VivirLatino

Is money wiring destroying families?

15:25 H | Topics: Children - Family - Labor - Latin America - Money

Is Western Union-ing some money back to your familia in Mexico destroying the family structure in Latin America? That's what some experts are saying. While the economies of Latin American countries are bolstered by the remittances made from the U.S. by immigrants to their families (some sources say 20 billion dollars per year in Mexico alone), this practice is also having very negative effects, reports The Miami Herald's Andres Oppenheimer:

...at the meeting of mayors in Miami last week, United Nations and Colombian national police consultant Hugo Acero Velasquez said not everything about the remittances is positive: The massive migration of Latin American men is leaving behind fatherless children, who often grow up raised by grandparents who tend to be too permissive.

As a result, millions of children are growing up on the streets. In countries with high youth unemployment rates, they often end up doing criminal jobs for drug-trafficking or other organized-crime gangs, other experts said. According to the latest World Health Organization figures, Latin America is the most violent region in the world after Africa. It has an annual average of 19 violent killings per 100,000 inhabitants, more than twice the world average.

Others say that the income received -- which can be relatively small amounts to us but are hefty sums in Latin America -- can contribute to laziness in those back home:

"Getting $50 a month can turn you into a bum," says Raul Benitez, a Mexican visiting scholar at American University in Washington. "In El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, you often see a complete destruction of the family structure. Women or grandparents are in charge of raising the children, and there is a total absence of the father figure."

What other choice is there, though? People emigrate out of necessity, and not being able to support your family in your home country leaves one to take that difficult step because one has to. Is it better to stay back and be the "father figure" and have your family starve?

Thoughts?

Via / The OC Register

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