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Migrants, often harassed by national laws and also
victim to xenophobic hatred from natives of the host
countries, sometimes become the focus of interest for
international organizations under a different angle.
This is certainly true of the symposium held in Geneva
on Thursday by the NGO Laboria International, which
specializes in international trade towards the
development of employment. The NGO is also interested
in the financial savings of migrants, made in most cases
with “sweat and tears” and almost always at the cost of
deprivation and suffering.
The Business of Money Transfers
The NGO organized the discussion around the theme of the
funds that migrants send to their families in their
countries of origin. These financial transactions have
been valued at 300SFR by the Department of Social and
Economic Relations of the UN in a study dating from
2005.
The UN agency was asked what happens to the money and
particularly where it is allocated. Questions were also
asked with relation to the beneficiaries of the money
after it arrives in the hands of the recipient families.
From the premise of the UN, and other tests conducted
by the World Bank, the NGO in Geneva focused on the
channels for transfer of these funds and the possibility
of using them to further create jobs.
In relation to transfers, the lucrative market leader
Western Union, together with newly created agencies,
share and compete for the traffic of millions of Euros,
dollars and other European currency. Laboria proposes
the creation of other such instruments, but focuses on
aspects of development always aimed at job creation.
Financial Development
One proposal put forward some years ago by the Universal
Postal Union, based in Berne, offered lower costs on the
grounds that in each village, however small it is in the
world, there is a post office there that could provide
this service. But the creation of this international
postal money agency has never been able to flourish due
to the lobbying of large private institutions and banks,
who share the market for money transfers.
Laboria advanced another track which would involve using
their own their money to create jobs. One proposal is
that migrants are associated to a creative project; the
aim here being to give work to the community from which
they come.
The former director of the SYNA Program (an NGO
specializing in placing unemployed people in the Swiss
international cooperation) Fernando Terry, had good
experiences with this type of project in Mexico and
Peru, called “Best Practices”.
The future of Micro-Finance
For his part, the head of the Swiss MyTransfer Platform,
Jean Pouit, spoke of the virtues that micro-financing
offers, and services proposed by this institution
essentially geared to low-income people. MyTranfer
proposes alternative services to people who are not of
interest to the traditional banking sector due to their
low solvency or small amount of capital transfer. The
proposed instruments include low interest loans,
guarantee funds and equity participation of the Micro
Finance Institutions (MFI’s) among others.
Perhaps NGO’s could explore in greater depth ways for
working on the best use of funds from migrants.
Swisslatin
(1.07.2009) |
