Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Most Mexico-Bound Cash Remittances Sent by Undocumented Workers

Most of the billions of dollars in cash sent to Mexico by Mexicans living in the U.S. is transferred by “undocumented” workers, and the total was expected to top $26 billion in 2016, according to research by the Washington institute Inter-American Dialogue.
Mexico is the fourth largest recipient of all cash transfers – known as remittances – worldwide, according to the Congressional Research Service.
A survey by Inter-American Dialogue of remittances to Mexico found that a majority, 67 percent in 2013, were sent by “undocumented” individuals living in the U.S.
Of all of the remittances sent to 11 countries in Latin America from the U.S. in 2015, Mexico received the largest share by far at 36 percent – four times more than the closest competitor, Guatemala, at 9 percent, the survey found.
“Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), which exceeded US$70 billion dollars in 2015, are playing a key role in the region's economic development,” according to the institute’s 2016 “Remittances scorecard.”
The majority of remittances to Mexico, 88.2 percent, are sent using the services of companies like MoneyGram and Western Union, the institute found.
It said the cash transfer industry has “expanded dramatically,” and now helps migrants in the U.S. pay their bills in Latin America.
But while services have expanded, the cost of sending money to Latin America and the Caribbean has dropped to below 5 percent of the transfer amount.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/mark-browne/survey-shows-most-billions-mexico-bound-cash-remittances-each-year-are-sent 

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