Immigrants send more cash home

PALMA
PAYMENTS sent by immigrants from the Balearics to Latin American, Caribbean, Asian and African countries has increased by more than 25 percent during the last year.

Payments now stand at 300 million euros a year, according to the latest figures from the World Bank, Bank of Spain, banks and saving banks on the islands, as well as specialist companies, among them Western Union which is the leading company in the Balearics for the number of offices it has.

This phenomenon will continue to increase on the islands, according to the director general of Western Union in Spain, Jose Maria Vich, “because immigration to the islands is not going to stop due to the existing economic bonanza and because of the demand for workers. Our forecast is the same as that of the market, that these payments will increase by around 20 percent a year during the next few years”.

Of the total volume of money which is handled by this sector, 50 percent of the remittances, around 150 million euros, go to Latin American countries, mainly the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Argentina and Paraguay.

According to the Bank of Spain's annual report for 2006, the money sent by workers in the Balearics to their countries of origin came to 6'800 million euros. During that year, Spain was only beaten in this category by the United States where 19'800 million euros were sent home by immigrants.

The greatest part of this money is, in the case of the Balearics, sent to Latin America and the Caribbean. Because of this progressive increase, the Spanish Government and the financial institutions have signed agreements with the intention of reducing the transfer costs for sending money through networks of credit offices in the receiving countries.

The immigrant population from Latin American, Caribbean and African countries, as well as from Asian countries, is increasing on all the islands, especially Majorca, which means a progressive increase in money sent abroad.