Immigrants Seeking Money They Sent Home

“After that, I said to myself, ‘That’s it. I’m heading back to my country.’

For five years, immigrant day laborer Leo Chamale wired money twice amonth from New Jersey to his family in Guatemala. Recently, he steppedup to the money-transfer window for a different purpose – to ask thathis family send some of his savings back to him.

“I hadn’t worked for five months, and I was two months behindon rent, so I had them send $1,500,” the 21-year-old Mr. Chamale saidin Spanish. “My mother said, ‘That’s a lot of money.’ “

With the U.S. economy in a ditch, money-transfer agencies havebeen reporting a decline in the wages that immigrants are sending backto their home countries. Now, it appears that some immigrants are goinga step further – asking their relatives to wire them money.

“We’ve never seen this before,” said Marlen Miranda, manager ofPeerless Travel in Fairview, which runs a money transfer service. “Imean, one or two people might receive money for a special reason, butnot this quantity of people.”

Miss Miranda said she has seen her customer base dwindle from200 people to 75 who regularly use her money-transfer services eachmonth. Of those 75, Miss Miranda said, about 20 now come in to receivemoney instead of sending it home.

“They can’t send them much, because the economy in theircountries is so bad,” Miss Miranda said. “Sometimes people only receive$20 from home.”

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2009-07-05