30133: (news) Chamberlain: Haitians abroad sent $1.65 billion home last year (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 6 (Reuters) - Haitians living abroad propped up
the economy of their impoverished Caribbean homeland by sending more than
$1.65 billion in cash to relatives last year, according to a report from
the Inter-American Development Bank.
     That sum represented twice Haiti's national budget and 30 percent of
its gross domestic product, said Jean Geneus, Haiti's minister in charge of
Haitians living abroad.
     "Remittances are the most important economic factor in Haiti today,"
said Donald Terry, the manager of the IDB's Multilateral Investment Fund.
The study was presented on Tuesday to a group of political and economic
decision-makers in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.
     Terry said an estimated $400 million in food and other gifts were also
sent home by Haitians living abroad, bringing the total remittances to more
than $2 billion.
     Haiti, a former French colony trying to establish democracy after
decades of violence, dictatorship and military rule, is the poorest country
in the Americas. Most of its 8 million people scrape by on less than $2 a
day.
     Haitians living abroad complain Haiti welcomes their money but not
their participation in politics. Haitians abroad could not vote in the last
election because there were no absentee ballots and those with dual
citizenship cannot vote or run for office because the constitution
considers them foreigners.
     The study, conducted by Bendixen & Associates for the IDB, found 31
percent of adults living in Haiti, or 1.1 million people, receive
remittances regularly.
     "Eighty-one percent of Haitians living in the United States and Canada
send money home on a regular basis," said Sergio Bendixen, who directed the
survey. "No other national group anywhere in the world sends money home in
higher proportion."
     The report said 70 percent of emigrants from the neighboring Dominican
Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and 60 percent
of Mexicans send money to their families back home.
     The study found that about 1.5 million Haitian-born adults are living
and working abroad and that 80 percent of them send money to relatives on a
regular basis, with an average of $150 at a time.