[rmnunez]

Remittances reach almost 6% of Mexico’s households, and in fact the poorest of these in the most marginalized regions of the country. They are the real investment in those places and sustain the development of the poorest farming and indigenous families. MIGRACIÓN  EN MÉXICO- remesas

According to Elizabeth McQuerry, assistant vicepresident of the Office of Payments of the Federal Reserve, using the new “Directo a México” transfer procedure will save about 70%. For example, a $300 remittance normally costs $10, with “Directo a México” the charge would be $3. Atlanta Latino, Bilingual newspaper. web portal.

Remittances last year surpassed Direct Foreign Investment in Mexico. The International Agricultural Development Fund (IADF?), a UN agency based in Rome, in conjunction with the Interamerican Development Bank (IBD) have created the first global map of remittance flows to developing nations. Immigrants around the world sent $300,000 million home, which was more than the $104,000 million spent on development and assistance by all the OECD donor nations plus the $167,000 millions of direct foreign investment. Remittances are provided by about 150 million immigrants around the world who regularly send $100 to $300 home. By regions, Asia received the most with $114,000 million, Latin America and the Caribbean got $68,000 millions, next was Eastern Europe which took in $51,000 million, Africa gained $39,000 million and the Middle East was last with $29,000 million. By countries India was first with $24,500 million in remittances, followed closely by Mexico with $24,200 million, then the Philippines ($14,600 million) and Russia ($13,700 million).

So its a lot of money, but its well spread out:

Over a third of all remittances are sent to families in rural areas where poverty is greatest, said Kevin Cleaver from the UN agency, who said their priority was in “improving the possibilities for the poor to reduce transactional costs and to link remittances withother financial services like savings, investments and loans.” Although remittances are primarily spent on household basics like food, clothing and medicine, “about 10-20% is saved, though rarely in financial institutions deriving any interest”, Mr. Cleaver added. He held Mexico up as an example in Latin America for its policies to help invest remittances and noted a wide variation in charges between 2-8% from country to country, which was seen as a substantial improvement from the 20-25% rate charged 10 years ago. Pedro de Vasconcelos, area coordinator on remittance use for the UN agency refered to the Mexican “3 x 1 programme” whereby the Mexican government contributes a dollar and the state another for each dollar sent by an immigrant. “It’s a programme to incentivize immigrant investment at home” he said. Cleaver dismissed the notion organized crime or terrorists could use such remittances since the amounts were so small and this would require thousands of people to conduct the transactions, but noted this was his personal view as their study had not examined this possibility. The International Agricultural Development Fund is a specialized UN agency dedicated to the erradication of hunger and poverty in developing countries, which through low-interest loans and donations funds 191 programs to erradicate rural poverty with $6,000 millions. México, modelo en aprovechamiento de remesas

The volume of immigration to the US and its development of networks, makes it increasingly difficult and costly to regulate these flows. They produce a variety of complex transnational ties, relations and activities which contribute to perpetuate immigration.

Thus, immigrants and the relatives they leave behind are developing the transnational family capable of participating in two economies with strong ties to communities where they come from and go to.

Frequent contact by phone or online is a fundamental feature of their intense relationship, 54% of the Mexicans with family in the US speak to them at least once a week. Remittances are another feature of these families and inject substantial funds to the national economy directly through immigrant households at a rate of $63 million a day.

Due to the growth of remittances, recently federal and state governments have sought to encourage, ease and lower the costs to transfer funds, and use these as a tool for development. Some get carried away with their optimism these remittances can resolve structural problems in Mexico.

Without a doubt these funds have a positive impact on household economies. They represent about 40% of the recipient household’s income, are used for basic necessities and serve as a safety-net. "El Universal". MÉXICO: "Migración y remesas" :: Observatorio de Mugak

According to the IDB, about 17 million Mexicans receive remittances and these funds are increasingly being used to finance development. “Over 4 million Mexican families receive regular remitances and a third of them would be under the poverty line without this support” the report said. The Bank of Mexico reported remittances in 2006 reached $23,540 million, a 15.1% increase over the previous year. It was reported the total sent reached $25,000 million and that the difference results from not including the use of non-financial means like the mail or in person deliveries, he estimated by 2010 these remittances would reach $50,000 million. An important development has been the recent trend whereby $4 out of ever $10 received is being invested in education and small businesses rather than on basic necessities, he added, reporting that according to their survey 57% of remittances were for basic necessities, 14% was saved, 13% spent on education, 5% on a business, 2% to purchase real estate and 6% on “others”. In a prior poll basic necessities took up 78%, only 8% was saved and just 1% was spent on a business. ROES - Remesas financian el desarrollo de México: - Inmigración - Noticias

Its a lot of money, but there are lots of immigrants; 12.5% of the US population is immigrant (that would be 36,136,793) and 28.4% of them (10,118,302) are Mexican.