was commissioned by MIF and conducted by Bendixen & Associates, a Miami-based polling firm.

The survey provides the first state-by-state breakdown of remittance flows, which largely reflect Latin American migration patterns.

Terry said the survey is one of the moreinformative looks at money sent home and money returned to the U.S. economy by immigrants.

The study found Latin American and Caribbean immigrants sent $30 billion home in 2003.

About 3,800 individuals participated in the survey, which showed the hard-working immigrants boosting the U.S. economy as well as aiding the well-being of their families.

Pia Orrenous, a senior economist and an expert on Latin America for the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas, said, "What we find there (survey) is a tremendous economic contribution by these workers to the U.S. economy."

Orrenous made a similar observation about three years ago during a luncheon speech to members of the Brownsville Economic Development Council.

"I think the money immigrant workers spend in the U.S. is often overlooked. That is changing," she said then.

The results of the survey weren't surprising to Marie Maestas, executive director of the Amarillo Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Anything but.

"This isn't news," Maestas said. "Immigrant workers have been putting more and more into the U.S. economy - they just haven't been recognized for it - until now.

"They still send money home, but they put a lot into this economy."

Humberto Albarran, who manages the Acapulco Restaurant in downtown Amarillo along with his brother Roberto, agreed with Maestas.

"I used to send money home to Mexico, especially the two years I was in Chicago," he said. "But now I don't.

"I would, but my family is all here now."

His smile expressed his feelings better than words.

The survey found that most "guest workers" make less than $20,000 annually, but still manage to send money home, usually in the form of costly money orders.

The IADB's Terry said the survey also uncovered a reason for banks to explore the remittance market as a way to attract new customers.

According to Terry, remittances could be a key to "financial democracy" in Latin America, where banks have traditionally been open almost exclusively to upper and middle class clients.

"Remittances can provide these financial institutions an alternate source of revenue to expand their lending to microentreprenteurs and small businesses and to offer the families that receive these money transfers more options for savings and investments," Terry said.

Victor Robles said he hadn't heard about the survey, but he has been "sending money home to his family in Nogales, just across the border from the town with same name in Arizona." Robles, who has been living in the Amarillo area for nearly five years, added, "But not as much as I used to send."

"I have responsibilities here now and that's the reason. This is my home now, and I see things and want to buy them," Robles said.

He added, "Before I never had a checking account.

"I do now. I don't have much money in it, but I have one."

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