Remesas

For decades, millions of Latin American and Caribbean men have moved to the United States and other rich countries, found jobs and sent billions of dollars back home. These remittances, totaling more than $312 billion since the beginning of the century, helped support the economies of Brazil and Mexico, and have proved to be a key economic foundation of smaller nations like Ecuador, Guatemala and Haiti.

But the warning lights of a downturn are starting to flash. Latin American and Caribbean migrants sent a record $66.5 billion to their native countries last year, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). But for the first time since the bank began monitoring these transactions in 2000, growth in remittance flows failed to reach the double-digit percentage gains they had made in previous years, dropping from 14 percent in 2006 to just 7 percent last year. ... "We still don't know for certain whether this is a short-term change or the beginning of a new direction," says Donald Terry of the IDB's Multilateral Investment Fund. "But if it were to become a trend, it would push millions into poverty."

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Source: Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post

The Bush administration yesterday renewed its drive to crack down on U.S. companies that hire illegal immigrants by slightly altering an earlier initiative stalled by a federal judge since last September.

If the new proposal satisfies the court, the government could begin warning 140,000 employers in writing as early as June about suspect Social Security numbers used by their employees and force businesses to resolve questions about their identities or fire them within 90 days.

The result could intensify an economic and political debate over the administration's immigration policies in the months leading up to November's elections for president and Congress.

Après la Floride, l'atelier de travail initié par la Fondasyon Kole Zepol (Fonkoze) a réuni le dimanche 2 mars à l'université de Long Island de New York plusieurs représentants d'organisations de la diaspora qui oeuvrent en Haiti. L'occasion pour ces Haitiens de la disapora d'explorer des pistes pour une meilleure canalisation des transferts d'argent dans les zones rurales.

« D'un parent à un autre, les transferts d'argent de la diaspora ont atteint un niveau où des compatriotes se regroupent dans des organisations pour venir en aide à leurs villes. Ces organisations sont des partenaires naturels et incontournables non seulement pour le gouvernement mais aussi pour les collectivités locales. Nous avons intérêt à ameliorer cette relation et explorer de nouvelles pistes de coopération », a déclaré le ministre des Haitiens vivant à l'Etranger, Jean V. Géneus, le dimanche 2 mars, à Long Island University (LIU) sur le campus de Brooklyn à New York .

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MEXICO CITY — Mexicans working in the United States sent back almost $24 billion to their families at home last year, almost the same amount as the year before, the Mexican central bank reported on Monday.

The bank said the economic slowdown and the crackdown on illegal immigrants in the United States helped to explain sluggish growth in money transfers, known as remittances.

Remittances grew 17 percent in 2006, in line with the annual double-digit growth over much of this decade. But in 2007, they increased by just 1 percent, to $23.98 billion.

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