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The Big Move

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Remittances sent by migrant workers to their home countries total more than all foreign investment in the developing world. In Mexico, remittances are the second biggest source of hard currency. Jael de Pardo goes to Mexico to see where all this money is going.
Jael

13 responses // The Big Move

  • Another reason that our founders wanted to Current to democratize television, apart from the suspicion that the best minds in America are presently not much employed in the industry, is that the diversity of America is broader than the consciousness of most of the people working in TV... Anyway, last year the Los Angeles Times, an actual bastion of original journalism, did a story on nations that are the five biggest recipients of remittances, which is the money that migrant workers--legal and illegal--send back to their home nations. Mexico turned up in the top five, so Jael and I started driving around L.A. neighborhoods with high Latino immigrant populations, pulling up to any store advertising Western Union-type money wiring services. As documented in the piece, there turned out to be quite a few--which was a surprise to me, I confess, as I had never really noticed these establishments before [thereby offering first-hand confirmation of the need to democratize television.] The next question was: What happens to the money? So Jael and I flew down to Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa, a poor Mexican state that exports a lot of migrant workers to the U.S. Starting with just two phone numbers provided by the U.S. Consulate up in Hermosillo in Sonora state, Jael did an amazing job over the phone from her hotel room, and soon, she found a researcher from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, who studies remittances, and has written a book in Spanish about them. She took us out to her home town, a couple of hours north of Culiacan, as documented in this piece. So even though I've lived in L.A. for over 20 years, here's one answer that I wasn't previously aware of to the question: Why did the migrant [possibly sneak] across the border? To send money home.
    MitchKoss
  • http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/66949.html
    Image...
    The Dollar Power of Remittances
    It's been estimated that last year alone nearly $276 billion dollars were sent out of the US by workers who earned that money and sent it back to other countries. This article says that worldwide if these guest workers incorporated as a company, their migrant multinational would rank No. 3 on the Fortune 500 list, trailing only Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil in annual revenue

    Jael
    • Jael
    • 10 months ago
  • i had never seen this pod, great one
    lfm
    • lfm
    • 8 months ago
  • http://current.com/items/76373322_the_big_move_part_2
    Click here to watch Part 2 of The Big Move
    woodywoodbeck
  • http://current.com/items/76342402_the_big_move_part_3
    Click here to watch Part 3 of The Big Move
    woodywoodbeck
  • Hey Jael and everybody,

    I really respect what you are doing in this video, I just didn't agree with certain aspects of the reporting. There was a moment there when I wasn't sure if you were highlighting something, or if you were sort of making fun of it because it's foreign to you. An example: when you were explaining about the cakes? It just seemed to trivialize the point, tagging it on to a really interesting discussion of what is a very important issue. Why even mention that this place makes cakes if you are going to start the sentence with "apparently..." making it seem really odd. By no means do you need to be positive about all parts of your piece, I just think you should be really careful not to trivialize or "other"ize things. It takes away from all around interesting work!
    Ju
    jujulia
  • I think this is an international issue - the proliferation of Money Transfer shops in Ireland and the UK is incredible.

    It seems as though a strange economy is building up whereby struggling developing countries are more likely to benefit from sending their best, brightest and most resilient abroad to earn money to send home, than they are from foreign aid.

    It is also difficult to see how this can help these countries in the long term, as it by necessity involves a brain drain leaving those at home ill-equipped to improve the local economy at a domestic level.
    8inchjack
  • This was a very interesting piece, and well done,

    Being a third / fourth generation American, my primary concern and interest is for America and my children. So, I wonder how this affects my country?

    For the countries receiving the funds, it's a tremendous boost to the impoverished and their economies. Eventually, the ruling elite will end up with all money as all the money flows upstream to them - thanks Fed. Res.

    A side note: our government sending billions (to buy loyalty) to the ruling elite to do with as they please, otherwise known as trickle down (a joke on Americans), does very little to help empower the average person.

    By contrast, the remittance's empower those little people who are inclined to help themselves. I'd speculate that this is only allowed to happen to better prepare those societies and economies for future take over by multinational corporations in the way the United States has been going.

    As yet, I'm sure credit card companies don't see the possibility for adequate profit taking so they haven't moved in in-mass.

    Jael is showing us only the nice side of the equation. I'd love to see some in depth reporting on the impact of the loss of our sovereignty has on America and Americans as well as Mexicans (not legal US citizens) drawing Social Security benefits.

    I'd love to see the effects on the families who are broken apart, the children who go without fathers in search of easy money. I'd love to see the effects on Americans whose government has ignored it's Constitution duties and responsibilities to serve and protect the interests of Americans.

    Like Fox News, fair and balanced!
    VoyagerFilms
  • great piece!

    brain drain.
    Ira_Gershwin
  • JAel,

    Buen tema. Pero siento que tienes que elaborar mejor tus preguntas y practicar aun mas tu Castellano. Pedo darme cuenta con facilidad que tu Español no es tu fuerte.
    NOTOTHEWALL
  • http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/200...
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    10% of Mexico's populatin now lives in the United States. 15% of Mexico's labor force is here. Those are staggering statistics.
    critter
  • critter, I'd bet the numbers are actually much higher. The US gov claimed there were 10-20 million illegal immigrants here, the number changes somewhat. The truth be known, anyone living in the greater LA - Southern California area would be able to attest to there being 10 million there alone.

    The gov always gives the conservative / adjust figures if there is any chance of inflaming citizens.
    VoyagerFilms
  • Good identification on what's been happening since the 60's. Population has multiplied so makes it more noticeable.

    Immigrants pay 3 to 20 THOUSAND dollars to have the opportunity to work in the U.S. doing what ever is asked. To work and not to think or ask questions.
    Corporations in the restaurant business demand hard workers.
    Restaurant work is one of the most demanding jobs in North America and most of the work force are migrants. They are requested to work hours that are incredible without overtime pay. The hours and the cleaning no one wants to do. These jobs use to be done by the youth of our nation but now they have other things to do. The young kids today don't want to work.
    Latinos are cheep and are because they earned every dollar to the penny. Construction sites are full with migrant workers because the shit they do, it's incredible. NO ONE know the reality of the hard working human animal.
    They earn the dollar!
    dontipo

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