Oct. 19, 2006, 1:45PM
RAPID GROWTH
Cash flow from Texas leaps as Latin American immigrants share their earnings with those back home
More money is on the move
By JENALIA MORENO
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
From a southwest Houston money-wiring agency, restaurant cashier Juan Torres sent $100 to his mother in Tampico, Mexico, on Tuesday, contributing to the increasing cash flow to Latin America.
Torres is one of the 2.8 million Latin American immigrants in Texas who will send $5.2 billion back home to relatives this year, according to a state-by-state breakdown released Wednesday by the Inter-American Development Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund.
Remittances from Texas will soar by 64 percent this year compared with 2004, surpassing the national increase of 51 percent, the study found.
The Washington-based organization that promotes development in Latin America and the Caribbean estimates that the 12.6 million immigrants living in the United States will send $45.3 billion to relatives living across Latin America this year, from the border towns in Mexico to the tip of Argentina.
These cash flows have captured the attention of U.S. and international businesses in the last few years. Banks across the country are trying to tap into that market by offering money-wiring services. And in cities with large immigrant communities like Houston, furniture, cement and real estate companies offer immigrants here the chance to pay for sofas, construction materials and new homes in Mexico and Central Americ
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Texas' Hispanic immigrants send billions home